Gutta-percha

Gutta-percha (Palaquium) is a genus of tropical trees native to southeast Asia and northern Australasia, from Taiwan south to Malaya and east to the Solomon Islands. It is also an inelastic natural latex produced from the sap of these trees, particularly from the species Palaquium gutta. Chemically, gutta-percha is a polyterpene, a polymer of isoprene (trans-1,4-polyisoprene).

The word 'gutta-percha' comes from 'Getah Percha' in Malay, which translates as Percha Rubber. Percha is the name of the tree itself.

The trees are 5–30 metres tall and up to 1 metre in trunk diameter. The leaves are evergreen, alternate or spirally arranged, simple, entire, 8–25 cm long, and glossy green above, often yellow or glaucous below. The flowers are produced in small clusters along the stems, each flower with a white corolla with 4–7 (mostly 6) acute lobes. The fruit is an ovoid 3–7 cm berry, containing 1–4 seeds; in many species the fruit is edible.

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Uses

The latex is bioinert, resilient, and is a good electrical insulator due to a high dielectric strength. The wood of many species is also valuable.

Western inventors discovered the properties of gutta-percha latex in 1842, although the local population in its Malayan habitat had used it for a variety of applications for centuries. Allowing this fluid to evaporate and coagulate in the sun produced a latex which could be made flexible again with hot water, but which did not become brittle, unlike unvulcanized rubber already in use.

By 1845, telegraph wires insulated with gutta-percha were being manufactured in England. Gutta-percha served as the insulating material for some of the earliest undersea telegraph cables, including the first transatlantic telegraph cable. Gutta-percha was particularly suitable for this purpose, as it was not attacked by marine plants or animals, a problem which had disabled previous undersea cables.

In the mid-nineteenth century, gutta-percha was also used to make furniture, notably by the Gutta-Percha Company (established in 1847). Several of these highly ornate, revival-style pieces were shown at the 1851 Great Exhibition. Molded furniture forms, emulating carved wood, were attacked by proponents of the design reform movement who advocated truth to materials.

The material was quickly adopted for numerous other applications. The "guttie" golf ball (which had a solid gutta-percha core) revolutionized the game. Gutta-percha remained an industrial staple well into the 20th century, when it was gradually replaced with superior (generally synthetic) materials, though a similar and cheaper natural material called balatá is often used in gutta-percha's place. The two materials are almost identical, and balatá is often called gutta-balatá.

The same bio-inertness property that made it suitable for marine cables also means it does not readily react within the human body, and consequently it is used for a variety of surgical devices and for dental applications including padding inside fillings or inside the root-canal during root canal therapy.

Use in dentistry

Gutta percha is the predominant material used to obturate, or fill the empty space of, a tooth after it has undergone endodontic therapy. Its physical and chemical properties, including but not limited to its inertness and biocompatibility, melting point, ductility and malleability afford it an important role in the field of endodontics for a long time to come.

Trivia

• Congressman Preston Brooks' cane that he used to beat Senator Charles Sumner on the floor of the United States Senate was made out of Gutta-percha wood.
• Gutta-percha was featured in the pilot movie Cocoon for the long-running television series Hawaii Five-O. The criminal Wo Fat used it to seal the eyes, nose and ears of his victims.
• In the movie Gorky Park, a forensic dentist identifies a murder victim as an American because he had a root canal filled with gutta percha, which was not used in Europe for that purpose.
• Up until the 1950s, Gutta-percha was applied to ropes used in British executions in order to avoid a metal component catching and marking the skin. It was later replaced with Vulcanised Rubber due to Gutta-percha's tendency to splinter when cold.

References and external links

• Germplasm Resources Information Network: Palaquium
• Gutta-percha on the Transatlantic cable site
• The Gutta Percha Company on the History of the Atlantic Cable site