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Latex is a natural ingredient that comes from rubber trees in the form of a milky liquid. There are thousands of species of plants that produce different types of latex, including the Chicle tree that yields the raw material for producing the rubbery material in chewing gum.
The word latex originally referred to the use of rubber in one form or another as the resin, or solid, in paint. The solvent or thinner, called the vehicle, was water. Today, many paints are made with water as the thinner but with resins that are not latex, and the industry is leaning toward such terms as water-thinned or water-reducible..