Beeswax (redirected from beeswaxes)

beeswax: see wax.

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beeswax

Commercially useful wax secreted by worker honeybees to make the cell walls of the honeycomb. A bee consumes an estimated 6–10 lbs (3–4.5 kg) of honey for each pound of the wax it secretes in small flakes from glands on the underside of its abdomen. After honey removal, the comb is melted to produce the beeswax, which ranges from yellow to almost black. It is used for candles (often for churches), artificial fruit and flowers, modeling wax, and as an ingredient of furniture and floor waxes, leather dressings, waxed paper, lithographic inks, cosmetics, and ointments.

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beeswax

a. a yellowish or dark brown wax secreted by honeybees for constructing honeycombs

b. this wax after refining, purifying, etc., used in polishes, ointments, and for modelling

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beeswax [′bēz‚waks]

(materials)

Yellow to grayish-brown solid wax obtained from bee honeycombs by boiling and straining; used in floor waxes, waxed paper, and textile finishes and in pharmacy. Also known as yellow wax.

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Beeswax 

a lipoid granular substance secreted by special glands on honeybees and several other insects. It consists of a mixture of esters (up to 75 percent), free fatty acids, and saturated hydrocarbons. It is rich in vitamin A (100 g of honeycomb beeswax contains 4,096 international units of vitamin A). The density is 0.956-0.969. Beeswax melts at a temperature of 62°-72°C. It is insoluble in water. It dissolves easily in ether, chloroform, benzene, gasoline, and turpentine oil.

Bees build honeycombs out of beeswax. Pure beeswax is used in the manufacture of artificial honeycomb; the less pure wax is used in technology. Beeswax is an ingredient of many medicinal ointments, plasters, and cosmetic creams.