COMMIPHORA 



Indian Bdellium. 



INDIAN AND IMPOKTED BALSAMS 



Fodder. 

 Chemistry. 



D.E.P., 

 i., 365-70. 

 Myrrh. 



Assam 

 Bdellium. 



Indian 

 Bdellium. 



Amraoti. 

 Cement. 



Price. 



Imported 

 Gums. 



Bdellium. 



Balsam. 



Myrrh. 



Prices. 



Bed" Zanzibar. 



To this preparation is added boiling oil (phodni) in which mustard, turmeric and 

 epices have been mixed. The prepared dish is a sweet curry. The leaves 

 are used as a sag or are chopped fine with the stalks and made into a curry. 

 There are numerous other preparations of kachu leaves and stalks. Nicholls 

 says that the mature leaves and stalks are an excellent fodder for cattle and 

 food for pigs. 



All parts of the plant contain an acrid principle which is commonly supposed 

 to be extracted by boiling. Thus on account of this acidity the juice of the 

 petioles is often employed as a domestic remedy, being regarded as styptic and 

 astringent. But this acrid principle was investigated in 1888 by Pedler 

 and Warden in the case of the species c. viro*a, Kunth. (bish kachu), which alone 

 is regarded by the Natives as poisonous and never eaten. The results of the 

 above investigation were recorded in the Dictionary, and it may suffice to say 

 that the poisonous principle was discovered to be due to very numerous bundles 

 of crystals of oxalate of lime, and thus to mechanical irritation similar to that 

 produced by cowhage (xriicimn /i-<mv<iw) or chopped hairs administered in food. 

 The crystals, it may be observed, are indissoluble in boiling water, but are 

 rendered inert by water slightly acidulated with hydrochloric or nitric acid, 

 and to a less extent with acetic acid. Hence in preparing -4-i>i tubers 

 for food the Natives almost always add an acid vegetable or fruit such as 

 tamarind. 



COMMIPHORA, Jacq. (Balsamodendron, Kunth.) ; Fl. 3r. 

 Lnd., i., 529-30 ; Engler in DC., Monog. Phaner., iv., 7-29 ; Engler and 

 Prantl, Pftanzenfam., iii., pt. 4, 251-6 ; Index Kew., i., 593, suppl. i., 

 108 ; ii., 46 ; BURSERACE.-E. A genus of small spiny, balsamiferous 

 trees containing some 80 species, of which 60 are African and only 5 

 Indian. Some yield Bdellium, others Balsam, and others Myrrh. 



C. Agallocha, Engl. ; Amyris Commiphora, Roxb., Fl. Ind., ii., 245 ; B. Roxburghii, 

 Am. ; gugala, gugal, mhaishabola, gugar, gukul, etc. It bears, in fact, the same 

 names as the next species. A native of Eastern Bengal, Sylhet and Assam. 

 It was formerly supposed to yield Indian bdellium or gugal. but its gum is now 

 said to be used only as an adulterant of, and not as a substitute for, myrrh. 



C. Mukul, Engl. ; Indian Bdellium, gugala, guggul, gugal, gukkal, mukul, mai- 

 shdkshi or maisdchi, koushikaha, etc. A tree found in the arid zones of Sind, 

 Kathiawar, Rajputana, Berar and Khandesh. A gum exudes from incisions 

 on the bark made in the cold season. It occurs in vermiform pieces of a 

 brown or greenish colour, and is put on the market as a substitute for African 

 bdellium. The Indian supply comes very largely from Amraoti and is used in 

 Bombay, mixed with mortar, as a fine CEMENT (p. 293). It is employed 

 MEDICINALLY in leprosy, rheumatism, etc. Dutt (Mat. Med. Hind., 1900, 132-5) 

 says that " old guggulu is dry and without flavour or colour, and should not 

 be used in medicine." Moodeen Sheriff (Mat. Med. Mad., 1891, 93) remarks 

 that the wholesale price is Us. 4 per maund and retail 3 annas per Ib. 



The commercial interest .in the products of this genus centres on the foreign 

 supply largely imported into Bombay. Of these mention may be made of 

 Bdellium and Byeabol from Africa ; Balsam of Mecca (mor, baldsdn), an aromatic 

 oleo-resin from Arabia ; and Myrrh, both that which comes from Africa (Somali- 

 land) and that from Arabia. The best is the karam or banda rkaram, and the 

 second quality the meetiya or chenai-bol. Recently Europe has begun to import 

 these products direct instead of via Bombay. The value of bandar karam at 

 Bombay is given as Rs. 34 per maund of 37 Jib., meetiya Rs. 16 to 25, refuse Rs. 8. 

 In 1808 the East India Co. imported into England 53 cwt. of myrrh valued at 

 1,014 = 19 2s. Id. per cwt. The present-day price is about 5 per cwt, but 

 exact particulars of the import and re-export trade are not available. It is 

 possible that some portion of the transactions mentioned under Boswellia (p. 174) 

 belong in reality to Cotntniithorti. [Cf. Kew Bull., 1896, 91-4 ; Kew Mus. 

 Guide, 1907, 39-40.] 



Holmes (Pharm. Journ. (ser. 4), iii., 506) says that myrrh now reaches 

 London direct from Arabia and Abyssinia. When it comes from Bombay it is 

 called Red Zanzibar. He has also urged that it would be preferable to retain the 

 name Baimtnto<ieii<iron in preference to substituting Comtnipttorn. [Cf. 

 Tsohirch, Die Harze und die Harzbehalter, 1906, i., 391-410.] 



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