44 PHILIPPINE RESINS, GUMS, AND OILS 



for window-panes, in place of glass. In America it is rarely 

 employed medicinally. 



The resin of Manila elemi is valuable as a material for pre- 

 paring varnish, while the volatile oils are suitable for many 

 purposes for which ordinary turpentine is used. 



Bottler and Sabin *, in discussing elemi, say: 



* * * It is not by itself made into a varnish, but is added to a 

 variety of spirit varnishes; it makes them less brittle and more elastic. 

 For this the various sorts of elemi are better than turpentine, because 

 they hold their volatile oil more tenaciously. To make varnishes elastic, 

 elemi, castor-oil, and Venetian turpentine are melted together, and this 

 compound is added to the solution of resin. 



The following formula given by Bottler and Sabin is an ex- 

 ample of an elastic varnish containing elemi. 



WHITE VARNISH SUITABLE FOR BOOKBINDERS. 



Parts. 



Sandarac 6 



Mastic 3 



Elemi 3 



Alcohol 150 



Concerning the use of Manila elemi for varnish, Bacon t 

 states : 



The use of elemi residues with turpentine and linseed oil has not given 

 us very satisfactory varnishes, for even with excessive quantities of driers, 

 the varnish coat remains somewhat sticky for three or four days. This 

 elemi residue, however^ mixed with varying proportions of Manila copal, 

 melted with boiled linseed oil, and properly thinned with turpentine has 

 given us most excellent varnishes, which give a hard, brilliant, and elastic 

 coating on wood. The use of the elemi resin for varnishes seems not only 

 to give a paler and more brilliant varnish than copal alone, but renders 

 the melting of the copal much easier. I believe this elemi resin distillation 

 residue has a future as a varnish gum. 



In the Philippines only one elemi gum is collected and this is 

 obtained from Canariiim luzonicum. When it first flows from 

 the tree it is soft, but in the course of time hardens, the difference 

 between the soft and the hard resin being that the latter has lost 

 the greater part of its volatile constituents through evaporation. 



In Masbate, according to Forester Zschokke, the trees are 

 tapped at the beginning of the rainy season and the process is 

 repeated every other day until December. The resin is collected 

 once a month and one man can take care of from 75 to 100 trees. 



* Bottler, M. and Sabin, A. H., German and American varnish making, 

 (1912), page 21. 



t Bacon, R. F., Philippine terpenes and essential oils. III. Philippine 

 Journal of Science, Section A, Volume 4 (1909), page 100. 



