18 
Indian Forest Records. 
[Vol. VI 
Technical Reports and Scientific papers of 1903, page 162, from which 
the following extract may appropriately be given here 
The sample supplied consists of small rounded tears and larger 
irregular masses. The tears were yellowish in colour, 
opaque and brittle, breaking with irregular waxy fracture, 
the masses were light brown in colour, opaque and much 
softer than the tears. The odour and taste were strongly 
terebinthinous. The gum-resin readily burned giving off its 
characteristic aromatic odour. 
f * Its chemical composition was found to be as follows :_ 
Resin 
Per cent. 
33-2 
Gum 
. 
. 
# 
. . 36-45 
Volatile oil 
. 
m 
. . 7-0 
Ash 
. 
. 
9 
1 -55 
The gum was almost completely soluble in water, and the muci¬ 
lage gave the ordinary reactions of gum-arabic. 
“ Owing to the small quantity of gum-resin supplied, the amount 
of the volatile oil obtained was insufficient for a complete 
examination. The greater portion boiled at 157°C., after 
which the temperature rose to over 170°C., but the quantity 
of liquid left was too small to continue the experiment. 
“Previous analyses of frankincense have been published by 
Braconnot (Annales de Chemie, (2) 68, 60) and Kurbatow 
(Zeitschrift fur Chemie, (2) 7, 201). - ' 
“Braconnot found—resin 56 per cent., soluble gum 30 per cent.,, 
insoluble gum 6 per cent, and volatile oil 8 per cent. Kur¬ 
batow gives the following figures—resin 72 per cent., 
gum 21 per cent., volatile oil 7 per cent. He also separated 
the volatile oil into a terpene boiling at 156-158°C. Wallach 
has recently examined the oil from true frankincense and 
has shown that olibene is identical with laevo pinene, and 
that dipentene is contained in the higher boiling fractions 
(Liebig’s Annalen, 252,94). From a comparison of these 
analyses it will be seen that the gum-oleo-resin from 
Boswellia serrata is almost identical in chemical composi¬ 
tion with that obtained from the other species of Boswellia , 
which forms the frankincense of commerce. There is,, 
f 320 ] 
