Biomaterials
A list of plant and animal materials used in manufacturing and construction. I’m excluding obvious uses as food products (meat, fruit, vegetables, grains, nuts, berries, etc.), although I’ve included some cooking products such as lard; and I’m mostly excluding chemical products.
Part of my motivation is to understand what natural products were replaced by plastics, but in general a lot of these have been replaced by synethetic versions.
This is not absolutely comprehensive but is meant to indicate the most important or familiar categories.
Animal products
- Hair/wool (mostly from sheep)
- Hide
- Leather & rawhide
- Furs
- Reptile skins (e.g. snake, alligator)
- Skeletal parts
- Bone
- Teeth
- Horns & antlers
- Tusks (especially ivory, from elephants)
- Shells (e.g., a tortoiseshell comb, also seashells?)
- Baleen (whale “teeth”, sometimes called “whalebone”)
- Hoofs?
- Fats/oils, including:
- Lard (pig fat, used mainly for cooking)
- Suet (beef or mutton fat from the loins/kidneys, used mainly for tallow)
- Tallow (animal fat used for candles, soap, etc.)
- Blubber (mostly from whales)
- Secretions
- Silk
- Wax (mostly beeswax)
- Lanolin (wool wax)
- Shellac (secreted from lac insects, and used as a varnish)
- Organs (e.g., a bladder used as a waterskin)
Plant products
- Wood
- Lumber/timber
- Pulp (for paper)
- Bamboo (common in Asia)
- Fibers (for textiles)
- Cotton
- Flax (for linen)
- Hemp
- Secretions
- Latex (from which rubber is extracted)
- Wood tar (epscially from pine and birch)
- Resin/pitch?
- Gum (a type of resin?)
- Sap (mostly a food product though?)
- Bark
- Cork (especially from the cork oak)
- Birch bark (e.g., for canoes)
- Materials for coarser weaving, wicker, & thatching
- Straw
- Reeds
- Grass/leaves
- Vines
- Plant waxes (not common though?)
I’m mostly ignoring many chemical products, including potash, camphor, and various oils, fragrances, and pigments (dyes/inks).
Mineral versions of the above
Just for context and to avoid confusion, note that there are “mineral” versions of various plant/animal products:
- Tar/pitch (from coal, petroleum, etc.)
- Mineral wax (such as paraffin)
- Mineral fibers (mostly asbestos)
Products and uses
Not really comprehensive but I wanted to note a few categories of products, many of which show up under both plant and animal materials:
Structural/material:
- Small manufactured objects of all kinds, especially from carving wood & bone
- Textiles, made from any kind of fiber (mostly cloth but also string/rope)
- Paper & parchment
- Rubber & latex
Chemicals/substances (I mostly excluded these from the lists above wanted to indicate a few key categories):
- Pigmentation (paints, inks, dyes, pencils & crayons, etc.)
- Adhesives/glues
- Lubricants
- Acids
- Solvents (e.g., turpentine)
- Finishes (protective/decorative coatings such as glazing, varnish, polish, etc.)
Fats and oils in particular can be used for a variety of things:
- Soap (made from fatty acids)
- Candles (from wax or tallow)
- Grease and other lubricants
- Shortening
- Lighting (in oil lamps, especially whale oil)
Wood and oil can also be used as fuel, but that’s separate from what I’m getting at here.
References