Western inventors discovered the properties of gutta-percha in 1842, although the local population in its Malayan habitat had used it for a variety of applications for centuries. It is made from the resin of the Isonandra Gutta tree of Malaya. Allowing this fluid to evaporate and coagulate in the sun produced a latex which could be made flexible again with hot water, but which did not become brittle (unlike unvulcanized rubber already in use).
By 1845 telegraph wires insulated with gutta-percha were being manufactured in England. Gutta-percha served as the insulating material for some of the earliest undersea telegraph cables, including the first Transatlantic telegraph cable. Gutta-percha was particularly suitable for this purpose, as it was not attacked by marine plants or animals, a problem which had disabled previous undersea cables.
The material was quickly adopted for numerous other applications. The "guttie" golf ball (which had a solid gutta-percha core) revolutionized the game. Gutta-percha remained an industrial staple well into the 19th century, when it was gradually replaced with superior (generally synthetic) materials.
The same bio-inertness property that made it suitable for marine cables also means it does not readily react within the human body, and consequently it is used for a variety of surgical devices and for dental applications including padding inside fillings or inside the root-canal.