Cera alba. The worker bees secrete clear wax which the hive workers chew and form into hexagonal combs. Wax extracted from the honeycombs contains esters, fatty acids and alcohols and must be rendered to purify it. Beeswax in the Shōsō-in was stored as strings of wax cakes. It was used as a medicine and as an artisan’s material for lost-wax casting, wax-resist dyeing, and the like.