| Lac (shellac) is a highly versatile agro-product whose commercial potential is woefully under-exploited. It is a substance not produced in many countries, but thanks to its diversified industrial applications, its demand is widespread. |
| With decades of research effort, India has acquired the potential of being the world leader in the production and export of lac and lac-based value-added products. Unfortunately, at present, much of this potential is going wasted because of limited production and the lack of promotional bid to develop and exploit the domestic and export markets. |
| Lac is essentially the non-toxic secretion of an insect (Kerria lacca or lac insect). It lives on a variety of trees and bushes, sucking their sap and secreting a protective covering. It also produces wax and dye. |
| The host trees and shrubs, readily available in India, include kusum, palas, ber and a few others. The hardened encrustation is scrapped from the tree twigs and marketed as sticklac. On being crushed and washed, it becomes seedlac. This semi-processed stuff is further processed to produce sheets of shellac and dewaxed and decolourised shellac for various end uses. |
| Being tasteless and odourless, lac has found numerous and highly diverse industrial uses. It can be used in the food industry for coating of fruits, chocolates, lozenges and the like; in the leather industry as a coating and top-dressing material; in the electric industry as an insulator; in the cosmetic industry as an additive to eye shadows, lipsticks, nail polish, mascara and alta; in the varnish and printing ink industry as a colouring and polishing agent; in the adhesive industry as a sealing wax and adhesive; in the pharmaceutical industry for coating tablets; and in the jewellery sector for making lac-based ornaments. |
| Lac dye, which is natural and non-chemical, has been used for centuries for dyeing silk, wool and other animal fibres and lac wax has been used in floor polishes, shoe polish and making crayons for writing on glass. Recently, a breakthrough has also been achieved in using it as a natural dye for cotton textiles. Its use as a safe and natural colouring agent in processed foodstuff like sauces, ketchup and sausages has been catching up of late even in countries like Japan, opening up new export avenues. |
| Indeed, Indian lac has been in great demand in Europe since the late 19th century as a cheap and natural dyeing agent but this export market dried up after the emergence of synthetic dyes which turned out to be even cheaper. But even today, over 85 per cent of the country's lac production is exported because the domestic market is underdeveloped. |
| With some promotional effort, the export of lac and lac-based products can be raised substantially because there is not much competition, barring from Thailand. China has only recently begun exporting lac and that too largely to Japan, which is a rapidly growing market for this natural resin. |
| Fortunately, thanks to the new technology developed by the Ranchi-based Indian Lac Research Institute (ILRI), the domestic lac output can be doubled from the present meagre level of 16,000 to 20,000 tonnes a year. |
| Such a move will open up huge new avenues of employment, especially for the tribals in economically under-developed states like Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. There is also scope for boosting lac output in states like West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat where the host trees are available and can even be grown for this purpose. |
| Indeed, India enjoys an edge over other countries in this field, thanks largely to the research and development work done by the ILRI in its over-75 years of existence. In the process, it has developed efficient technologies for raising host plants for lac insects, production and processing of lac and discovering new commercial and industrial uses for this natural product. It is also conducting training courses for passing on these technologies to farmers, largely tribal women, and lac-based commercial ventures. |
| Of late, it has begun offering consultancy to the industry in preparing and implementing lac-based commercial projects. |
| Among the significant initiatives of this institute in this field are the bid to revive the market for lac dye, taking advantage of the growing consciousness among consumers about natural, non-chemical and non-toxic colouring agents. The ILRI technology enables extraction of lac dye from the effluents of the lac-processing industries that are otherwise allowed to go waste. |
| The water-soluble lac dye (which is essentially naturally-produced laccaic acid) is recovered from the water used for washing sticklac during its processing. Since this acid constitutes about 1per cent of the sticklac, about 200 tonnes of lac dye can potentially be manufactured from the country's total lac production of 20,000 tonnes. |
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