Anaril Ayurvedics Laccifer Lacca

Anaril Ayurvedics Laccifer Lacca

What is Laccifer Lacca used for?

 Botanical Name: Laccifer Lacca
English/Common Name: Shellac or Lac
Ayurvedic Name: Lakh (Laksha)
Family: Lacciferidae

Lac is scale insects (Laccifer Lacca) which live on trees called lac host trees. To produce just 1 kilogram of lac resin around 300,000 insects lose their tiny lives. A scale insect is a common name for any of about 2000 insect species found all over the world that attaches themselves in great numbers to plants and trees. Scale insects range from almost microscopic size to more than 2.5 cm. They can be very destructive to trees - stunting or killing twigs and branches by draining the sap.

Benefits of Laccifer Lacca ?       

• .       Tonic for liver Stomach and Intestine.
  
• .       Hemostasis
• ·         Resolvent of obstructions, jaundice, dropsy, kidney
  
• ·         Reduces fat the Adipose persons.
  

When to Use Laccifer Lacca ?

It is used for reducing weight.

It reduces heart rate.

It is used for strengthening the bones.

It is used to cure pain in bones.

In case of the vomiting of blood, finely powdered Shell lac mixed with honey is given.

In dentistry, it is used to make dentures and other dental products.

It is used for coating the medicines.

How it obtains?

India and Thailand are the main areas in the world where lac is cultivated. Over 90% of Indian lac comes from the States of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Orissa. Lac insects thrive on certain trees and the principal lac host trees in India are Palas, Kusum and Ber. India exports different grades of handmade and machine made shellac as well as a limited quantity of refuse lac, namely kiri, molamma, etc.

Lac production was introduced from India to Thailand where the rain-tree is the principal lac host. Thailand exports sticklac and seedlac.
Methods of Production

After the trees have been infected with broodlac, the so-called crop requires little or no attention until harvest. When cultivated it is scraped off of the twigs. Freshly scraped shellac contains a lot of moisture and is usually left to dry before being sold. This is sold by the cultivators in small quantities in village markets to manufacturers or their agents. The quality and value of sticklac depends very much upon a variety of factors such as the host tree, the climate, whether the crop is harvested before or after the emergence of the larvae and methods of drying and storage. In India the yield of sticklac averages three-quarters the weight of broodlac used.

The lac scraped from the branches is known as crude lac or sticklac. Crude lac or stick-lac, consists of the resin, the encrusted insects, lac dye, and twigs. This is crushed, washed, dried to form Seedlac. Seedlac is then converted into Shellac by hand or machine.

Manufacturing Process

The sticklac is crushed and sieved to remove sand and dust. It is then washed to break open the encrusted insect bodies, to wash out the lac dye and twigs. Decaying bug bodies turn the water a deep red. The remaining resin is dried, winnowed (fanned and separated) and sieved to get the commercial variety of seedlac. The dusty lac eliminated by sieving is known as molamma lac or refuse lac. 

Traditionally seedlac is processed by hand. Seedlac is filled into a long narrow cloth bag, heated by a charcoal fire and forced out leaving impurities such as insect bodies or twigs inside the bag. The residue left inside the cloth bag is another variety of refuse lac known as Kirilac. The filtered mass is drawn into sheets appoximately 0.5cm thick and thinner by skilled workmen and made into different varieties that constitute commercial shellac e.g. Lemon I Shellac, Lemon II Shellac, Buttonlac and Standard I Shellac. Shellac varies in colour from yellow to deep orange. When bleached it is called white shellac.
Machine made Shellac is produced either by melting by steam heat and squeezing the soft molten lac through filter by means of hydraulic presses; or using solvents. Machines, rather than the traditional hand processing are being increasingly used by the lac Industry. 

The commonest and the most widely occurring species of lac insect in India is Laccifer lacca (Kerr) which produces the bulk of commercial lac. 
Lac is the resinous protective secretion of the tiny lac insect. The major constituent of sticklac is the resin (70-80%); other constituents present are: sugar, proteins, and soluble salts, coloring matter, wax, sand, woody matter, insect bodies and other extraneous matter; a volatile oil is present in traces. Lac resin is composed of mainly hydroxy fatty acids of C14- C18 carbon chains, such as aleuritic, butolic, C14- C16 mono- and di-hydroxy acids along with hydroxy terpenic acids having the rare cedrene skeleton as jalaric, laccijalaric, shellolic, and laksholic acids. 

Faqs:

Question - How long does it take to show results?

Improvements can be appreciated in about 10 days’ time.

Question – Is there any Side effects?

Breast feeding and pregnant women avoid  this..