Bees’ wax

For centuries, the honeycomb of bees, ie, beeswax, was the material commonly referred to as wax. Substances having typical wax characteristics have traditionally come from iasects, eg, beeswax from vegetables, eg, camauba and from animal, eg, spermaceti, origins (1). Waxes from mineral and synthetic sources have been developed both as substitutes for waxes from traditional sources and for new appHcations. Waxes from minerals and synthetic sources now surpass waxes from traditional sources ia toimage and commercial importance. 

The ground runs are greased witli vaseline or a mixture of bees-wax and vaseline, and the ail is exhausted by attaching the tube of the watei-pump to the glass tap of the desiccator. 

Palmitic Acid.—This acid, together with steanc and oleic-acids, in the form of the glycerides, are the chief constituents of fats. Palmitin (glyceride of palmitic acid) is also found in certain x egetable oils like palm and olive oil. The acid occurs also as the cetyl ester in spermaceti and as the myricyl ester in bees-wax. It may be obtained from oleic acid by fusion with potash,... 

The wax that bees make is a complicated mixture of many compounds, but about 70 percent of it is the wax made from palmitic acid, a fatty acid, and the long-chain alcohol triacontanol (melissyl alcohol). 

Hansen, H. and Guldborg, M. (1988). Residues in honey and wax after treatment of bee colonies with formic acid. Tidsskr. Planteavl. 92, 7-10. 

Their hydrophobicity and their plasticity were appreciated and used for a long time in a wide range of activities. To our knowledge, the first wax to have been exploited is beeswax. Beeswax is produced by various species of bees in the world, and it has a melting point between 62°C and 64°C. It mainly contains homologous series of even-numbered fatty acids (C22 C34, C2 being the predominat compound), odd-numbered ra-alkanes (C2i C33, C27 being the major compound) and even-numbered palmitic esters from C40 to C52 (Tulloch and Hoffman, 1972 Kolattukudy, 1976). Hydroxy esters, diesters and hydroxy diesters also form part of beeswax to a lesser extent. 

It is a mixture of the sodium salts of sulphated fatty alcohols made by reducing the mixed fatty acids of coconut oil or cottonseed oil, and fish oils. Sometimes natural waxes such as spermaceti, wool fat and bees wax are sulphated directly. 

Gelatin film, steel, cadmium, bismuth, lead, silk, aluminum (oxidized), de Khotinsky cement, nickel. Norway iron, bees wax, ebonite disk, sheet rubber EM... 

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