Quality analysis of Indian lac with other lac producing countries

Experiments were conducted to determine the rate of deterioration in different physico-chemical properties of seedlac and shellac of various origins viz., Indian, Thai and Chinese with storage at ambient temperature. The results obtained after a period of more than one-year storage revealed that qualities of Indian (kusmi) seedlac and shellac are better compared to those of other countries especially in respect of flow, heat polymerization time, colour index and bleach index. A comparative study was also made on the surface coating properties of Indian and Thai shellac. It was found that gloss of the Indian lac was higher than Thai lac. Melting profiles of waxes extracted from Indian, Chinese and Thai seedlac and aleuritic acids isolated from the seedlacs of Indian, Thai and Indonesian origin were investigated by a Differential Scanning Calorimeter. The study was undertaken out of curiosity for knowing how does the Indian lac, which is secreted by insect Kerria lacca Kerr. which mainly thrives on host plants e.g., ber, kusum and palas differ from the lac resins produced by different insect species in Thai, Indonesia and China one.