gutta-percha

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Guttapercha-boom TMnr 60016733.jpg

Palaquium gutta trees are {{convert|5|–|30|m|-1}} tall and up to {{convert|1|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} in trunk diameter. The leaves are evergreen, alternate or spirally arranged, simple, entire, {{convert|8|–|25|cm|in|0|abbr=on}} long, glossy green above, and often yellow or glaucous 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 {{convert|3|–|7|cm|in|0|abbr=on}} 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 parvifolia, which yields an aromatic, heavy, dark-brown timber.

File:Gutta-percha.svg

Chemically, gutta-percha is a polyterpene, a polymer of isoprene, or polyisoprene, specifically (trans-1,4-polyisoprene).{{cite book |last1=Alamgir |first1=A. N. M. |title=Therapeutic Use of Medicinal Plants and their Extracts: Volume 2: Phytochemistry and Bioactive Compounds |date=23 June 2018 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-92387-1 |page=183 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2LZhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA183 |language=en}} The cis structure of polyisoprene is the common latex elastomer. While latex rubbers are amorphous in molecular structure, gutta-percha (the trans structure) crystallizes, leading to a more rigid material. It exists in alpha and beta forms, with the alpha form being brittle at room temperature.{{cite book |title=Text Book of Endodontics |date=2009 |publisher=Elsevier India |isbn=978-81-312-2181-5 |page=186 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zwdyRs9HYpgC&pg=PA186 |language=en}}

==Uses==

===Historic===

File:The Reels of Gutta-percha Covered Conducting Wire Conveyed into Tanks at the Works of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, at Greenwich MET DP801249.jpg in Greenwich, London, circa 1865]]

File:The pagan tribes of Borneo; a description of their physical, moral and intellectual condition, with some discussion of their ethnic relations (1912) (14598075089).jpg tribe in Borneo harvesting the sap of a gutta-percha tree {{circa}} 1910]]

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 study this material was John Tradescant, who collected it in the far east in 1656. He named this material "Mazer wood". William Montgomerie, 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. [https://web.archive.org/web/20200511081759/http://medind.nic.in/eaa/t05/i2/eaat05i2p32.pdf "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. In 1851, {{convert|30000|long cwt|t|abbr=on|lk=in}} 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,{{cite book |title=The Devil's Milk |last=Tully |first=John |date=2011 |publisher=NYU Press}} and it became a household word. Gutta-percha was particularly important for the manufacture of underwater telegraph cables.Bill Burns, [http://atlantic-cable.com/Article/GuttaPercha/ The Gutta Percha Company], atlantic-cable.com, accessed 6 October 2010. Compared to rubber, it does not degrade in seawater, is not damaged by marine life, and maintains good electrical insulation. These properties, along with its mouldability and flexibility made it ideal for the purpose, with no other material to match it in the 19th century.{{cite book |last1=Aitken |first1=Frédéric |last2=Foulc |first2=Jean-Numa |title=From deep sea to laboratory. 1 : the first explorations of the deep sea by H.M.S. Challenger (1872-1876) |date=2019 |publisher=ISTE-WILEY |location=London, UK |isbn=9781786303745 |pages=16–38 |url=http://www.iste.co.uk/book.php?id=1474 |chapter=1}} The use in electrical cables generated a huge demand which led to unsustainable harvesting and collapse of supply.{{cite journal |last1=Tully |first1=John |title=A Victorian Ecological Disaster: Imperialism, the Telegraph, and Gutta-Percha |journal=Journal of World History |date=2009 |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=559–579 |id={{Project MUSE|367792}} |doi=10.1353/jwh.0.0088 |s2cid=144216751 }}

Gutta-percha latex is biologically inert, resilient, and is a good electrical insulator with a high dielectric strength.{{cite book |last1=Manappallil |first1=John J. |title=Basic Dental Materials |date=30 November 2015 |publisher=JP Medical Ltd |isbn=978-93-5250-048-2 |page=219 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7cAqCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA219 |language=en}}

Michael Faraday discovered its value as an insulator soon after the introduction of the material to Britain in 1843.{{cite book|title=The Atlantic Telegraph: Its History, from the Commencement of the Undertaking in 1854, to the Sailing of the "Great Eastern" in 1866.| publisher=Bacon and Company | year=1866| page=108|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CwszAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA108}} 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 prior to the discovery of vulcanization.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}

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.{{cite book |last1=Schlesinger |first1=Henry |title=The battery how portable power sparked a technological revolution |date=2010 |publisher=HarperCollins e-books |location=New York |isbn=9780061985294}} The material was a major constituent of Chatterton's compound{{cite book |last1=Prescott |first1=George Bartlett |title=Electricity and the Electric Telegraph |date=1881 |publisher=D. Appleton |page=956 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YbhLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA956 |language=en}} used as an insulating sealant for telegraph and other electrical cables.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}

The dielectric constant of dried gutta-percha ranges from 2.56 to 3.01. Resistivity of dried gutta-percha ranges from {{val|25e14}} to {{val|370e14|u=Ω⋅cm}}. {{cite report |author=Curtis, H.L. |title=Dielectric Constant, Power Factor and Resistivity of Rubber and Gutta_Percha |url=https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/nbstechnologic/nbstechnologicpaperT299.pdf |publisher=United States N.I.S.T. }}

Since about 1940, polyethylene has supplanted gutta-percha as an electrical insulator.{{cite book |last1=Aitken |first1=Frederic |last2=Foulc |first2=Jean-Numa |title=From Deep Sea to Laboratory 1: The First Explorations of the Deep Sea by H.M.S. Challenger (1872-1876) |date=30 April 2019 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-78630-374-5 |page=20 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5WWRDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA20 |language=en}}

File:Southern Chivalry.jpg with a cane made of gutta-percha]]

File:Walking cane used to assault Senator Charles Sumner, May 1856 - Old State House Museum, Boston, MA - IMG 6685.jpg to attack Charles Sumner on the floor of the United States Senate in 1856 (in the collection of the Old State House museum, Boston, Massachusetts)]]

In the mid-19th century, gutta-percha was used to make furniture, notably by the Gutta Percha Company, established in 1847. Several of these ornate, revival-style pieces were shown at the 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London. The company also made a range of utensils.{{cite book |location=London) |first1= |title=Great Exhibition (1851) Reports by the Juries on the Subjects in the Thirty Classes Into which the Exhibition was Divided: Reports, classes XXIX, XXX |date=1852 |publisher=Spicer Brothers |page=1740 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bZdDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA1740 |language=en|volume=4}}

The "guttie" golf ball (which had a solid gutta-percha core) revolutionized the game.{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=James |title=Circles: Fifty Round Trips Through History Technology Science Culture |date=8 September 2003 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-7432-4976-8 |page=86 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oz-0bacLB60C&pg=PA86 |language=en}} Gutta-percha was used to make "mourning" jewelry, because it was dark in color and could be easily molded into beads or other shapes.{{cite book |last1=Loeffel-Atkins |first1=Bernadette |title=Widow's Weeds and Weeping Veils: Mourning Rituals in 19th Century America |date=1 April 2012 |publisher=Gettysburg Publishing |isbn=978-1-7346276-1-9 |page=19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vxnhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA19 |language=en}} Pistol hand grips{{cite web | url=https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/gutta-percha/ | title=Gutta Percha | accessdate=10 January 2025 | author=Clapp, Wiley}} and rifle shoulder pads were also made from gutta-percha, since it was hard and durable, though it fell into disuse when synthetic plastics such as Bakelite became available.

Gutta-percha was used in canes and walking sticks. In 1856, United States Representative Preston Brooks used a cane made of gutta-percha as a weapon in his attack on Senator Charles Sumner.{{cite book |last= Green |first=Michael S. |date=2010 |title=Politics and America in Crisis: The Coming of the Civil War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x80_kiWmx58C&pg=PA94 |location=Santa Barbara, CA |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=94 |isbn=978-0-313-08174-3 |via= Google Books}}

In the 1860s, gutta-percha was used to reinforce the soles of football players' boots before it was banned by The Football Association in the first codified set of rules in 1863.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jun/16/football-proposed-new-law-trials-good-idea-kick-ins-flying-substitutions-dribbling-free-kicks-30-minute-halves |title='Faster, sportier, fairer': are football's proposed new law trials a good idea? |work=The Guardian |first=Paul |last=McInnes |date=16 June 2022 |access-date=1 October 2023}}

Gutta-percha was briefly used in bookbinding until the advent of vulcanization.{{cite book|last=Bythell|first=Shaun|title=Confessions of a Bookseller|place=Boston|publisher=Godine|date=2022|page=51|isbn=978-1-56792-722-1}}

The wood of many species is also valuable.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}

Gutta-percha is used as a resist in silk painting,{{citation |last=Moyer |first=Susan Louise |title = Silk Painting: The Artist's Guide to Gutta and Wax Resist Techniques |publisher=Watson-Guptill Publications |year=1991 | isbn = 0823048284 }}{{citation |last1=Ball |first1=Kazz |last2=Janitch |first2=Valerie |title=Hand Painted Textiles for the Home |publisher=David & Charles Publishers |year=1993 |isbn=0715301578 |page=94}} including some newer forms of batik.

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 therapy. It is the predominant material used to obturate, or fill, the empty space inside the root of a tooth after it has undergone endodontic therapy. Its physical and chemical properties, including its inertness and biocompatibility, melting point,{{cite journal|last1=Yee|first1=Fulton S.|last2=Marlin|first2=Jay|last3=Krakow|first3=Alvin Arlen|last4=Gron|first4=Poul|title=Three-dimensional obturation of the root canal using injection-molded, thermoplasticized dental gutta-percha|journal=Journal of Endodontics|volume=3|issue=5|pages=168–174|doi=10.1016/s0099-2399(77)80091-5|year=1977|pmid=266025}} ductility, and malleability, make it important in endodontics, e.g., as gutta-percha points. Zinc oxide is added to reduce brittleness and improve plasticity. Barium sulfate is added to provide radiopacity so that its presence and location can be verified in dental X-ray images.

Gutta-percha remained an industrial staple well into the 20th century, when it was gradually replaced with superior synthetic materials, such as Bakelite.

A similar and cheaper natural material called balatá was often used in gutta-percha's place. The two materials are almost identical, and balatá is often called gutta-balatá.{{citation needed|date=November 2016}}

• Natural rubber
• Gutta-percha Boy, a 1957 Soviet drama film

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110605043649/http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?8765 Germplasm Resources Information Network: Palaquium]
• [http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/ic/cdc/cable/gutta.htm Gutta-percha on the Transatlantic cable site]
• [http://atlantic-cable.com//Article/GuttaPercha/ The Gutta Percha Company on the History of the Atlantic Cable site]
• {{cite book |chapter=The New Philippine Currency |title=Annual Reports of the War Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1903 - Report of the Philippine Commission |year=1904 |volume=VI |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |pages=388–411 |oclc=220674586 |chapter-url={{google books|3eVFAQAAMAAJ|plainurl=y}}}}

{{Endodontology}}

{{Non-timber forest products}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Palaquium

Category:Rubber

Category:Endodontics