WHAT IS SHELLAC?

Shellac, the world's only natural edible gum resin is a safe, all natural wax product. It is produced in India, Thailand, and China and because of its many useful properties, is used as a coating for many products around the world. It comes in three forms:

     • sticklac is the raw material harvested from trees
     • seedlac is the washed semi-finished wax product
     • shellac is the end product produced by removal of wax and other impurities from the seedlac

Properties

     • Safe natural product which is not toxic
     • Color varies from red to light yellow
     • Hard, tough and brittle but softens with slow heating at 65 C
     • Easily dissolved by alkaline or alcohol but resistant to hydrocarbons
     • Excellent adhesion to product surface to obtain a film of hardness and shine
     • Resistant to ultra-violet light rays for product longevity
     • With low thermal conductivity it acts as an insulator
     • Excellent dielectric properties

History

The story of Shellac is an interesting one as given by Harry Smith - Our well respected and sorely missed founder of Temuss Products Limited....

"Shellac is obtained from lac, the resinous secretions of the insect Laccifer(Tachardia) lacca Kerr (Fam. Coccidae).

The lac insect is so small in size, you need a magnifying glass to see it. The lac insect sucks the sap from small branches of the Kusumi tree, then secretes through its pores the lac resin.

When thousands of these insects accumulate, large quantities of lac resin is produced by them on the branches of these trees. It is then time to harvest this lac resin. This is done by cutting the coated branches off from the Kusumi trees.

These branches which are approximately three to four feet in length and about half an inch in diameter are totally encrusted with the lac resin. These thin branches are then known as sticklac.

The sticklac is allowed to dry for several days, then the lac is scraped off the branches. After removing the lac, it is then ground up into a granular form and washed several times with water in washers that remove much of the impurities. After the washing process is complete, the material is dried and packed in burlap bags. This is now seedlac which is shipped to us.

In order to start a new crop in the following year, the farmers store away some of the sticklac branches in a cool place, until its time to start a new crop. These sticklac branches which are known as broodlac are then tied to the branches of the Kusumi trees. The insects from this broodlac swarm all through the new branches on the trees to start producing a new crop of lac resin.

After we receive the seedlac in our plant we then further refine it by dissolving the material in an alkalized solution of water. It is screened and filtered to remove the wax and any other impurities, then bleached by a chlorine solution, precipitated by the use of acids. The shellac hanks are further washed to remove any further impurities. It is then. crushed, dried, and ground into a fine granular form. This is packed into 50 lb. multi-wall paper bags. This is known as Refined Bleached Shellac (Dewaxed) Food Grade.