Natural rubber at least showed promise as rubber sources, include the rubber fig ("Ficus elastica"), Panama rubber tree ("Castilla elastica"), various spurges ("Euphorbia" spp.), lettuce ("Lactuca" species), the related "Scorzonera tau-saghyz", various "Taraxacum" species, including common dandelion ("Taraxacum officinale") and Russian dandelion ("Taraxacum kok-saghyz"), and perhaps most importantly for its hypoallergenic properties, guayule ("Parthenium argentatum"). The term gum rubber is sometimes applied to the tree-obtained version of natural rubber in order to distinguish it from the synthetic version. The first use of rubber was by the indigenous cultures of Mesoamerica. The earliest archeological evidence of the use of natural latex from the
Ficus tsjahela Ficus tsjahela Ficus tsjahela is a fig tree from the family Moraceae which is found in peninsular India and Sri Lanka. It is commonly known as the "Kaaral" in Malayalam, "Kal-aal" in Tamil and "Boviyamara" in Kannada. "Ficus tsjahela" occurs in coastal regions of Maharashtra and Karnataka, all districts of Kerala and in many districts of Tamil Nadu. In Maharashtra, the tree is found in Ahmednagar, Ratnagiri, Satara and Sindhudurg districts. In Karnataka, "F. tsjahela" occurs in Chikmagalur, Hassan, Mysore, Shimoga, North and South Kanara districts. In Tamil Nadu, the tree ranges in Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Kanyakumari, Nilgiri, Salem, Tirunelveli, Tiruvannamalai,