Welcome to You Ask Andy

Chris Lofgren, age 12, of Peoria, Illinois, for his question:

Where does carnauba wax come from?

The story of carnauba is a story of hardship, endurance and final success. It begins in the cruel climate of northern Brazil. There the fierce winds blow hot and dry. The hero of the story is a proud palm tree called Copernicia Cerifera. Early naturalists called this tree that could grow in an impossible climate the Tree of Life. The Brazilians call it the carnauba ‑ or the wax palm.

No one would dispute the sturdy palms claim to the title King of the Wax Trees. Most plants produce a certain amount of wax to shield their leaves from the drying air. Some produce enough to make it worth our while to take this plant wax. But no plant s wax can compare with the wax of the carnauba, either in quanity or in quality.

Waxes play a big part in modern living. Count the number of waxed surfaces around your home. Waxes also have jobs to do in manufacturing films, coatings and insulating materials. There is wax in phonograph records, carbon paper, blackboard chalk and matches. Some of these waxes are still made by natures own secret recipes. And the best of  them all is carnauba wax.

Brazilians are trying to cultivate the sturdy earnauba in plantations. But most of the precious wax is still taken from the wild palm. These trees like to grow in the lowlands where their roots can dip into ground water near the surface of the rugged earth. The trees are tall and stately. Like real kings they wear crowns ‑ crowns of huge, fan‑shaped leaves.

These great leaves are protected with heavy coats of hard wax, The hotter the season and the fiercer the lashing wind, the thicker the coating of glossy wax. The proud palms are slow‑growing. Cutting their leaves is limited by law. Only two cuttings of ten to twenty leaves from a tree can be made in each dry season. The big, glossy leavers are then shredded and dries for a few days in the hot sun. As the leaf fibre dies, the wax falls off as a whitishpowder. This is purified and molded into chunks of precious carnauba wax.

Most of this wax is taken to America. Some of it is made into time‑saving, self‑polishing floor wax. For, As it dries carnauba wax hardens, with a glassy lustre of its own. Some of it is mixed with lass perfect waxen to improve them, It hardens them and makes them less likely to malt.

Pure carnauba wax refuses to melt or become tacky below 80 to 86 degrees Centigrade. So that tough, shiny gloss on your hardwood floor will never melt or become sticky on the hottest day. Not if it is made from the wax of the earnauba palm.

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