Resiniferatoxin

A sustainable approach

Euphorbia resinifera, the resin spurge or Morroccan mound, is a low-growing species native to Morocco, where it occurs on the slopes of the Atlas Mountains.

The genus Euphorbia, where E. resinifera belongs to, is a very large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurges, in the family Euphorbiaceae. The genus has roughly 2,000 members, making it one of the largest genera of flowering plants and includes a huge variety of life forms from small annual plants, to large and long-lived trees, to succulents plants resembling cacti and often incorrectly referred to as such.
E. resinifera belongs to the latter group and, together with other succulents, has been cultivated as ornamental and in some periods highly priced for its aesthetic appearance; this fact lead to the placing of most of succulent species ofEuphorbia in CITES Appendix II.

Considering the above info, it was fundamental for Indena to address the regolatory and sustainability issues. Fortunately the plant has been cultivated in Italy since long times as an ornamental for landscape decoration in dry areas and once upon a time it was fashionable as a small pots apartment plant.

In 2015, in collaboration with some of the best italian nurseries of succulent plants, Indena started its project from a relatively small amound of cultivated plants: the “humble left overs” of the plant glorious past as a decorative species. Thanks to a harvesting method that pairs the milking of the latex with the propagation of the plants, the number of cultivated E. resinifera increased from a little more than ten thousand of small decorative plants in tiny pots to a few hundred thousand vigourous plants cultivated both in pots and in the soil where many of them reach now more than 50 cm in diameter.

In the same period, considering the Moroccan origin of the plant and aware of the importance to share some benefits with the native country (even if the Nagoya protocol for Morocco was not effective at that time), Indena started to set up some projects directed to investigate the natural populations of the plant, their status and relevant data for the in-situ protection of the species.
The project targets were to identify some of the most suitable areas for plant cultivation, plan its use for latex productions and, at the same time, allow the harvesting of the much priced and typical E. resinifera honey.
The focus was on the species protection and sustainable use of the same with important and positive biological and social repercussions.