PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PARTIALLY ESTERIFIED AND PARTIALLY SAPONIFIED REACTION PRODUCTS FROM NATURAL RESIN ACIDS AND DICARBOXYLIC ACIDS AND THEIR APPLICATION TO PRINTING INKS

A process for the preparation of partial esters and partial salts with divalent metal compounds of reaction products of natural resinic acids and unsaturated dicarboxylic acids which typically comprises the following steps: (a) reacting a natural resinic acid with an olefinically unsaturated dicarboxylic acid; (b) partially neutralizing the product of step (a) with a calcium compound; (c) partially esterifying the product of step (b) with a polyhydric alcohol; (d) reacting the product of step (c) with a resol or a mixture of resols; and (e) continuing the reaction of step (d) to complete partial salt formation and partial esterification. The product is useful for printing inks.