STYRAX 



BENZOIN 



THE BENZOIN TREE 



Seeds. 



Nux-Vomica. 



Dye. 

 Medicinal Oil. 



Wood. 



forests in the Bombay Presidency ; deciduous forests all over Burma ; 

 dry regions of Ceylon " (Gamble). 



The tree is important as being the source of the alkaloids, STRYCHNINE and 

 BRUCINE, which are obtained from the SEEDS. The fruits are collected and the 

 seeds washed out and dried in the sun, or the seeds are simply gathered from the 

 ground, but in the latter case have little market value. They are roundish, flat 

 or concavo-convex and silvery in colour. " Cochin nux-vomica is collected in 

 the dry deciduous forests at the foot of the Travancore hills and is sold to small 

 Native dealers at a low rate, who send it to the merchants. Coconada nux- 

 vomica is obtained from the Ganjam district and the Godaveri. The Madras 

 seeds come from Nellore and several other parts of the Presidency " (Phar- 

 macog. Ind., ii., 500). " The London market quotation is usually about 7 to 10 

 shillings per cwt. The exports are chiefly from Madras, Bombay and Cochin, 

 and are of considerable amount " (Gamble). In addition to the alkaloids just 

 mentioned, they yield a DYE, which produces light brown shades on cotton 

 cloth, and an OIL employed medicinally by Native practitioners. By the hill 

 tribes of the Nilgiris they are used as a fish poison and are employed by Native 

 distillers, who add small quantities to arak to render it more potent (p. 1047). The 

 bark and wood also contain brucine and are employed medicinally in India. The 

 WOOD is said to be used in Burma for making carts, agricultural implements and 

 for fancy cabinet work. [Cf. Paulus Mgineta (Adams, transl. and Comment.), 

 1847, iii., 358-60, 461-2; Fryer, New. Ace. E. Ind. and Pers., 1675, 178 ; Faber, 

 Strychnomania, 1677; Milburn, Or. Comm., 1813, i., 284 ; Taleef Shereef (Playfair, 

 transl.), 1833, 29-31 ; Mason, Burma and its People (ed. Theobald), 1883, ii., 

 342 ; Pharmacog. Ind., ii., 458-500 ; iii., 178, app. ; Rept. Ind. Mus. Cole, and 

 Imp. Inst., 1897-8, 28; 1898-9, 32; 1901, 42; 1904, 20; Brit. Pharmacop., 

 1898, 117-9, 222, 314 ; Dhargalker, Notes on Ther. of Indig. Veg. Drugs, 1899, 

 13, 119: Dutt. Mat. Med. Hind., 1900, 198-9; Nisbet, Burma under Brit. Rule 

 and Before, 1901, ii., 283; Barry, Legal Med., 1904, i., 447-56; ii., 494-8; 

 Ghosh, Treat. Mat. Med., 1904, 495-501 ; Achart, Quinze Cents Plantes dans 

 L'Inde, 1905, 407-8 ; Yearbook of Pharmacy (many passages) ; Journ. Soc. 

 Chem. Indust ; Pharmaceut. Journ., etc.] 



D.E.P., 

 vi., pt. iii., 

 383-5. 

 Benzoin. 



Origin. 



Medicine and 



Incense. 



Trade. 



STYRAX BENZOIN, Dry and ; Fl. Br. Ind., iii., 589 ; Gamble, 

 Man. Man. Ind. Timbs., 1902, 466 ; Brandis, Ind. Trees, 1906, 442 ; 

 STYRACE.E. The Benzoin Tree. The Kesin lubdn (Ind. bazars), hussi, 

 shambirdni, Jcaminian, etc. A small tree of the Malay Archipelago, 

 important as yielding the true Benzoin or Gum Benjamin of commerce. 



This substance appears to have been first mentioned by Ibn Batuta ( Voy., 

 etc., FT. ed. 1858, iv., 228, 240), who visited Sumatra (A-D. 1325-49). He 

 calls it Lubdn-Javi ( incense of Java), the name Java being used among the 

 Arabs and Persians of that time for the Eastern Archipelago. According to the 

 Pharmacographia Indica (iii., app., 169) there are four kinds of the resin met with 

 in the London market, viz : Siam, Sumatra, Penang and Palembang. It is well 

 known that the present species is the source of the Sumatra resin, but there is 

 considerable doubt regarding the plants which yield the other three sorts. The 

 Siam resin is the costliest and most esteemed, and is imported by India in 

 cubic blocks which take their shape from the cases in which packed while 

 still soft. The resin is largely used both in India and Europe in MEDICINE, 

 as an INCENSE and as a source of benzole acid. The import trade is consider- 

 able, amounting in 1905-6 to 16,090 cwt., valued at Us. 4,14,649. Almost the 

 whole comes from the Straits Settlements, viz., in 1905-6, 16,074 cwt., end 

 goes chiefly to Bombay, 9,717 cwt. in the year named. Exports of the 

 resin in 1905-6 amounted to 52 cwt., and re-exports to 1,394 cwt. [Cf. 

 Varthema, Travels, 1510 (ed. Hakl. Soc.), 1863, 234 ; Garcia de Orta, 1563, 

 Coll., ix. ; also in Ball, Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., 1889-91, i.,ser. 3, 394; Ain-i-Akbari 

 (Blochmann, transl.), 82; Foster, E.I. C. Letters, 1602-17 (numerous passages); 

 Milburn, Or. Comm., 1813, ii., 305-6 ; Pharmacog. Ind., ii., 369-73 ; iii., 169-73, 

 app. ; Kew Bull., 1895, 154-5 ; 1896, 195-8 ; Greshoff, Nutt. Ind. Plant., in 

 Extra Bull., Kolon. Mus. Amsterdam, 1894, 115-9; Thorpe, Diet. Appl. Chem., 

 1898, i., 278-9; Hobson-Jobson (ed. Crooke), 1903, 86-7; Tschirch, Die Harze 

 und die Harzbehdlter, 1906, i., 195-212.] 



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