Tung Oil

Abstract

TUNG oil is an essential raw material of present-day varnish manufacture, and in fact its unique properties render it indispensable for certain types of varnish. Until comparatively recently, China has satisfied the world's demand for tung oil, and will, it is considered, continue to remain the chief source for some years to come. The oil is derived from two species of Aleurites, Fordii and montana, of which the former is the chief source. It was Wilson, a naturalist in western China, who in 1915, after a study of the species of Aleurites, solved the question as to the true origin of tung oil. A. Fordii has its habitat chiefly in western and central China, whilst A. montana is found more to the south. Tung oil, also termed China wood oil, was known outside China about 1760. It was first introduced into the United States in 1896, into Germany in 1897, and soon afterwards into England. Little notice of it was taken commercially in England until after the outbreak of War, when specil water-resisting varnishes were required for aeroplane work. Thereafter, on the recommendation of the Raw Materials Committee of the Imperial Institute, growing experiments (Wilson having stated that he considered the trees could be grown in South Africa, East Africa, Australia, Algeria, and Morocco) were started in India, Ceylon, Malaya, Burma, Kenya, Tanganyika, Hong-Kong, and South Africa. The position of this new industry was first reviewed in a paper prepared by Dr. L. A. Jordan, of the Research Association of British Paint, Colour, and Varnish Manufacturers (Technical Paper, No. 1), published by the Association for private circulation in 1927. The work described proved of such importance and aroused such interest that the paper has been now republished, after a revision, by Dr. Jordan (Journal of the Oil and Colour Chemists Association, Vol. 12, No. 107, May 1929).