ELEMI U7 



ELEMI. 

 Resina Elemi ; Elemi ; F. Resine EUmi ; G. Elemiharz. 



Botanical Origin — The resin known in pharmacy as Elemi is 

 derived from a tree growing in the Philippines, which Blanco/ a 

 botanist of Manila, described in 1845 under the name of Idea Ahilo, 

 but which is completely unknown to the botanists of Europe. Blanco's 

 description is such that, if correct, the plant cannot be placed in either 

 of the old genera Icica or Elaphrium, comprehended by Bentham and 

 Hooker in that of Bursera, nor yet in the allied genus Canariuni ; in 

 fact even the order to which it belongs is somewhat doubtful.^ 



The tree grows in the province of Batangas in the island of Luzon 

 (south of Manila), where its name in the Tagala language is dhilo ; the 

 Spaniards call it Arbola brea, i.e. 2>itch-tree, from the circumstance that 

 its resin is used for the caulking of boats. 



History — The explicit statements of Theophrastus in the 3rd 

 century B.C. relative to olibanum have already been mentioned. The 

 same writer narrates ^ that a little above Coptus on the Red Sea, no 

 tree is found except the acacia {aKavOrj) of the desert . . . but that on 

 the sea there grow laurel {Sdcpvr}) and olive (eXala), from the latter of 

 which exudes a substance much valued to make a medicine for the 

 staunching of blood. 



This story appears again in Pliny * who says that in Arabia the 

 olive tree exudes tears which are an ingredient of the medicine called 

 by the Greeks Eiihcenicni, from its efficacy in healing wounds. 



Dioscorides' briefly notices the Gum of the Ethiopian olive, which 

 he likens to scammony; and the same substance is named by Scri- 

 bonius Largus*^ who practised medicine at Rome during the 1st century. 



The writers who have commented on Dioscorides have genei'ally 

 adopted the opinion that the exudation of the so-called olive-tree of 

 Arabia and Ethiopia was none other than the substance known to them 

 as Elemi, though, as remarked by Mattioli," the oriental drug thus 

 called by no means well accords with the description left by that 

 author. 



As to that name, the earliest mention of it appears in the middle of 



^ Flora de Filipians, segunda impression, the order. — 3. The quinate floTrers. In all 



Manila, 1845. 256. species of Canarium the parts of the flowers 



^On consulting Mr. A. W. Bennett, ■who are in threes, including C. commune, which 



is now studying the Burseracea of India, as according to Miquel extends to the Philip- 



to the probable affinities of Blanco's plant, pines. The only exception is C. (Scutinan- 



we received from him the following re- tlie Thwaites) hrunneum, with which it does 



marks : "I have little hesitation in pro- not agree in other respects, 



nouncing that from the description, Icica "The foregoing reasons almost equally 



Ahilo cannot be a Canarium, but what it exclude Icica (Bursera) ; yet the fruit of 



is, is more difficult to say. The leaves Blanco's plant seems so eminently that of a 



having the lowest pair of leaflets smallest, Burseracea, that I think it must belong to 



seems at first sight very characteristic of that order, but with some error in the de- 



Canarium ; but the following considera- scription of the leaves. "' 



tions tend the other way. 1. The opposite ^ Hist. Plant, lib. iv. c. 7. 



leaves which occur nowhere in Bxirseracece * Lib. xii. c. 38. 



except in Amyris, with which the plant 'Lib. i. c. 141. 



does not agree in many ways. 2. The ® Compositicmes Medicament, cap. 103. 



stipellce which are not found anywhere in " Coram, in lib. i. J>ioscoriclis: 



