VEGETABLE (STARCH) GLUE 
By 
Forest Products Laboratory,- Forest Service 
U. S. Department of Agriculture 
Summary 
Vegetable glues are used in woodworking mainly for making plywood 
and other veneered products for interior use, but they have found some 
application in edge gluing and in certain assembly operations. These glues 
are usually prepared by the user by heating the vegetable-starch powder with 
water and then cooling the mixture to room temperature before use. Some 
prepared vegetable glues for woodworking have been made available in liquid 
form, ready for use. Vegetable glues are room-temperature-setting and 
develop their strength by loss of water. They produce joints of high dry 
strength but with low water and moisture resistance. 
Introduction 
The information presented here on the composition of vegetable glue 
has been obtained largely from the literature, from patents, and from manu- 
facturers and users of such glues, while the information concerning the 
methods of using vegetable glue for joining wood is based in part on experi- 
ments at this Laboratory and in part on observations of its use in woodwork- 
ing factories . 
Source of Vegetable Glue 
The raw material for vegetable glues is starch, a carbohydrate 
occurring abundantly throughout the vegetable world. The use of starch in 
the food industry is much greater than is its use in woodworking glues. It 
is sometimes found isolated in large quantities and in a high degree of 
purity in certain plant organs, such as the stems of the sago palm, the fruit 
of the banana, the seeds of wheat and corn, and the roots of the potato, 
arrowroot, and cassava. Starch is the principal form in which plants store 
food for future requirements . 
-Maintained at Madison, Wis., in cooperation with the University of 
Wisconsin. 
Report No. E30 Agriculture-Madison 
