Shellac (Shellac)

In Vietnam, pistachio is used for staining teeth, but in some countries in the region such as India and Thailand, the production of pistachio plastic for export since several thousand years has been a technology that brings many clues. Great benefit.

Beetle:

There are about 2000 types of insects that are hard-shelled like fish scales, temporarily called the beetle (Laccifer Lacca or Coccus Lacca), from 1mm to more than 2.5 cm long, parasitizing on plants suitable for them as types soybean plants, lotus palm trees, oars in our country, creating "lac" resin. People shave this plastic layer (and even insects that make plastic) to make lac resin. About 300,000 insects are required to produce 1 kg of ants.

The ants have a relatively short life, consisting of four stages: eggs, worms, cocoons (pupae) and adults. Life is very fleeting, lasting only 5 to 6 months. So places where plastic bugs can be harvested twice a year. The beetle lives parasites, clings to a small branch on the tree, and lies there almost motionless. Female females can lay about 100 eggs in their gills. The egg hatches deep, about 0.5 mm long, bites the cover, crawls out, and clings to a branch. The deep mouth has a long mechanism to help it penetrate the bark, and suck the plastic to feed itself.

The deep body slowly secretes a thick substance, which hardens when the wind blows, becoming more and more thick, forming a plastic armor covering the worm. Deeply cocooned, live in this plastic armor, leaving only two holes, one to breathe and one to excrete. Then cocooned into bugs, still motionless until adulthood, for a total of eight weeks. At that time, the female beetle remained motionless, lay in plastic armor, and began to have eggs. The production of plastic is increased faster, and the armor is spread out larger to contain the number of eggs being formed. Meanwhile the male escapes, losing the plastic suction mechanism in the mouth, growing legs, antennas and two small wings. So male beetles can move to cover the female bugs for the eggs to be empty. Afterwards, the small beetle shrinks so that light passes through the plastic armor, and the eggs hatch into a deep, re-opening a new cycle. In the ovary, there is a dark red liquid called lac-colored dye, like "cochineal", often used for food coloring. The places where the beetles wait until the eggs are about to hatch will scratch the branches with bugs to get the plastic. Only a few female beetles have eggs kept for breeding in the next layer. After having been introduced to the appropriate plants, there is no need for further care. Just wait until the season is harvested.

Plastic petals:

Laccifer lacca

Asphalt has just been scratched off the plastic branches from the beetle's plastic armor, containing the remains of the beetles, the bark, the color of the plastic . called rough plastic (crude lac, or in the language). in the profession is sticklac) and very moist. Breeders must leave or dry them before taking them to the market to sell to collectors of plastic manufacturers. At the workshop, people crushed or pounded the raw plastic, washed and filtered again to remove sand, bugs, bark . Then, fan and dry again so that the resin formed scales, dark red color. to light yellow, called plastic seed, or "Seedlac." Seedlac contains 70 to 90% resin and 3 to 4% wax. People mixed Seedlac to make ants plastic, "Shelllac". How to prepare according to the place. During the manufacturing process, it is possible to use machines, or just use your hands, depending on your equipment. The plastic shellac is best in light yellow, then dark orange, to brown brown. Sometimes people add chemicals to them, giving them a whitish color called white lac.

Application of lac resin:

Singing disc

People know how to use plastic ants. Particularly in Vietnam, according to Dr. Ho Dac Duy, northerners have used ants to dye their teeth. The red, colorful carpets made in Persia (Persse) or India are dyed with pistachio resin. At the end of the nineteenth century, 78-minute records were used with the throbbing device "La voix de son maître" (shaped like a dog sitting on a loudspeaker) made of lac resin. In Vietnam, until the 1950s and 1960s, these discs were still used and often issued by Asia firms (especially Ancient Stocks).

Ants on the market:

People also use petals for coloring products, dyeing food, polishing fruits, coffee beans and some other seeds. Lac resin is also used to mix paints and varnishes of all kinds and use in hair spray. In industry, people use ants plastic to make felt hats, feutre mixed with a bit of winged plastic that will harden and stand up properly, make glue to seal pieces (joints or gaskets), make sealing wax, make ink printed, to coat the back of cards of high standards, and use white shellac, mixed with other chemicals as floor polishes. In medicine, people use lac resin in making dentures, and make inner layers of containers for urine storage for 24 hours to test, especially for people with diabetes.

Production of lac resin:

The beetles are farmed in India in the provinces of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Orissa and some parts of Thailand. The plants used for parasitic beetles are Palas, Kusum and Ber plants in India. In Thailand, beetles are raised on trees that grow strongly in areas with monsoon rains. During the period between two years 1956,1957 India alone exported 43,000 tons of petals. But when people began manufacturing plastic plastique, used in the production of microsillons for singles (45 or 33.3 revolutions / minute) and especially in artificial dyes, plastic wing lost gradually. use. By 1989, the petal plastic market had greatly declined, almost nothing. But when detecting artificial chemicals used instead of poisonous antacid plastic, pistachio, which was durable and non-toxic, was resurrected.

During the period between 1995 and 1996, India exported nearly 9,000 tons of petals. The United States buys 3,000 tons, the Federal Republic of Germany buys 1 500 tons, Indonesia imports more than 1 300 tons, Canada imports 500 tons, Japan 190 tons, New Singapore buys 95 tons, France 60 tons, and Russia with Australia, each country buys over 50 tons. Proceeds of about US $ 34 million. The petal plastic breeding is difficult to collect eggs to thin the seed for the next batch, then there is no need to take care of the beetles. Particularly in Vietnam, clever organization, will create jobs for farmers in the middle of rice seasons, raise income for people, without having to pay much capital. Don't know what the Northern farmer thinks?