Dammar gum, or
damar gum, is obtained from the
Dipterocarpaceae family of trees in
India and
East Asia, principally those of the
genera Shorea,
Balanocarpus or
Hopea. Most is produced by tapping trees; however, some is collected in
fossilised form from the ground. The
gum varies in colour from clear to pale yellow, while the fossilised form is grey-brown. Dammar gum is a
triterpenoid resin, containing a large number of
triterpenes and their oxidation products. Many of them are low molecular weight compounds (
dammarane, dammarenolic acid,
oleanane, oleanonic acid, etc.), but dammar also contains a polymeric fraction, composed of polycadinene.