Graft copolymers of natural rubber (NR) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) were prepared using cumene hydroperoxide and tetraethylene pentamine as redox initiators via the semibatch emulsion polymerization technique. Various molar percentage ratios of NR/MMA were studied in the grafting reaction (i.e., 95/5, 90/10, 80/20, 70/30, and 60/40). The graft copolymer with a 70/30 molar ratio was selected and used to prepare rubber blends with cassava starch. The starch was used at levels of 0, 20, 40, and 60 phr. Another set of rubber blends was prepared for comparison purposes. The NR-g-poly(MMA) (PMMA, 75 phr) was blended with 25 phr of NR air dried sheets (ADS) and a given level of the cassava starch. We found that the Mooney viscosity, shear stress, and shear viscosity increased with an increasing concentration of cassava starch. This may be attributed to the chemical interactions between the polar groups of the NR-g-PMMA and the cassava starch. The blends were later compounded using a compounding formulation according to ASTM D 3184-89. A similar short delay onset of vulcanization (i.e., approximately 1 min) was observed for the whole set of compounds under study. However, different curing characteristics were observed for the blends of NR-g-PMMA-cassava starch and NR-g-PMMA-ADS- cassava starch. The NR-g-PMMA-cassava starch compounds exhibited two-stage curing characteristics. The curing curve had a slight reversion at a testing time of approximately 8 min. The shear modulus then abruptly increased with an increasing testing time in the range of 20-60 min. The curing curves for NR-g-PMMA-ADS-cassava starch blends exhibited a single curing stage with a shear modulus that increased slightly with the testing time was increased from 20 to 60 min. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.