History of Terpenes

In the World: Used in various purposes “Since Ancient Egypt”

Since old ages, wood tar and pitch, obtained from trees, have been used for variety of purposes, including caulking material, preservatives, torches etc. The same origine of tree, the sap flowing out from the wounds of coniferous trees was called "TURPENTINE", and its oily fraction, Turpentine oil = Terpene, said to have been extracted by distillation methods since ancient Egypt.

The terpene has long been used as a fragrant oil for beauty, a disinfectant, and as a lacquer for painting and coatings. As the tapping/collection of crude pine resin became more widespread, its use gradually expanded as well. After methods for using rosin were established, the gum process, an industrial production method for gum turpentine oil and gum rosin from crude pine resin, began in the mid-19th century and rapidly spread. In the U.S., a mixture of turpentine oil and ethanol was even used as lamp fuel until petroleum became widely available.

In the early 20th century, the wood process—extracting turpentine oil from pine stumps using solvents—became common. By the mid-20th century, the sulfate process was established, which involved separating sulfate turpentine oil and crude tall oil from black liquor in kraft pulping. Crude tall oil was further refined into tall rosin and tall fatty acids. This led to a rapid increase in sulfate turpentine oil production, exceeding that of gum and wood turpentine. While turpentine oil was traditionally used as a paint solvent, pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and raw material for synthetic camphor, its applications have shifted in recent years to include pine oil (cleaning agents), terpene resins, fragrances, vitamins and insecticide intermediates. After WWII, the growing demand for orange juice in the U.S. led to the exploration of uses for orange oil, a by-product of juice extraction. It was found to be suitable for similar applications as turpentine oil, and by the mid-1970s, it began to be used industrially. Today, orange oil is mainly used in fragrances, terpene resins, and cleaning agents.

Timeline （Wikipedia）

1844

・Otto Wallach organized terpene nomenclature (standardizing multiple names for the same compounds)
1887

・Wallach proposed the prototype of the isoprene rule
1892

・Discovery of nine types of terpenes
1914

・Wallach publishes “Terpenes and Camphor” (180 pages)
1922

・Leopold Ruzicka systematized the isoprene rule
1964

・Feodor Lynen and Konrad Bloch reported on the biosynthesis of terpenes.

・Lynen published the biosynthetic pathway from acetic acid to terpenes and fatty acids

•Otto Wallach
（Wikipedia）

Leopold Ruzicka
（Wikipedia）

In Japan

In Japan, there are records that crude pine resin wrapped in leaves was used as a torch in 19th century. In the early 20th century, gum process plants were built and gum turpentine production began, with demand soaring during World War I and World War II. During World War II, pine root turpentine oil, distilled and refined from pine stumps, was supplied to the Japanese military as aviation fuel. After the war, with the rise of non-military industries, pine root turpentine oil was used as a paint solvent, and tar as a rubber recycle oil agent. Production of crude pine resin and pine root oil peaked just after World War II but later declined. Today, neither the gum process nor the wood process is practiced in Japan. Although some sulfate turpentine and tall oil production continued postwar, by the 1960s, Japan began importing these materials, and domestic production ceased.