Evaluation of Microbial Availability and Linkages to the Physicochemical Quality of Natural and Deteriorated Rubber Latexes

Natural and deteriorated rubber latex samples were analyzed for bacteriological and physicochemical quality. Bacterial isolates obtained after 24 hours of incubation ranged from 1.5x106 to 1.58x108 CFU/mL, corresponding to three weeks-deteriorated and natural rubber latexes respectively. However, after 48 hours of incubation, the bacterial counts in the natural rubber latex, one week deteriorated rubber, two weeks deteriorated and three weeks deteriorated rubbers were 1.7x108 CFU/mL, 1.094x108 CFU/mL, and 7.1x107 CFU/mL respectively. Heterotrophic fungal counts ranged from 3.2x107 to 7.8x107 CFU/mL corresponding to three weeks-deteriorated and natural rubber latexes respectively. Statistical analysis for bacterial and fungal isolates showed that there was no significant difference in the mean bacterial and fungal counts within the samples at 95% confidence interval. Microorganisms isolated from natural and deteriorated rubber samples include Acetobacter spp., Enterococcus spp., Aspergillus spp., Actinomyces spp., Penicillium spp., Saccharomyces spp. Physicochemical analysis showed a weakly acidic condition of natural rubber latex and an extreme degree of hardness in all the deteriorated rubber samples.