What You Should Know About Damar Gum – Damar gum is a natural resin that comes from the Shorea (Shorea robusta Gaertn) tree. Damar gum has been used for centuries as an additive in resins, paints, inks, adhesives, lacquers and as a stiffening agent in fabrics. It is also used as an ingredient in the manufacture of soaps, candles and molded goods such as imitation ivory.
About Damar Gum
Location, location, location
Damar gum grows primarily in Lampung, Indonesia where our company is located. The resin serves as a protective coating for the tree and its fruit. To extract it, workers use hand tools to peel off strips of bark from the evergreen trees. This process exposes an inner layer that can yield four to six pounds of Damar gum each season.
Tall trees and dangerous work
You may have heard of Damar resin, from which Damar resin is extracted. This beautiful evergreen tree can grow up to ninety (90) meters in height, with a trunk diameter of 1.5 meters! The tree is native to Southeast Asia and is found in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. The word “Damar” comes from the Malay word for tree sap.
History
Damar resin trees were once common throughout Southeast Asia, but because they were heavily logged and overharvested for their resin in the late 19th century by westerners, the vast majority of these highly prized Shorea javanica trees were decimated by 1920. Due to excessive economic exploitation of the tree, you can only find this tree growing well in only two other countries in the world; Thailand and Malaysia. Since then, with the help of local farmers and government assistance programs to plant more of these wonderfully useful trees, the population of Shorea javanica trees have been somewhat restored and rebuilt to a much healthier level. Our company has a strong commitment to planting more of these wonderful trees and ensuring the health of the existing trees that we use.
Uses
Damar Gum has been used for centuries as an additive in resins, paints, inks, adhesives and lacquers, and as a stiffening agent in fabrics. Damar gum is used to make Damar lacquer, a type of paint that was originally made from the sap of trees. Damar lacquer has been used for centuries, and it’s still commonly used today. It can be either a liquid or dried into a resin. In short, Damar gum is useful for nearly limitless things. And if burned, Damar resin smells great too!
How do we do it?
The resin is extracted by making incisions in the trunk and collecting the latex that exudes from it. After extraction, the product is then refined into gum Damar at our factory in Indonesia to produce various grades of resin. Refining is the process of removing impurities from the raw product and producing a higher quality product. The resin is refined into different grades of product: Low Density Damar Resin, Medium Density Damar Resin (MDR), High Density Damar Resin (HDR) and Special Grade Resin.
Conclusion
Damar resin is a valuable product that has been used for centuries in copious amounts of materials and goods. Our company is in the prime location of the world, Indonesia, for Damar harvesting. And with our experienced team of farmers, we can provide you with the best quality Damar resin in the world. Contact us today to find out more information!
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