The combination of properties leads to many applications such as coatings for food, cosmetics, automobile and furniture polish, molds for semiconductor devices, and dental floss. If what is known is the substance or where it came from, the combination of properties may not lead to a multitude of applications, including use in food, cosmetics, automobile and furniture wax, molds for semiconductor devices, we use products containing carnauba wax every day.Ĭarnauba wax is one of these extremely useful natural chemical and renewable resources that has no synthetic equivalent.Ĭarnauba wax has a very high melting point of 82-86☌ (180-187☏).Ĭarnauba wax is harder than concrete and almost insoluble in water and ethanol.Ĭarnauba wax is non-toxic and hypoallergenic.Ĭarnauba wax can be polished to a high gloss.

The wax consists primarily of esters of long-chain alcohols and acids.Ĭarnauba wax has a melting point of about 85° C (185° F).Īlthough Carnauba wax has been replaced in many applications by cheaper synthetics, it is still used as a polish for candies and medicinal pills, as a thickener for solvents and oils, and even as a hardener for printing inks.Ĭarnauba wax has a very high melting point of 82-86 ☌ (180-187 ☏).Ĭoncrete is harder and nearly insoluble in water and ethanol. The final product is yellow or brownish green, depending on the age of the leaves and the quality of processing. The powdery wax is removed (by beating the shriveled leaves), then melted, strained, and cooled. The leaves are cut from September to March and left in the sun to dry. The carnauba tree is a fan palm of the northeastern Brazilian savannas, where it is called the “tree of life” for its many useful products.Īfter 50 years, the tree can attain a height of over 14 metres (45 feet).Ĭarnauba wax has a dense, large crown of round, light green leaves.Īlthough Carnauba wax has been planted in Sri Lanka and Africa, as well as other parts of South America, only in northern Brazil does the tree produce wax.ĭuring the regular dry seasons in Brazil, the carnauba palm protects its metre-long (three-foot) fronds from loss of moisture by secreting a coat of carnauba wax on the upper and lower leaf surfaces.

Valued among the natural waxes for its hardness and high melting temperature, carnauba wax is employed as a food-grade polish and as a hardening or gelling agent in a number of products.

Carnauba wax, also called Brazil wax and palm wax, is a wax of the leaves of the carnauba palm Copernicia prunifera, a plant native to and grown only in the northeastern Brazilian states of Pernambuco, Piauí, Ceará, Maranhão, Bahia, and Rio Grande do Norte.Ĭarnauba wax is known as 'queen of waxes' and in its pure state, usually comes in the form of hard yellow-brown flakes.Ĭarnauba wax is obtained from the leaves of the carnauba palm by collecting and drying them, beating them to loosen the wax, and then refining and bleaching the wax.Īs a food additive, its E number is E903.Ĭarnauba wax, also called Brazil wax or ceara wax, a vegetable wax obtained from the fronds of the carnauba tree (Copernicia cerifera) of Brazil.

Carnauba wax edible