CHITOWAX 

A natural Wax Emulsion with Chitosan  

A pure natural product for the care of all interior wood surfaces which have been well sanded and pre-treated with Linseed/Woodoil Interior Glaze or with Sehestedt's Natural Hard Resin Oil. Particularly suitable for wood, stone, cork, linoleum as well as synthetic floors and furniture surfaces, wall and ceiling paneling, handrails, children's toys. It is antistatic, even on a synthetic surface and therefore particularly suitable for persons suffering from a dust allergy as it does not contain any solvents.  

Natural ingredients:  
Water, beeswax, carnauba wax, shellac wax, linseed oil and woodoil-standoil and chitosan from the exoskeletons of shellfish like shrimps or crabs.  

Application: apply a thin coat of Chitowax with machine or rag. Polish 10 minutes later with wax brush or cotton rag. A second coat may follow immediately.  

Coverage: approx. 1.0 l / m²  

Waxes like beeswax carnaubawax and shellac wax normally must be dissolved and thinned or else heated before application on wood, cotto or cork tiles, linoleum or old synthetic floors. Heating is quite laborious and so far thinning has only been possible with turpentine ( if saponifying is to be avoided ). Solvents, even citrus turpentine and isoaliphate free from aromatic hydrocarbon pollute the environment and become ever more problematic for persons suffering from allergies.  

Considering and examining water as solvent we came across chitin or chitosan and in fact managed to emulsify wax into water and so produce a wax/water emulsion which can be thinned down with more water. Beyond that chitin produces a horn-like surface without reducing the breathability of the wood. Due to the high water binding quality of chitosan the wax care coat may be polished alter a few minutes. The first Chitowax coat should be done with a machine and may be polished after 10 minutes. Chitowax can also be applied on the raw finely sanded wood or cotto tile without oil pre-treatment always doing a test coat first.  

 

Beeswax, one of the most significant raw materials of Sehestedt's Natural Colors, is a metabolic final product of the honey-bee. The worker bee's wax glands secrete wax for use as building material for brood and honeycomb After taking out the honey the honeycombs are melted and the worst deposits seperated mechanically. The wax will still be slightly dirty when it is processed. We deliberately dispense with complete industrial cleaning ( bleaching and contact filtration ) for the wax to keep its characteristical honey smell and its function as an outstanding surface coating material..  

Chitosan, the new ecological raw material of  
Sehestedt's Natural Colors  

Chitin is a natural amino polysaccharide found in many organisms but particularly in insects, shrimps, crabs and mushrooms and is similar to cellulose. The yearly resources of this raw material that `regrows' amount to approximately 10 -10 tons universally. Chitin is processed above all in Japan and USA from the waste resulting from shrimp fishing. Northern Germany is planning, too, to utilize the shrimpshells instead of disposing of them as animal fodder or waste.  

The highly cationically charged polysaccharide chitosan is obtained from chitin by means of hydrolysis of the acetylene groups. Chitin is non toxic whereas the acute toxicity of chitosan is estimated as very low. It has an antibacterial and anticandida effect. This is why Sehestedt's Chitooil has no synthetic preservatives.Both polymeres are biocompatible and biodegradable by natural enzymes.  

Research in connection with chitin / chitosan has been strongly intensified all over the world. Its application range is cosmetics, food industry ( precipitation of protein and cheese whey treatment ) and agriculture ( coating of seeds and fruit ) , medicine (the basic chemical structure being similar to that of skin, hair and cellulose )and water treatment.  

Sehestedt's Natural Colors has discovered this highly interesting `regrowing' natural product for the production of its natural colors. As chitin is the second richest polymer in nature after cellulose its application in exchange for cellulose for the production of natural colors is obvious all the more as the production of cellulose is ecologically 

Sehestedt´s CHITO-WAX is being shown at the German pavillion in  the EXPO´98 in Lissabon!

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