Polyterpene applications

Polyterpenes are compounds comprising several hundred isoprene units and give rise to natural rubber. Poly means many, so that rubber is made up of many repeating isoprene units. The name for a compound made up of many such repeating units is a polymer. There are many both naturally occurring and synthetically produced polymers of importance with many applications. 

Hot-melt adhesives are usually used for box-sealing applications for coated paperboard products. Migration of mineral hydrocarbons from these adhesives into foods was investigated in a survey. No mineral hydrocarbons were detected but several other substances were present in the adhesives. These were proposed to be natural resins such as polyterpene resins, tall oil rosin esters, and sterol-like natural products.Examples of each of these natural products are described in ref. 13 as being used for hot-melt adhesives. 

The production and application of polyterpene resins are very similar to those of petroleum-based resins (1,203,204). 

---