6 
A  Letter  from  the  Orient. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
*-    January,   19 17. 
Commercial  Features. — As  is  shown  in  our  historical  introduc- 
tion, mastic  was  once  one  of  the  important  Oriental  products.  As 
already  stated,  it  has  from  times  gone  by  been  prized  by  the  ladies 
in  the  rich  Turkish  harems  as  a  breath  perfumer,  and  is  yet  so  em- 
ployed by  the  Turkish  people.  That  this  use  is  not  illogical  from  a 
sanitary  stand  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  mastic  carries  a  decided 
volatile  aromatic  that  is  powerfully  antiseptic,  which  cannot  be  said 
of  all  "  chewing  gums."  Possibly  the  nearest  American  chewing- 
gum  approach  to  mastic  in  this  sense,  is  the  natural  "  spruce  gum  " 
of  the  north,  or  the  "  sweet  gum"  of  the  middle  west  and  the  south, 
both  of  which  carry  breath-sweetening,  antiseptic  aromatics.  Mas- 
tic is  to  be  found  in  the  Turkish  bazaars  generally,  being  displayed 
in  the  shop  in  separate  piles  of  different  qualities.  Choice  tears  are 
often  sold  in  boxes  holding  about  an  ounce,  labeled  properly.  The 
price  was  formerly  as  high  as  Forty-five  Dollars  per  kilogramme, 
but  is  now  about  Two  Dollars,  the  second  and  third  qualities  rang- 
ing from  One  Dollar  to  One  Dollar  and  Twenty  Cents  per  kilo- 
gramme. About  200,000  kilogrammes  are  produced  each  year,  of 
which  170,000  kilogrammes  are  exported.  Its  field  as  a  varnish- 
maker  is  much  restricted,  owing  to  the  abundance  of  less  costly  resins, 
whilst  as  a  constituent  of  pharmaceutical  preparations,  such  as  oint- 
ments, in  which,  during  Mediaeval  times,  mastic  was  important,  is 
now  practically  obsolete. 
Raki,  or  Rakee  or  "Mastic."  This  is  a  popular,  mastic-flavored, 
alcoholic  cordial  liquor,  much  drunk  by  the  non-Moslem  populations 
of  some  parts  of  Turkey,  but  not  by  Mohammedan  people,  who,  so 
far  as  I  could  determine,  use  no  alcoholics.  This  drink  is  made  by 
distilling  a  mixture  of  mastic  and  anise  with  strong  wine  or  alcohol, 
the  following  being  the  formula  of  Mr.  Agop  Alpiar : 
Mix  together  and  distill,  slowly  reserving  the  fractions  as  fol- 
lows : 
Take  of 
Alcohol  35  per  cent. 
Aniseed  oil   
Mastic   
Potassium  carbonate 
1 ,000 
2.5  gm. 
15  gm. 
3  gm. 
c.c. 
Xo.  1 
Xo.  2 
Xo.  3 
250  c.c. 
350  c.c. 
160  c.c. 
