> So, if you just took raw beeswax and did a chemical analysis to determine if it had any nitrogen in it (which would imply a protein component) you are sure to find some trace of nitrogen. If you took that raw wax and refined it to get rid of all pollen and propolis you might well get rid of all the nitrogen. But, that still does not tell you that you have not incorporated carbon from protein into the various chemicals that make up wax.
> 

See, my answer to the question would have been a straight "no," precisely because there is no overt nitrogen incorporated into wax. The beauty of the setup in the hive is that wax is water insoluble, and therefore makes an excellent storage vessel for water-based products like honey. Once you start incorporating amines into the mix, I would think you begin to create lipoprotein-like structures, which would allow water-soluble and -insoluble components to interact. I would think that would be a bad thing for a storage container.

I found this excerpt, which seems to back up that line of reasoning:

> Dispersing a lipid or wax in [a] protein film structure to achieve an "emulsion film" can reduce the film's water vapor permeability (WVP) by an order of magnitude. However, this still places the film's WVP one to three orders of magnitude greater than the WVP of pure lipid or wax....

(Gennadios A [Ed]. Protein-Based Films and Coatings. Boca Raton, FL:CRC Press. 2002. Page 24)


S

Skillman, NJ

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