Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1916 — Fine Resin From Desert Cactus. [ARTICLE]

Fine Resin From Desert Cactus.

A high-grade resin, golden yellow and firm, and in solubility resembling Dammar resin, has been extracted from samples of dried desert cactus sent to the University of Washington chemistry department from the Southwest. It was there that the discovery of how to extract resin from wood by using ammonia as a solvent was discovered. Ammonia, however, would npt dissolve the resin in cactus, so Prof. H. K. Benson started a search for another solvent and found that denatured alcohol was the best. The yield is about 20 per cent, and the cost will be less than that of extracting it from wood, as nearly all the alcohol can be recovered. TT ~~~