What is shellac?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

May 28, 2003

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Lac (Laccifer lacca Kerr) are scale insects (Homoptera, family Coccidea) native to India and Southeast Asia. The name lac comes from the Hindi lakh meaning hundred-thousand. Lac have been intentionally cultured in India for over 3,000 years.

Like other scales, the red larvae, the lac crawler stage, search out tender growth on the host trees. When a larva finds a suitable location, it inserts its proboscis into the phloem tissues. The insect grows a chitinous shell and lives a stationary life. Thousands of the insects will completely cover tender twigs on their host plants. Host trees (Acacia, Butea, Zizyphus, Caesalpinia, Ficus, and others) are pruned to grow twigs suitable to the lac.

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Male lac undergo metamorphosis, growing legs and sometimes wings, enabling them to seek out females. Females remain stationary. After mating, the males die and females will lay about 100 eggs before dying. To insure a good supply of the insects, some of the twigs containing eggs, called brood lac, are removed and placed on trees growing new twigs for the crawlers.

Mature female lac contain a scarlet pigment composed of various laccaic acids--lac dye. Twigs with mature females are cut from the tree, the insects are crushed, and the dye extracted with water. Lac dye creates violet to red shades used on silk, wool, and leather. The insects are related to the cochineal of the Aztecs. (See Renfield's Garden, July 24, 2002)

Lac secrete a yellow to reddish resin, also called lac. After the females have died, the twigs or sticklac are removed, crushed, and treated with water to remove any remaining dye and dirt. The resin is either hand extracted (long cloth bags and squeezing the resin out) or mechanically extracted using pressure and heat or solvents. The resin dried into thin sheets and broken into flakes is shellac. Mixed with certain solvents (naphtha, xylene, or toluene) shellac is a lacquer; mixed with alcohol, it is a varnish.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN has an excellent page, "Insect Dyes", about lac dye and resin. To learn more about how the insects are processed into dyes and shellac, click on the link:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/V8879E/V8879e08.htm

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