Dammar gum

Dammar gum, or damar gum, is obtained from the Dipterocarpaceae family of trees in India and East Asia, principally those of the genera Shorea, Balanocarpus or Hopea. Most is produced by tapping trees; however, some is collected in fossilised form from the ground. The gum varies in colour from clear to pale yellow, while the fossilised form is grey-brown. Dammar gum is a triterpenoid resin, containing a large number of triterpenes and their oxidation products. Many of them are low molecular weight compounds (dammarane, dammarenolic acid, oleanane, oleanonic acid, etc.), but dammar also contains a polymeric fraction, composed of polycadinene.