io2 



BUKSERACE^. 



The relations of the substances hitlierto isolated from elemi may 



perhaps be given thus : — 



Essential oil, . 

 Amyrin, . 

 Amorphous resin (?) 

 Bryoidin, . 

 Elemic acid. 



(C-5H8)5-hOH2 



(C5HS)2 + OH- 

 (CSHS)^ + 30H2 



Uses — Elemi is scarcely used in British medicine except in the 

 form of an ointment, sometimes prescribed as a stimulating application^ 

 to old wounds. 



Other sorts of Elemi 



Mexican ElemL Vera Cruz Elemi 



This drug, which used to be imported into London about thirty years ago, 

 but which has now disappeared from commerce, is the produce of a tree 



named bv RovIa /loir^/i'Vo ijlna-.^i-Pn-i-n rfT/^winrv of Ofivni*?!. in Mexico. At 



elemifi 



y 



scraped pieces, or in irregular fragments which are sometimes translucent 

 but more often dull and opaque. It easily softens in the mouth so that 

 it may be masticated, and has an agreeable terebinthinous odour. 

 Treated with cold spirit of wine (-828), it breaks down into a white 



magma of acicular crystals {Amyrin ?). 



2. BmdUcm Ekmi—WsiS described as long a 

 traveller Piso, as a substance completely resemblin 



Wo 



go as 1658 by tlie 

 % the elemi of tbe 

 It is the produce of 



spec 



heterojjkyUaTfC.J. heptaphylla Aublet, /. fmiane7isis Anhl, I. altissiwa 



In New Granada a similar 'exudation ^ is furnished by 



Caramia H.B.K. 



A specimen in our possession from Pernambuco * is a translucent, 

 enish-yellow, fragrant, terebinthinous resin, which by cold spmt oi 



greenish 



wme may be separated into two portions, the one soluble, the other a 

 mass of colourless acicular crystals. The resin spontaneously exudea 

 and collected from the trunks, is often opaque and white, grey, or 

 yeJlowish, lookinor notunb-^P fvor,,^^r,fe ^-f ^i.i ^nvf.nr The microscope 



and of 



shows it to be made up of minutl acicular crystals. 



'^- Mauritius Ekmi—TmQ specimens of this substance 

 CMonia Mauritiana DC. the tree affording it, were sent to one ot 

 (H.) m 18o5 by Mr. Emile Fleurot of Mauritius. The resin acco d 

 in Its general characters with Manila elemi, like which it leaves atte 

 treatment with cold spirit of wine, an abundance of crystals resembim^ 

 amyrm. 



1 Lubau Mcyctl^ or Luhan i/a^i— This substance, which we claini 

 to be the Omental or African Elemi of the older writers, and also oneo 



iilL^f?^^'? \T^' imperfect specimens of this 

 plant are in the British Museum. 



Flora Bri'T"'"^ ^''""P^^ Marchancl. in 

 ^hra Bra,ihc,ms, fagcicul. 65 (1874) tab. 



3 G. Planchon, Bulletin de la Soc Bat do 

 France, xv. (1868) 16 



nambiTco I have also an authentic sneci- 

 men of the resin of /. MeropSl^H 



lected at Santar em , Parii, by Mr. 



■Rnfca in 1 SnS — D. II. ' . , ..ein ot 



ites m ioo.i. — If- -i-i. . j.ggjn oi 



' For some experiments on tn gg) 



Jdm, see Gmelin, Chemistry, ^'''•^^^^^ j„ 

 421.— Also Stenhouse and u (i876) 



Liehig's Annalcn der ^^if'^' j^ptaphy^!^- 

 253, on resin and oil of Icic<^ "-^^ /^ ^th 

 The former would appear to a^ 

 the formula (C'H8)9 OH;. . ^^^^e for 



' Luhdii is the general Aiaoi 



