27G HAMAMELIDEvE. 



I 



Adulteration— The drug is occasionally mixed with sand, ashes, and 

 other substances ; these would be detected by solution in spirit of wine 



Allied Substances. 



Sty 



■The substance that 



now bears this name is by no means the Styvcijso Calamita of ancient 

 times, but is an artificial compound made by mixing the residual 

 Liquidambar bark called Cortex Thymiamatis (p. 273), coarsely pow- 

 dered, with Liquid Storax in the proportions of 3 to 2. It is at first a 

 clammy mass, acquiring after a few weeks an appearance of moulcliness, 

 due to minute silky crystals of styracin. It is usually imported in 

 wooden drums, and has a very sweet smell. When the bark is scarce, 

 common sawdust is substituted for it, while qualities still inferior are 

 made up with the help of olibanum, honey, and earthy substances. 

 This drug is manufactured at Trieste, Venice and Marseilles. " 



Several other odoriferous compounds, of which Liquid Storax appears 

 to be the chief ingredient, arc made in the East and may still be found 

 m old drug warehouses.^ 



Besin of Sfyraoo officinal is L.; Triw Stor ax— "This was a solid 



resm somewhat resembling benzoin, of fragrant, balsamic odour, held in 

 great estimation from the time of Dioscorides and Pliny down to the 

 close of the last century. It was perhaps the "storace odorifero" 

 exportecl m the 12th century from Pantellaria^ and Sicily The drug 



Minor 



disappeared. 



stem of Styrax officinalis L. (Styracece), a native 



, ^_.^ ^.^xx^vx and Syria, now found also in Italy and Southern 



i< ranee. This plant when permitted to grow freely for several years, 

 forms a small tree, in which state alone it appears to be capable of 

 atiordmg a fragrant resin. But in most localities it has been re^ 

 Uuced by ruthless lopping to a more bush, the young stems ot 

 5^ "„?. 7^^ ? "^* ^ ^^'^ce of exudation. True storax has thus utterly 



^x^x^ooui xvriuos or Athens has informed us (1871) that about 

 Adaha on the southern coast of Asia Minor, a sort of solid storax 

 obtained from >S'. officinalis is still used as incense in the churches aw 

 mosques. The specimen of it which he has been good enough to send 

 ns IS not however resin, but saiudust ; it is of a pale cinnamon-bro^\ n, 

 and pleasant balsamic odour. By keepincr, it emits an abundance or 

 minute acicular crystals (styracin?). The'^substance is interestingly 

 connection with the statement of Dioscorides, that the resin oiStyra^ 

 m adulterated with the sawdust of the tree itself, and the fact that m 

 region where this sawdust is still in use is one of the localities for tne 



mentions 



nativ 



of Liqiddamhar styracijliia L.— a large and beautiful tree. 

 North America from Connecticut and Illinois '^outlnyara 



Mexico and Guatemala. In the United States, where it is called 

 (Tum, the ti;ee yields from natural fissures or by incision, small quani 

 ties ot a balsamic resin, which is occasionally used for chowmg. 



thcs?*" '^^"''""^ ''"*^ "^ Guibourt is one of same book " cotone doracee corallo" o<=cur 

 ^ Quoted before, p. 163, note 3; i« tbe " ^^^^'" '' "'^"^ "'" 



