![Palaquium gutta - Köhler–s Medizinal-Pflanzen-099](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Palaquium_gutta_-_K%C3%B6hler%E2%80%93s_Medizinal-Pflanzen-099.jpg)
Gutta-percha is a tree of the genus ''
Palaquium
''Palaquium'' is a genus of about 120 species of trees in the family Sapotaceae. Their range is from India across Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-ea ...
'' in the family
Sapotaceae
240px, '' Madhuca longifolia'' var. ''latifolia'' in Narsapur, Medak district, India
The Sapotaceae are a family (biology), family of flowering plants belonging to the order (biology), order Ericales. The family includes about 800 species of ev ...
. The name also refers to the rigid, naturally biologically
inert, resilient, electrically
nonconductive,
thermoplastic
A thermoplastic, or thermosoft plastic, is any plastic polymer material that becomes pliable or moldable at a certain elevated temperature and solidifies upon cooling.
Most thermoplastics have a high molecular weight. The polymer chains associate ...
latex
Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well.
In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...
derived from the tree, particularly from ''
Palaquium gutta
''Palaquium gutta'' is a tree in the family Sapotaceae. The specific epithet ' is from the Malay word ''getah'' meaning "sap or latex". It is known in Indonesia as ''karet oblong''.
Description
''Palaquium gutta'' grows up to tall. The bark i ...
''; it is a polymer of
isoprene
Isoprene, or 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene, is a common volatile organic compound with the formula CH2=C(CH3)−CH=CH2. In its pure form it is a colorless volatile liquid. Isoprene is an unsaturated hydrocarbon. It is produced by many plants and animals ...
which forms a rubber-like
elastomer
An elastomer is a polymer with viscoelasticity (i.e. both viscosity and elasticity) and with weak intermolecular forces, generally low Young's modulus and high failure strain compared with other materials. The term, a portmanteau of ''elastic p ...
.
The word "gutta-percha" comes from the plant's name in
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
: ''getah'' translates as "
latex
Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well.
In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...
". ''Percha'' or ''perca'' is an older name for
Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
.
Description
![COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Guttapercha-boom TMnr 60016733](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/COLLECTIE_TROPENMUSEUM_Guttapercha-boom_TMnr_60016733.jpg)
''P. gutta'' trees are tall and up to in trunk diameter. The leaves are
evergreen
In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...
, alternate or spirally arranged, simple, entire, long, glossy green above, and often yellow or
glaucous
''Glaucous'' (, ) is used to describe the pale grey or bluish-green appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus''), glaucous-winged gull (''Larus glaucescens''), g ...
below. The flowers are produced in small clusters along the stems, each flower with a white
corolla with four to seven (mostly six) acute lobes. The fruit is an ovoid berry, containing one to four seeds; in many species, the fruit is edible.
In Australia, gutta-percha is a common name specifically used for the
euphorbiaceous tree ''
Excoecaria
''Excoecaria'' is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae, formally described by Linnaeus in 1759. The genus is native to the Old World Tropics (Africa, southern Asia, northern Australia, and assorted oceanic islands).
Etymology
Genus name, '' ...
parvifolia'', which yields an aromatic, heavy, dark-brown timber.
Chemistry
![Guttapercha](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Guttapercha.svg)
Chemically, gutta-percha is a
polyterpene, a
polymer
A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part")
is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...
of
isoprene
Isoprene, or 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene, is a common volatile organic compound with the formula CH2=C(CH3)−CH=CH2. In its pure form it is a colorless volatile liquid. Isoprene is an unsaturated hydrocarbon. It is produced by many plants and animals ...
, or
polyisoprene
Polyisoprene is strictly speaking a collective name for Polymer, polymers that are produced by polymerization of isoprene. In practice polyisoprene is commonly used to refer to synthetic ''cis''-1,4-polyisoprene, made by the industrial polymerisa ...
, specifically (
trans
Trans- is a Latin prefix meaning "across", "beyond", or "on the other side of".
Used alone, trans may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Trans (festival), a former festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
* ''Trans'' (film ...
-1,4-polyisoprene).
The
cis
Cis or cis- may refer to:
Places
* Cis, Trentino, in Italy
* In Poland:
** Cis, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central
** Cis, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, north
Math, science and biology
* cis (mathematics) (cis(''θ'')), a trigonome ...
structure of polyisoprene is the common
latex
Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well.
In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...
elastomer
An elastomer is a polymer with viscoelasticity (i.e. both viscosity and elasticity) and with weak intermolecular forces, generally low Young's modulus and high failure strain compared with other materials. The term, a portmanteau of ''elastic p ...
.
While latex rubbers are
amorphous
In condensed matter physics and materials science, an amorphous solid (or non-crystalline solid, glassy solid) is a solid that lacks the long-range order that is characteristic of a crystal.
Etymology
The term comes from the Greek ''a'' ("wi ...
in molecular structure, gutta-percha (the trans structure)
crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...
lizes, leading to a more rigid material. It exists in alpha and beta forms, with the alpha form being brittle at room temperature.
Uses
Historic
Long before Gutta-percha was introduced into the Western world, it was used in a less processed form by the natives of the Malaysian archipelago for making knife handles, walking sticks, and other purposes. The first European to discover this material was
John Tradescant, who collected it in the far east in 1656. He named this material "Mazer wood".
William Montgomerie
William Montgomerie (1797–1856) was a Scottish military doctor with the East India Company, and later head of the medical department at Singapore. He is best known for promoting the use of gutta-percha in Europe. This material was an import ...
, a medical officer in imperial service, introduced gutta-percha into practical use in the West. He was the first to appreciate the potential of this material in medicine, and he was awarded the gold medal by the Royal Society of Arts, London in 1843.
[Harvey Wickes Felter and John Uri Lloyd]
"Gutta-Percha-: An Untold Story. Prakesh et al. ~2001 Endodontology"
King's American Dispensatory.
Scientifically classified in 1843, it was found to be a useful natural
thermoplastic
A thermoplastic, or thermosoft plastic, is any plastic polymer material that becomes pliable or moldable at a certain elevated temperature and solidifies upon cooling.
Most thermoplastics have a high molecular weight. The polymer chains associate ...
. In 1851, of gutta-percha was imported into Britain.
[ During the second half of the 19th century, gutta-percha was used for many domestic and industrial purposes, and it became a household word. Gutta-percha was particularly important for the manufacture of underwater telegraph cables.][Bill Burns]
The Gutta Percha Company
atlantic-cable.com, accessed 6 October 2010. Indeed, it made them possible. It does not degrade in seawater and is a good electrical insulator. These properties, along with its mouldability and flexibility made it ideal for the purpose. There was no other material to match it in the 19th century. The use in electrical cables generated a huge demand which led to unsustainable
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...
harvesting and collapse of supply.
Electrical
Gutta-percha latex is biologically inert, resilient, and is a good electrical insulator
An electrical insulator is a material in which electric current does not flow freely. The atoms of the insulator have tightly bound electrons which cannot readily move. Other materials—semiconductors and conductors—conduct electric current ...
with a high dielectric strength
In physics, the term dielectric strength has the following meanings:
*for a pure electrically insulating material, the maximum electric field that the material can withstand under ideal conditions without undergoing electrical breakdown and becom ...
.
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...
discovered its value as an insulator soon after the introduction of the material to Britain in 1843. Allowing this fluid to evaporate and coagulate in the sun produced a latex which could be made flexible again with hot water, but which did not become brittle, unlike rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
prior to the discovery of vulcanization
Vulcanization (British: Vulcanisation) is a range of processes for hardening rubbers. The term originally referred exclusively to the treatment of natural rubber with sulfur, which remains the most common practice. It has also grown to include ...
.
By 1845, telegraph wires insulated with gutta-percha were being manufactured in the UK. It served as the insulating material for early undersea telegraph cables, including the first transatlantic telegraph cable
Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is now an obsolete form of communication, and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and data a ...
. The material was a major constituent of Chatterton's compound
Chatterton’s compound is an adhesive waterproof insulating compound that was used in early submarine telegraph cables. It was patented in 1859 by John Chatterton and Willoughby Smith.
Its constitution is as follows:
*3 parts gutta-percha
*1 p ...
used as an insulating sealant for telegraph and other electrical cables.
The dielectric constant of dried gutta-percha ranges from 2.56 to 3.01. Resistivity of dried gutta-percha ranges from 25 x 1014 to 370 x 1014 ohm-cm.
Since about 1940, polyethylene
Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging ( plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bo ...
has supplanted gutta-percha as an electrical insulator.
Other
In the mid-19th century, gutta-percha was used to make furniture, notably by the Gutta Percha Company
The Gutta Percha Company was an English company formed in 1845 to make a variety of products from the recently introduced natural rubber gutta-percha. Unlike other natural rubbers, this material was thermoplastic allowing it to be easily mou ...
, established in 1847.[ Several of these ornate, revival-style pieces were shown at the 1851 ]Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhib ...
in Hyde Park, London. The company also made a range of utensils.
The "guttie
A golf ball is a special ball designed to be used in the game of golf.
Under the rules of golf, a golf ball has a mass no more than , has a diameter not less than , and performs within specified velocity, distance, and symmetry limits. Like g ...
" golf ball (which had a solid gutta-percha core) revolutionized the game. Gutta-percha was used to make "mourning" jewelry, because it was dark in color and could be easily molded into beads or other shapes. Pistol hand grips and rifle shoulder pads were also made from gutta-percha, since it was hard and durable, though it fell into disuse when synthetic plastic
Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...
s such as Bakelite
Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, better known as Bakelite ( ), is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. The first plastic made from synthetic components, it was developed ...
became available.
Gutta-percha was used in canes and walking sticks. In 1856, United States Representative
Representative may refer to:
Politics
* Representative democracy, type of democracy in which elected officials represent a group of people
* House of Representatives, legislative body in various countries or sub-national entities
* Legislator, som ...
Preston Brooks
Preston Smith Brooks (August 5, 1819 – January 27, 1857) was an American politician and member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina, serving from 1853 until his resignation in July 1856 and again from August 1856 until his ...
used a cane made of gutta-percha as a weapon in his attack on Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American statesman and United States Senator from Massachusetts. As an academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the anti-slavery forces in the state and a leader of th ...
.
The wood of many species is also valuable.
Today
Dentistry
The same bioinertness that made it suitable for marine cables also means it does not readily react within the human body. It is used in a variety of surgical devices and during root canal
A root canal is the naturally occurring anatomic space within the root of a tooth. It consists of the pulp chamber (within the coronal part of the tooth), the main canal(s), and more intricate anatomical branches that may connect the root c ...
therapy. It is the predominant material used to obturate
In the field of firearms and airguns, obturation denotes necessary barrel blockage or fit by a deformed soft projectile (obturation in general is closing up an opening). A bullet or pellet, made of soft material and often with a concave base, ...
, or fill, the empty space inside the root of a tooth after it has undergone endodontic therapy
Root canal treatment (also known as endodontic therapy, endodontic treatment, or root canal therapy) is a treatment sequence for the infected pulp of a tooth which is intended to result in the elimination of infection and the protection o ...
. Its physical and chemical properties, including its inertness and biocompatibility
Biocompatibility is related to the behavior of biomaterials in various contexts. The term refers to the ability of a material to perform with an appropriate host response in a specific situation. The ambiguity of the term reflects the ongoing de ...
, melting point
The melting point (or, rarely, liquefaction point) of a substance is the temperature at which it changes state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase exist in equilibrium. The melting point of a substance depends ...
, ductility
Ductility is a mechanical property commonly described as a material's amenability to drawing (e.g. into wire). In materials science, ductility is defined by the degree to which a material can sustain plastic deformation under tensile stres ...
, and malleability
Ductility is a List of materials properties, mechanical property commonly described as a material's amenability to Drawing (manufacturing), drawing (e.g. into wire). In materials science, ductility is defined by the degree to which a materia ...
, make it important in endodontics
Endodontics (from the Greek roots ''endo-'' "inside" and ''odont-'' "tooth") is the dental specialty concerned with the study and treatment of the dental pulp.
Overview
Endodontics encompasses the study (practice) of the basic and clinical ...
,[ e.g., as gutta-percha points. ]Zinc oxide
Zinc oxide is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a white powder that is insoluble in water. ZnO is used as an additive in numerous materials and products including cosmetics, food supplements, rubbers, plastics, ceramics, glass, cemen ...
is added to reduce brittleness and improve plasticity. Barium sulfate
Barium sulfate (or sulphate) is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula Ba SO4. It is a white crystalline solid that is odorless and insoluble in water. It occurs as the mineral barite, which is the main commercial source of barium an ...
is added to provide radiopacity so that its presence and location can be verified in dental X-ray images.
Substitutes
Gutta-percha remained an industrial staple well into the 20th century, when it was gradually replaced with superior synthetic materials such as Bakelite
Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, better known as Bakelite ( ), is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. The first plastic made from synthetic components, it was developed ...
, though a similar and cheaper natural material called ''balatá
''Manilkara bidentata'' is a species of ''Manilkara'' native to a large area of northern South America, Central America and the Caribbean. Common names include bulletwood, balatá, ausubo, massaranduba, quinilla, and (ambiguously) " cow-tree".
D ...
'' was often used in gutta-percha's place. The two materials are almost identical, and ''balatá ''is often called ''gutta-balatá''.
Flotsam
Blocks of flotsam
In maritime law, flotsam'','' jetsam'','' lagan'','' and derelict are specific kinds of shipwreck. The words have specific nautical meanings, with legal consequences in the law of admiralty and marine salvage. A shipwreck is defined as the rema ...
, about the size of a chopping board, bearing the name "Tjipetir" (a plantation in the Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...
, now Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
, operating in the late 19th and early 20th centuries), were washed up on the beaches of northern Europe for some time through 2013 and 2014. They are believed to be blocks of gutta-percha from the Japanese liner ''Miyazaki Maru was an 8,520-ton Japanese ocean liner built in 1909 by Kawasaki Dockyard Co., Ltd. in Kobe. While steaming from Yokohama, Japan, to London during World War I, she was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of the Isles of Scilly on 31 May 191 ...
'', which was sunk west of the Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of the ...
in 1917.
See also
*Natural rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
*''Gutta-percha Boy
Gutta-percha Boy (russian: Гуттаперчевый мальчик, Guttaperchevyy malchik) is a 1957 Soviet drama film adaptation of the novel by Russian writer Dmitry Grigorovich.
Plot
The film is set in the end of the 19th century.
Pet ...
'', a 1957 Soviet drama film
References
External links
Germplasm Resources Information Network: ''Palaquium''
The Gutta Percha Company on the History of the Atlantic Cable site
*
{{authority control
Dentistry
Palaquium
Rubber
Endodontics