Carnauba wax

Description

Carnauba wax is obtained from the leaves of a species of an American genus of palm designated as Copernica cerifera Martius, named in honor of Copernicus. The name carnauba is believed to be a corruption of the Tupy carnahyba, compounded from caraná, or carandá, meaning scaly, thick-skinned, or thick-barked, and yba, meaning tree or palm. C. cerifera grows in the dry desolate country in the region of Ceará, northeastern Brazil. It grows in lesser quantities in the south of Brazil and the Chaco country in northern Argentina and Paraguay. The wax-gathering industry is centered in Parahyba moving northward to Rio Grande do Norte, and Ceará, but also extends eastward to Piauhy (Piauí) and the state of Maranhao. The largest export center is Bahia on the Atlantic Seaboard. The first large shipments of the wax were made from Ceará in 1854. In Europe the wax has been an article of trade for more than a century. About two-thirds of the product now comes into the United States.

The carnauba is a straight-trunked palm of slow growth, attaining an average height of 25 to 35 feet, but seldom sore than 40 to 50 feet even after 50 years of growth. The bark is scaly, rough, and thick, and the leaves grow out from yard-long petioles in wide serried fan shapes. The tree reproduces prolifically. The ovaloid fruit resembles a hazelnut, and when ripe it falls to the ground, where dense clumps of shoots spring up, some of which survive to form saplings.