MANNA. 415 



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

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

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

 in ancient times. 



A specimen of Uimarisk manna brought from Sinai, examined in 

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

 taminated with vegetable remains. It was found to consist of cane- 

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

 last constituting one-fifth of the whole.^ 



Although the name Gaz-angabin 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 Faniidan, and especially about the town of Khonsar, 

 south-west of Ispahan, from Astragalus jiorulentus Boiss. et Haussk. 

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

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

 by shaking it from the branches, the 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 oiganic acids. 



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

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

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

 small quantity from Afghanistan and Turkistan.'' Haussknecht in his 

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

 tion of Cotxraeaster nummular ia Fisch. et Mey. (Rosacecb), also of 

 Atraphaxis 'spinosa 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 Cofoneaster. It is in irregular 

 roundish tears, fi-om about ^ up to | of an inch in greatest length, of 

 an opaque dull white, slightly clammy, and easily kneaded in 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-khLst was found by Ludwig to consist of an exudation analo- 

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

 an amorphous levogyre sugar, besides starch and cellulose. 



Oak Manna —The occurrence of a saccharine substance on the oak 

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

 Arabian physicians, as Ibn Baytar ^ and EUuchasem Elimithar.^ The 

 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, 



1 Angelus, Pharm. Peraica (see appendix) « Loc. cit. 



^- ,^p- . ^ Davies in the work quoted at page 414, 



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



3 Comptes Rendu.% liii. (1861) 583; Phai-m. 7 Ed. Sontheimer, i. (1840) 375. 



Journ. iiu (1862; 274. 8 Tacuini SanitatU, Argentorati (1531) 



* Archivd. Pharmacie,\22(\^-0)2iQ. 24. & x ; 



