ELEMI. 



U7 



ELEMI. 



Resina Elemi ; Eleml ; F. Resine Elemi ; G. Elemiharz. 



1 



Botanical Origin — The resin known in pharmacy as Elemi is 

 derived from a tree growing in the Philippines, which Blanco,^ a 

 botanist of Manila, described in 1845 under the name of Idea Ahilo, 

 but which is completely unknown to the botanists of Europe. Blanco's 

 description is such that, if correct, the plant cannot be placed in either 

 of the old genera Idea or Elaphrium, comprehended by Bentham and 

 Hooker in that of Rursera, nor yet in the allied genus Canarium ; in 

 fact even the order to which it belongs is somew^hat doubtful.^ 



The tree grows in the province of Batangas in the island of Luzon 

 (south of Manila), where its name in the Tagala language is dhilo ; the 

 Spaniards call it Arhola hrea, i.e. -pitch-treejivova. the circumstance that 

 its resin is used for the caulking of boats. 



History — The explicit statements of Theophrastus in the 3rd 

 century b.c. relative to olibanum have already been mentioned. The 

 same writer narrates' that a little above Coptus on the Ked Sea, no 

 tree is found except the acacia (a/caVO;/) of the desert ... but that on 

 the sea there grow laurel {8d4>v,i) and olive (eXaia), from the latter of 

 which exudes a substance much valued to make a medicine for the 

 staunching of blood. 



This story appears again In Pliny * who says that in Arabia the 

 olive tree exudes tears which are an ingredient of the medicine called 

 ■^y the Greeks Enhoimon, from its efficacy in healing wounds. 



Dioscorides ' briefly notices the Gum of the Ethiopian olive, which 



e likens to scammony; and the same substance is named by Scri- 



Donius Largus'' who practised medicine at Rome during the 1st century. 



ihe writers who have commented on Dioscorides have generally 



^opted the opinion that the exudation of the so-called olive-tree of 



rabia and Ethiopia was none other than the substance known to them 



call 1 i!'^' t^hough, as remarked by Mattioli,^ the oriental drug thus 



auth ■ ^0 means well accords with the description left by that 



■^3 to that name, the earliest mention of it appears in the middle of 



r 



Manila "i c^-^'3!^''*"*'' segunda impression, the order.— 3. The qninate flowers. In all 

 20n ^^^'^: 256. species of Canarium the parts of the flowers 

 U now ^Ti''-S ^Ir. A. W. Bennett, who are in threes, including C. comm "«c, which 

 to the nrlV ^iT^' *^'^ ^'irscracece of India, as according to :SIiquel extends to the Philip- 

 pe recoiv.^^ f affinities of Blanco's plant, pines. The only exception is C. (Sciitinan- 

 marks • «•? l^^^ ^™ *^^ following re- the Thwaites) hnmueum, with which it doc^ 

 "ouncinrr ti ^ r *^ ^^*tle hesitation in pro- not agree in other respects. 

 -^^'focannTi "^ *^^^ description, Jcica "The foregoing reasons almost equally 

 «' is mnro^-a* Canarium, but what it exclude Jclca {Bursera) ; yet the fnut of 

 '^^•ine th^ 1 ™'=^^1*^ to say. The leaves Blanco's plant seems so eminently that of a 

 '^eas at fi t^^?* P^'^ of leaflets smallest, Burscracm, that I think it must belong to 

 ^"«aWiOrt I ^i^H* ^'^^■>' '^liaracteristic of that order, but with some error m the de- 

 *'°18 teiul'+i ^* t"e following considcra- soription of the leaves." 

 '^^•ea whlp^ "^^ ^"^y- 1- The opposite ^ Bist. Plant, lib. iv. c. 7. 

 "^^^ept in i^ ^'^^r nowhere in Bnrseracece * Lib. xii. c. 38. 



'^''^ not aTr^'^"*' ^'*^ ^^"ch the plant ^Lib. i. c. 141. 



*iPei/(? wLioh^*^ ^^ many ways. 2. The ^ Compoiiitlo7\es ATcdicamenf. cap. 103. 



^'^ are not found anj^vhere in " Comm. in lib. i. J)ioi!CoriJi>^. 



