Gum Resin

Both rosin and turpentine are products of destructive distillation. They are not merely separated from pine tar, but are chemically changed by the process.

This sounds a bit like trying to re-constitute crude oil from refined products. Wouldn't it be simpler just to tap a pine tree?

How wrong can you get - gum rosin and turpentine come together from the sap of pine trees. Wood rosin is recovered from the stumps. In destructive distillation of pine wood the residual rosin would be decomposed as well as the cellulose and the result would be essentially methanol. Better to remove the rosin first.

Most commercial rosin these days comes as a by-product of the paper industry.

Answer to original question turpentine would distill off from rosin but for full recovery steam distillation would be required

Hello Pure and Simple,

I found these two sites which might be worth a look. It depends on whether you know where the rosin came from?

I searched under "how to reconstitute gum resin".

And found this site and many others.

I am thinking as I type, which does not always make for a very understandable letter but anyway.............

You are the expert so I give way to your knowledge here. But, just to say, if you could get hold of an amount of resin from the same plant species, you could split it in half and make your own gum by distillation at gradually higher temperatures. Measure assiduously the gases and other compounds you 'loose'. Until you have what to you appears to be the gum you originally mentioned.

This product will hopefully be from the same plant. A Gas Chromatograph of the resin before and after the GUM stage will likely point to confirm any measurable substances including gases etc which were driven off. And or, it may be able to tell you what the difference between the two (resin and gum).

Wholesale Amber Essence, Wholesale Amber Resin, Premium Dark Amber ...

We have also come across several references to storax gum sometimes called sweetgum, or Levant styrax being used in amber resin. It is a resin obtained from ...
www.edenbotanicals.com/about_amber.html - 16k - Cached - Similar pages

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I suggest you click on similar pages if you find a site which almost but not quite has the recipe and method you need. Good luck and please keep in contact and let us know how you do. You will find this site interesting as the person asks the question almost the same as you have. She has rosin, or resin and it dried solid and she/he wants to try and make it soluble and so make a usable rosin again. This site also gives good advice on safety precautions you should think about. Rosin can spontaneously com-bust apparently. This first page in very interesting indeed.

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/18301.html

Try this for the search which direct relates to your question:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGLJ_enGB294GB294&q=how+to+reconstitute+gum+resin+

Take care and keep in touch.............

i would suggest in putting a piece of the rosin in a small jar of turpentine..Caqpping the jar..Shaking it occassionaly and watch the rosin dissolve over time..If you are in a hurry chip the rosin up as best as you can and again place in jar repeating initial suggestion..You didn't say if this was commercial quantities or personal quantities..For commercial/in a hurry type production i'd probably do the same but factor in some lead time prior to beginning the process and use vats or drums perhaps that are ammenable to lightening mixers to speed up the dissolution proceess..The rosin wasn't formed instantly in the trees so relax and factor in a bit of time for it to solvate back to something closer to its starting point...which would have included some water....An armchair observer who just woke up...Regards..MW