Sugarcane Wax

About This Product

Sugarcane wax is extracted from filter press mud, the residue separated when cane juice is clarified during sugar manufacture. The cane plant coats its stalk in wax, and that wax concentrates in the mud, from which it is solvent-extracted and refined. It carries the INCI name Saccharum Officinarum Cera and is supplied as pale yellow to light brown flakes or pastilles. Its composition is closer to carnauba than to any of the oilseed waxes, being dominated by long-chain aliphatic esters together with policosanols, free fatty acids and sterols. It melts at 76 to 82 degrees Celsius and is hard and glossy, which makes it a practical partial substitute for carnauba at lower cost and with a broader supply base. Its higher unsaponifiable content gives it a slightly softer, more cushioned feel on the skin than carnauba, which formulators use to take the drag out of a hard wax system. In candle blends it raises melting point, improves gloss and helps stabilise the surface of soft vegetable waxes. It is used in cosmetics as a structuring and gloss wax, in lipsticks and balms, in polishes and coatings, in candle blends as a hardener, and as a carnauba alternative. Bio Green Wax supplies sugarcane wax to specification on melting point, acid and saponification value, hardness, colour and unsaponifiable matter.