lcome back to Birdbrained Science, a biweekly science column! This week, we’re going to continue the theme of me ruining everyday items for you by revealing there’s a mildly upsetting substance hidden within. We’re also going to be talking about things that are somewhat thematically appropriate, considering that this article is coming out on the heels of Halloween: candy corn and beetlejuice.
Candy corn is something of a divisive candy. People seem to either love it or hate it (I fall more into the former camp. I don’t care if it makes me want to vomit after too many. I’m still going to eat it). I’m going to add another potential point of contention into the argument: candy corn, along with lots of other candy and non-candy items, contains bug fluid, also known as “beetlejuice.”
In particular, I’m talking about confectioner’s glaze, which is made from shellac, aka purified bug fluid. What kind of fluid is it exactly, you may ask (especially if you read the last edition of this column)? Excellent question! I tried really hard to think of a good analog and could not. Humans simply don’t produce anything like it (well, to my knowledge, anyway). Shellac is a polymer that comes from refining resin lac. It’s secreted by lac insects (Kerria lacca, but you might see the older name Laccifer lacca too; taxonomical classifications are forever a work-in-progress). Lac comes from the Sanskrit word Laksha, which means “hundred thousand.” It’s a nod to how many insects are involved in producing lac — literally thousands are needed for one pound.
To fully understand where lac comes from, we need to cover the lac insect life cycle. Lac insects parasitize trees. During particular seasons, enormous swarms of mostly female lac insects will gather on trees. After gathering, lac insects will poke into the tree bark using a pointy proboscis and use that to start sucking sap from the tree, all while laying eggs. Lac insects will then convert the sap inside their bodies and secrete it. When the secretions come into contact with air, they turn into a hard, shell-like resin coating. The resin covers the swarm and serves to protect them and their eggs.
Naturally, we ruin that by taking these resin-coated branches (with the bugs still attached) scraping the resin off, decontaminating, filtering and just generally processing them for shellac. Lac is naturally a reddish color, and in this form can be used as a dye, but we can bleach it with hypochlorite to turn it clear. And then we put it on candy corn, Whoppers, jelly beans and other candies to help preserve them and make them shine. Yum.
Thanks to its complicated chemical structure (which, due to both its complexity and my hatred for chemistry, we are not going to get into), shellac has a number of properties that make it ideal for use as a food glaze. It generally doesn’t have a smell (aside from when it’s heated up) or taste. It’s partly hydrophobic, so it can be used to stop food products from drying out. It’s also non-toxic, so aside from the ick factor, you probably won’t experience any adverse effects from unknowingly consuming beetlejuice.
In addition, it’s not only used on candies. Shellac is also used to glaze pills and as nail and furniture polish. Shellac has also been used in hair spray and phonographs. It also promotes cell adhesion, which has promising implications for wound dressings and other medical uses. Furthermore, since it’s biodegradable, it is a very eco-friendly alternative for many synthetic polymers, which could have lots of applications in electronics. The beetlejuice is inescapable!
What did we learn today? I suppose the takeaway is to examine even everyday items with a critical eye; you never know what could be hiding! See you all in another two weeks!