Selected Aspects Of Silver Birch Sap Utilisation

The current fashion for a healthy lifestyle allows the promotion of many activities related to the forestry management. The forest environment, with relatively low level of chemicals use (especially in comparison with conventional agriculture), can provide a number of edible or medicinal goods and benefits, meeting even the most stringent standards (e.g. organic farming). One of these raw materials is birch sap. A growing interest in this product has been observed recently, formerly mostly imported, and now more and more often obtained from trees growing as well in forests and outside forests in Poland.Commercial use of birch sap requires a scientific basis. Chemical research confirming the suitability of raw material for consumption is necessary, as well as natural and environmental research, concerning differences in the sap leak intensity depending on many factors. It is also necessary to develop the principles of sap collection, taking into account the impact of such activity on the natural environment, also from the point of view of landscape protection.The article presents selected problems of obtaining birch sap in Poland. The literature in this field has been reviewed. Moreover, the case study results of the research on the impact of age of Silver birch trees on the intensity of the sap leak have been presented. It has been stated that the value of sap leak for 35-year-old trees was 3.6 liters per day, while for 80-year-olds- 4.7 liters per day. However, the differences were not statistically significant.