Turpentine
About Turpentine
Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthine, terebenthene, terebinthine and, colloquially, turps) is a fluid obtainable by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Principally used as a specialized solvent, it is also a source of material for organic syntheses.
Turpentine is composed of terpenes, primarily the monoterpenes alpha- and beta-pinene, with lesser amounts of carene, camphene, limonene, and terpinolene. Nowadays, turpentine is rarely the product of distillation of pine rosin, but is a byproduct of pulping. Pulping is achieved by two processes, Kraft process and the Sulfite process. The turpentine obtained from these two processes differ in their chemical composition. Sulfite process gives a product that is rich in cymene, whereas the Kraft process gives a pinene-rich product.
Substitutes include white spirit or other petroleum distillates – although the constituent chemicals are very different.
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