Excerpt:
The detection and determination of mineral waxes in beeswax has been a problem for many years (1). Analytical constants for ‘beeswax show considerable natural variation, so that although the presence of large amounts of non-reactive petroleum wax can easily be shown, use of these constants (saponification, acid, ester, and ratio numbers, and melting point) will not reliably indicate less than about 10% of such material in beeswax. The saponification cloud test has been proposed as a more sensitive qualitative test (2).
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