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Tung Oil

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tung oil

[′təŋ ‚ȯil]
(materials)
A yellow, combustible drying oil extracted from the seed of the tung tree; soluble in ether, chloroform, carbon disulfide, and oils; used in formulations for paints, varnishes, varnish driers, paper waterproofing, and linoleum. Also known as China wood oil.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

tung oil

A drying oil which oxidizes very rapidly, at almost twice the rate of linseed oil; forms a hard dry film when used in paints and varnishes; although “China wood oil” and “wood oil” sometimes are used as synonyms, tung oil never is extracted from wood.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Tung Oil

 

(also wood oil or China wood oil), a fatty vegetable oil obtained from the seeds of the tung tree (Aleurites cordata). Tung oil constitutes as much as 70 percent of the weight of the seeds. A viscous and pungent yellowish fluid, tung oil dries rapidly in air and is soluble in most organic solvents. It has a density of 0.933–0.945 g/cu cm and a refractive index of 1.51–1.52. The saponification number is 188–197, and the iodine number is 154–176. Tung oil is composed of unsaturated acids (66–82 percent eleostearic acid, 4–13 percent oleic acid, and 9–11 percent linolenic acid), saturated acids (about 2.5 percent stearic acid and 3.7 percent palmitic acid), and unsaponifiable substances (0.4–1 percent). Such large quantities of eleostearic acid are found only in tung oil. The principal use of the oil is in the manufacture of paints and varnishes. Tung oil is mildly toxic.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive
(2017) observed an increase of n-3 fatty acids and a decrease of n-6 fatty acids in fish submitted to tung oil (CLnA) diet after 30 days of treatment.
In order to understand the causes of different fatty acid compositions of Jatropha oil and Tung oil at gene level, and improving their fuel characteristics, we used transcriptome sequencing strategy in seeds of Jatropha and Vernicia.
This work successfully demonstrated that soybean oil can be used to achieve the necessary coating performance, instead of using the more expensive and scarcely available tung oil. Soybeans are the one of the most planted field crop in the United States.
Indeed, the Poplarville laboratory had originally been known as the "USDA Tung Oil Research Station"--a reflection of its commitment to providing commercial tung tree growers in Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, and other Gulf Coast states with new varieties that offered high yield, frost tolerance, and other desirable traits.
Don't confuse TOO percent Tung oil with the Tung oil finishes widely available at home centers and hardware stores.
For manufacturers of vehicles and varnishes, there are a number of key raw materials that are critical to production, such as rosin and Chinese tung oil. However, prices for these ingredients are rising, if they are available at all.
Once a year tung oil is massaged into the wood with lamb's wool."
These included margarine; butter; vegetable oil; jojoba, oiticica, tung oil and myrica wax; as well as various essential oils.
Tung oil (TO), also called china wood oil, is obtained from the seeds or nuts of the tung tree (4).
Three chemical impregnation processes were studied: phenol-formaldehyde (PF), tung oil (TO), and acetylation with acetic anhydride (AA).
The last step is applying the final finish, consisting of three to seven coats of tung oil, hand rubbed on the wood.
The major constituent of tung oil is eleostearic acid, oleic acid, and linoleic acid.
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