Turpentine and rosin Turpentine is tapped from a number of trees. In the U.S., the most important one was Pinus palustris , the long leaf pine. These are still used as a solvent, but have largely been replaced by petroleum derived hydrocarbons. Tapping now often involves application of plant hormones, sulfuric acid or paraquat to improve yields. The wood is used after the trees have been tapped extensively, but is not of as good quality.
Much turpentine is derived from tall oil from the paper industry.
The distillation is now carefully controlled and done in more sophicated plants. Rosin is used for violinist bows, for boxing gloves, and baseball pitchers. Rosin is also used in printer's inks, paper coatings, soaps, varnishes, sealants, tin can linings, plywood manufacture etc. Rosin used to be used to make linoleum. This material has almost completely been replaced by vinyl flooring.