root where the rubber has already been coagulated by the drying process the first step of the process is to mix the chopped or shredded root with hot water at a temperature between 40 70 u00b0 c and in the preferred embodiment shear the slurry in a counter current single or double screw extruder another embodiment envisions a continuously stirred tank reactor operating under high shear conditions by varying the liquid to solid ratio between 5 1 and 25 1 and recycling the hot extraction water to extract incoming fresh root material solutions of high molecular weight inulin are concentrated in the extraction process in one embodiment high molecular weight inulin is recovered in solid form by the use of evaporators or spray drying equipment in an alternative embodiment of the simultaneous bulk rubber and carbohydrate extraction process the extraction solution is both hot and acidic with a ph below 4 0 and a temperature above 70 u00b0 c so that the extracted inulin is degraded below a molecular weight of 1 000 in this latter embodiment contact times in a high shear reactor may be 20 minutes or greater to ensure degradation of the inulin polymers from this latter process fructose is recovered as fermentable concentrated syrup with solids content greater than 20 after evaporation in preferred embodiments for the recovery of carbohydrate syrups thin film evaporators would be used in the evaporation step regardless of the extraction equipment utilized in the forgoing extraction step all solid materials u2014 coagulated rubber and plant fiber u2014 are passed out of the extraction unit into a series of two or more flotation tanks in the preferred embodiment these flotation tanks utilize.