Hello Russ,

On Fri, 12 Oct 2001, you wrote:

> What is abietic acid?  New one on me.

It's entry #1 in the Merck index: an unsaturated
alicyclic fatty acid made by heating rosin (also
called colophony), which is the evaporated resin of 
pines and other conifers. It's a major component 
(13%) of Canada balsam, which is made from balsam 
fir (Abies balsamea), hence the name.

> Is colophonium resin (also) a beta terpene?

It might contain terpenes (Merck isn't very
helpful on this one).

> [sorry about the large font size - if that's how you see it]

Why sorry? Bigger fonts are easier to read than 
little ones; better in every way.

Cheers,
         John.
----------------------------------------
John A. Kiernan
Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology
The University of Western Ontario
London,  Canada   N6A 5C1
   kiernan@uwo.ca
   http://publish.uwo.ca/~jkiernan