Rubber was imported into the European market in crude bottles nearly four centuries after the discovery of America by Columbus. This raw material was used for manufacturing crude footwear, waterproof raincoat and other coverings. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a period of incubation in the history of rubber. Europeans considered rubber a curiosity and found no particular use for it. By the end of the eighteenth century four species of rubber-bearing plants had been identified and described (Hevea, H. brasiliensis and H. guianensis; one species of Castilla, C. elastica; and an Indian vine, Urceola elastica)
