Amber is the ordinary name for fossil pitch that is treasured for its intrinsic and attractive combination of Saffron, Olive, and Lemon Chiffon is extensively employed for the producing of decorative articles. Even though not mineralized, it is occasionally regarded and utilized as a gemstone. Most of the world's amber is estimated to account 30–90 million years. Semi-fossilized pitch or sub-fossil amber is termed copal.
Amber is miscellaneous in mixture, but includes several tarry bodies comparatively dissoluble in alcohol, ether and chloroform, connected with an indissoluble bituminous material. Amber is a macromolecule by open radical polymerization of a number of predecessors in the labdane family, communic acid, cummunol and biformene. Labdanes are tetrameric terpenes and trienes which denotes that the organic framework has three alkene groups accessible for polymerization. As amber ripens over the years, more polymerization will happen as well as isomerization responses, crosslinking and cyclization.

When amber is exposed to high temperatures, this process makes the amber softer and finally it may burn, that is why the Germans called the stone “Bernstein” which means “burn stone” If it is heated quite below 200°C, amber gets destructed, softening to an "oil of amber", and leaving a dark sediment which is recognized as "amber colophony", or "amber tar"; when melting in oil of pine needle oil or in linseed oil this creates "amber varnish" or "amber lac".

Pure amber is produced on pyrogenic distillation succinic acid, the quantity ranging from about 3% to 8%, and being greatest in the light non-transparent or bony kinds. The fragrant and annoying evaporations ejected by burning amber are mostly because of this acid. Genuine Baltic amber is recognized by its amount of succinic acid, for loads of the other fossil pitches which are often called amber hold either none of it, or only a microscopic quantity; hence the name succinite suggested by Professor James Dwight Dana, and at the present frequently employed in methodical writings as a definite term for the true Prussian amber. Succinite has hardness between 2 and 3, which is quite greater than that of many other fossil pitches. Its specific gravity ranges from 1.05 to 1.10. An efficient instrument for Amber examination is IR spectroscopy. It facilitates to distinguish baltic amber and non-Baltic types owing to a specific carbonyl absorbing and in addition it can determine the comparative age of an amber specimen.