For a six-year period that has just ended, Resources for the Future supported investigations by the US Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station into the physiology of flowering in pines. The research has been carried out by Dr. R. G. Stanley under the direction of Dr. N. T. Mirov. Concern over future supplies of timber was the underlying reason for the support; gaps in knowledge of the processes of reproduction have handicapped development of superior pine hybrids that could mean faster growth of good commercial trees. One of the gaps is how enzymes function in the reproductive process and affect the rate of plant growth.
In the course of the investigations, Dr. Stanley learned that the terpene content of herbaceous plants varies at the time of flowering. He began to study the biological origin of terpenes in pines, which involved a study of enzymes. Enzymes are substances formed in all living cells; they catalyze biological processes leading to the formation of chemical compounds and growth.
In basic research one never knows when some twisty bypath may unexpectedly straighten into a road that leads somewhere. This may be the case with Dr. Stanley's ideas for utilizing enzymes from forest trees, although it is still too early to say for certain.
The story of Dr. Stanley's new concept is given in his own words: "Cell enzymes synthesize and modify organic molecules essential to man's health and welfare. Papain is an enzyme from the latex of the papaya tree sold throughout the world as a meat tenderizer. Enzymes extracted from grain seeds are widely used in the manufacture of starch to prepare paper sizes and adhesives. The fermentative industry owes its origin and foundation to activities of enzymes. The chemical manufacturing industry recently started to employ enzymes to shorten the number of steps required to manufacture certain complex chemicals. In the meatpacking industry the extraction and marketing of enzymes as byproducts from low grade animals and meat residues has been a commercial reality for five years.
"Enzymes are responsible for formation of the cellulose-lignin walls man uses as 'wood.' Many wood cells contain enzymes at harvest time. A direct solvent extraction can be made of the enzymes in wood. The extracted enzymes then could function in a test tube or a processing vat just as enzymes from animals and microorganisms are made to do. Under man's control these enzymes could produce outside the tree many valuable compounds they now synthesize only in the living tree. The wood or chips from which enzymes were taken would be structurally unharmed and could be used in normal commercial channels.
"Solvent extraction as a means of drying wood has recently advanced from laboratory bench to pilot plant. Many functioning enzymes have already been obtained outside the living plant ... The indication that functioning enzymes present in pine or other trees may be extracted from the wood while the wood or pulp remains to be used in the usual manner is an example of the far-reaching potential for utilization of renewable resources. A new frontier for resource use, of potentially great benefit to future generations, awaits the marriage of enzyme chemistry to forestry."
A version of this article appeared in print in the September 1961 issue of Resources magazine.
