Most people have no idea of what Shellac is or where it comes from.

Shellac is a natural, organic resin that comes from an insect, Laccifer lacca, that is about the size of an apple seed. This bug alightson certain trees indigenous to India and Thailand and during its reproductive cycle feeds on the sap that is sucks from the twigs of these trees. The bug secrets an amber coloured resinous substance that is called "lac", a word that come from the Sanskrit "lakh" which means one hundred thousand. The resin forms cocoon around the insect which serves to incubate the eggs she lays. This cocoon is the raw material from the Shellac and is called "sticklac", because it contains resin, parts of the twig and bug remains. The stick lac is washed and then refined either chemically or by hand, to produce the raw material available for sale.

The original cultivation of Shellac for the resin, but rather, for the dye that gives the resin its characteristic colour. The use of the lac dye can be traced back to 250 AD when it was mentioned by Claudius Aelianus, a Roman writer volume on natural history. The lac dyes was removed by the initial washing of the shellac resin in large ketties, which is also the fast step in the preparing the resin. This dye remained a valuable commodity until the need - 1800's, when Perkins an English Chemist synthesized the first chemical 'Aniline' dyes which killed the natural dye industry. Fortunately the use of the resin had been firmly established, so the loss of the use of the dye had little impact on shellac trade. The fast use of shellac as a protective coating appears as early as 1590 in a work by an English writer who was sent to India to observe the country and its people. Commenting on a procedure for applying lac to wood still on the lathe he writes "they take a piece of the lac of what colour they will, and as they turn it when commeth to his fashion they spread the lac upon the whole piece of wood which presently, with the head of the turning (melteth the waxe) so that it enter into the crests and cleaveth unto it, about the thickness of a mans nail : then they burnish it (over) with a broad straw or dry rushes so (cunningly) that all the wood is covered with all, and its hineth like glass, most pleasant to behold, and continueth as long as the wood being well looked unto : In this short they covered all kinds of household stuffe in India". *From Shellac; its production manufacture, chemistry analyses, commerce and uses." London, Sir I Pitman & sons, Ltd.,

The use of the Shellac as a furniture finish never caught on in the west until the early 1800's and it eventually repleased wax and oil finishes. It remained the most widely used productive finish for wooed until the 1920's and 30's when it was repleased bynitrocellulose lacquar.

The original cultivation of shellac was not for the resin, but rather, for the dye that gives the resin its characteristis colour. The use of lac dye can be traced back to 250 ad when it was mentioned by Claudius Aelianus, a Roman writer in a volume on natural history.

The lac dye was removed by the initial washing of the shellac resin in large kettles, which is also the first step in preparing the resin. This dye remained a valuable commodity such .......chemist, synthesized the first chemical 'aniline' dyes which killed the natural dye industry. Fortunately the use of the resin had been firmly established, so the loss of the use of the dye had little impact on shellac trade.

• Verse 5 of the 5th volume of the the ancient Hindu scriptures, the Atharva Veda (1500 - 1200 BC) is titled Lakhsa and gives a brief account of the lac insect and the medicinal properties of lac

• In the same source, mention is made of a decoction, lakshadi tail, or 'lac oil', said to be effective in curing chronic fevers and rheumatism.

• Perhaps one of the most infamous references to lac is of the lakshagriha (house of lac), in the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata (1300 BC). An inflammable mansion, cunningly constructed for the Kaurava brothers at Vanrvrata by the architect Purochak; it had the sole purpose of vanquishing their adversaries, the Pandava siblings, by burning them down, when the latter retired to the house after celebrations. The highly inflammable and mouldable property of lac was utilized in this particular instance!! (The conspiracy failed, as the Pandava brothers were forewarned about the plot).

• Panini (550 B.C) mentioned the medicinal properties of lac in his book, the Ashtdhyayi.

• It is known from Herodotus that the explorer, Scylax, was sent by the Persian king, Darius I (in about 515 BC), to explore the course of the Indus River. In his writings, the Periplus, Scylax was the first western explorer to describe ancient India, wherein, mention was made of lakhos chromatinos or lac dye.

• The ancient Vinaya Pitaka texts of Buddhism contain details about the method of extraction and application of lac dye. In fact, lac dye was treasured much more than lac resin, in ancient times.

• Pliny’s Natural History (77 AD) refers to electrone (ber) trees, which decked the Hypobus (Ganges) river in the Indian sub - continent.

• The Wu Lu, written by the Chinese historian, Chang Po (320 AD) stated that in northern China (Chiu-Chen), there was a district called I-Fung, where “ants” crawled upon trees to produce lac (Ch’i).

• An 8^th century AD specimen of lac (Shi-Ko) is still preserved in the Shoso-In (Imperial Warehouse) at Nara, Japan.

• In 1563, the Portuguese traveller, Garcia de Orta, described the uses of lac resin and lac dye in India.

• The Ain-i-Akbari of Abu Fazal (1590) gives detailed procedures for the use of lac varnishes on door screens of public buildings during the Mughal rule in India

• It is said that the Mughal emperor, Akbar, had a sweetmeat box exquisitely lacquered with lac and set with jewels, which he would keep with himself, while holding court. It had two chambers: one holding ordinary sweetmeats and the other, poisoned ones. The accused would be asked to choose from either one, and thus decide his own fate.

• Linschoten, another Portuguese traveler (1596) reported lac cultivation in India and Burma.

• Tavernier recorded in 1676 that lac dye was used for calico printing and lac resin was used for sealing waxes and polishes in India. In the sixteenth century, the use of lac in sealing compositions was introduced in Europe, by Spanish merchants who carried on overseas trade with India. This practically “sealed” the fate of lac resin for the preparation of sealing waxes, for which it is popular even today, although presently, few formulations of sealing wax actually contain the lac resin per se.

• Father Tachard (1709), a Jesuit priest stationed in India, first reported that a kind of “ant” on the branches of certain of certain Indian trees, left behind a secretion, which hardened on exposure to air and sun. However, James Kerr (1781) first described the Indian lac insect scientifically.

• In 1895, Emil Berliner, a German immigrant to the US, perfected the first shellac moulded gramophone record, which boosted the demand of lac for nearly half a century.These records vastly improved the sound quality, were more durable and could be mass produced, in comparison to the earlier metal cylinders or cardboard ones coated with wax of Edison’s time. Gramophone records became obsolete in the 1980s, first by the advent of the cassette player, followed by CDs and DVDs.

• The present synthetic polymer and plastics industry developed out of attempts to "synthesise" shellac in the laboratory, to challenge the monopoly of a few countries over the lac trade. Lac, in those days, was invaluable for the manufacture of moulded articles, electrical insulators, gramophone reords etc.

• In 1872, Prof. Bayer obtained a resinous product, by heating phenol and formaldehyde together. This work was continued by W.H. Stoy (1895). Finally, Prof. L.H.Baekeland reported the synthesis of "bakelite" in 1909, ushering the 'plastic age', which continues till the present times.

• Lac could not be synthesised artificially in the laboratory (even till today), but attempts to produce "synthetic lac" (see above) ultimately produced a wide range of polymers and plastics, which managed to replace lac from many of its traditional uses.

Lac Hosts

• The lac insect belongs to the category of primitive insects called coccids. Coccids are notorious pests of forest vegetation, woody trees and indoor ornamentals all over the world. However, the lac insect, which is technically a parasite of trees such as Schleichera oleosa (vern: kusum), Zizyphus mauritiana (vern: ber) and Butea monosperma (vern: palas) in India and of the rain tree, Samanea saman in south east Asia e.g. Thailand, cannot be considered a pest, since the economic benefits it produces far exceeds the negligible damage that it may cause to its host trees.

• Conversely, a lac infestation on the sandalwood tree (Santalum album) is a problem (as in some cases in southern India) and definitely needs to be eradicated. Reports from Thailand indicate that the lac insect became a serious pest of fruit trees of longan and litchi, so much so that the insects had to be controlled by chemical and bio-control methods!! Some lac host trees in other countries are Anona squamosa (Myanmar), Dalbergia hupiana and Protium serratum (Vietnam), Acacia arabica (Pakistan) and Ficus carica (Russia). Amongst the dwarf host plants, Cajanus cajan appears to be a universally accepted host in India, Vietnam and possibly, China as well.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

Lac and its associated products have managed to survive and create a niche market of their own, especially in western countries. Recent reports indicate that export destination for Indian lac is: Indonesia > Germany > USA. The reason behind the success of this forest – based commodity is due to a combination of strengths, which include:

• Ability to form films on various surfaces
• Electrical insulating properties
• Moulding properties
• Adhesive & binding properties
• Flavourless, odourless and edible properties
• Decorative & protective properties
• Medicinal properties
• Inflammable properties
• Ability to yield useful acids on hydrolysis

The fact remains that such a combination of properties cannot be mimicked by any synthetic substitute. Such inherent strengths ensure that lac can be used in diverse areas: from gun powder to lipsticks, chocolates and medicinal tablets, from perfumes to etch primers, etc. In fact, lac has faced continuous challenges from the synthetic petrochemical – based resins and dyes for over fifty years. In spite of certain basic weaknesses (lack of flexibility, solubility in alcoholic solvents, lack of sufficient water resistance and erratic supply position), it has managed to preserve its existence and also develop newer vistas of application and opportunities, in the face of continuous threats from synthetic substitutes.

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