r 



MANNA. 415 



Tamarisk Manna is also produced (but is perhaps no longer collected ? ) 

 in Persia, where it is called Gaz-angahin;^ and probably likewise in 

 the Punjab/ from which regions it may have been brought to Europe 



in ancient times. 



A specimen of tamarisk manna brought from Sinai, examined in 

 1861 by Berthelot, had the appearance of a thick yellowish syrup, con- 

 taminated w^ith vegetable remains. It was found to consist of cane- 

 sugar, inverted sugar (Isevulose and glucose), dextrin and water, the 

 j last constituting one-fifth of the whole.^ 



Although the name Gaz-angahin signifies tamarisk-honey, it is 

 used according to Haussknecht^ at the present time in Persia, to 

 designate certain round cakes, common in all the bazaars, of which the 

 chief constituent is a manna collected in the mountain districts of 

 Chahar- Mahal and Faraidan, and especially about the to\yn of Khonsar, 

 soutli-v/est of Ispahan, from Astragalus floruleiitus Boiss. et Haussk. 

 and A. adscendens Boiss. et Haussk. The best sorts of this manna, 

 which are termed Gaz Aleji or Gaz Khonsari, are obtained in August 

 by shaking it from the branches, tlie little drops finally sticking 

 together and forming a dirty, greyish-white, tough mass. The com- 

 moner sort got by scraping the stem, is still more impure. The 

 specimen of it brought by Haussknecht yielded to Ludwig* dextrin, 

 uncrystallizable sugar and organic acids. 



Shir-Jchlst — Ancient writers on materia medica as Garcia d'Orta 

 (1563) mention a sort of manna knowm by this name. The substance 

 is still found in the bazaars of North-western India, being imported m 

 small quantity from. Afghanistan and Turkistan.^ Haussknecht m his 

 paper on Oriental Manna already quoted, states that it is the exuda- 

 tion of Cotoneaster nummidaria Fisch. et Mey. (Rosaceoi), also of 

 Atraphaxis siyinosa L. (Polygonacece), and that it is brought chiefly 

 from Herat. We have to thank Dr. E. Burton Brown of Lahore, and 

 Mr. Tolbort for specimens of this manna, which, from fragments it 

 contains, is without doubt derived from a Cotoneaster. It is m irregular 

 roundish tears, from about I up to f- of an inch in greatest length, of 

 an opaque dull white, slightly clammy, and easily kneaded m the 

 fingers. It has a manna-like smell, a pure sweet taste and crystalline 

 fracture. With water, it forms a syrupy solution with an abundant 

 residue of starch granules. , . , 



Shir-khist was found by Ludwig to consist of an exudation analo- 

 gous to tragacanth, but containing at the same time two kinds ot gum, 

 an amorphous levogyre sugar, besides starch and cellulose. 

 . Ou7c Manna— The occurrence of a saccharine substance on the oak 

 >3 noticed by both Ovid and Virgil, and it is also mentioned by the 

 Arabian physicians, as Ibn Bay tar ^md Elluchasem Eliraithar. ±ne 

 last named, who died a.d. 1052, states that the exudation appears upon 

 the oaks in the region of Diarbekir. At the present day, it is the 

 object of some industry among the wandering tribes of Kurdistan, who, 



p. 'is.'''''''' ^^«^'- ^'^'--^ (-^ -PP-'i-) ; ^^\, the work a«otecl at page 414. 



2 



Stewart, op, cit p. 92. note 4. 



Com;,^e.i?em;«,,liii. (1861)583; P/iann, ^ Ed. Sontheimer i. (18-^0) 3m^^^ .j. 



^^ounu iii, (1862; 27-4. ^ ^ ' a Tacuini Samtatis, Argentorati lio.n; 



^rchivd. Pharmacie, 192 (1870) 246. 24, 



