Am.  Tour.  Pharm. 
Feb.  1876. 
Growth  and  Uses  of  Benzoin. 
IS 
The  plants  are  propagated  from  a  seed,  which  resembles  a  small,  brown 
nut,  and  but  little  care  is  required  except  to  keep  the  shrubs  clear  from 
weeds.  Before  the  sixth  or  seventh  year  the  gum  is  obtained  by  mak- 
ing incisions  in  the  bark,  when  the  substance  exudes,  and  is  scraped  off 
in  like  manner  as  the  opium  poppy.  The  first  juice  is  the  purest  and 
most  fragrant,  and  hardens  on  exposure  to  the  air,  when  it  becomes 
brittle  and  transparent.  The  resin  is  white  and  transparent,  and  about 
three  pounds  are  given  by  each  tree.  The  white  Benjamin  is  termed 
cowrie  luban  in  India,  and  is  a  superior  kind.  Afterwards  a  browner 
description  is  extracted,  and  finally,  when  the  tree  has  become  ex- 
hausted and  has  been  cut  down,  an  inferior  kind  is  obtained  from  the 
scraping  of  the  wood.  The  three  different  varieties  ascordingly  bear 
relative  values  in  commerce.  The  resin  which  exudes  during  the  first 
three  years  is  said  to  be  fuller  of  white  tears,  and  therefore  of  finer 
quality  than  that  which  issues  subsequently,  and  it  is  termed  by  the 
Malays  Head  benzoin.  That  which  flows  during  the  next  7  or  8  years 
is  browner  in  color  and  less  valuable,  and  is  known  as  Belly  benzoin ; 
while  the  third  sort,  obtaided  by  splitting  the  tree  and  scraping  the 
wood,  is  called  Foot ;  this  last  is  mixed  much  with  bark  and  refuse. 
Benzoin  is  brought  for  sale  to  the  ports  of  Sumatra  in  large  cakes, 
called  Tampangs,  wrapped  in  matting.  These  have  to  be  broken,  and 
softened  either  by  the  heat  of  the  sun  or  by  that  of  boiling  water,  and 
then  packed  into  square  cases,  which  the  resin  is  made  to  fill.  A 
variety  of  the  Sumatra  benzoin  is  distinguished  by  the  London  drug- 
gists as  Penang  Benjamin,  or  Storax-smelling  Benjamin.  The  quality  is 
very  fine,  full  of  white  tears,  some  of  them  two  inches  long,  the  inter- 
vening resin  being  greyish.  The  odor  is  very  agreeable  and  perceptibly 
different  from  the  Siam,  or  the  usual  Sumatra  sort. 
The  only  account  of  the  collection  of  Siam  benzoin  is  that  given  by 
Sir  R.  N.  Schomburgk,  for  some  years  British  Consul  at  Bangkok. 
He  represents  that  the  bark  is  gashed  all  over,  and  that  the  resin  which 
exudes  collects  and  hardens  between  it  and  the  wood,  the  former  of 
which  is  then  stripped  off.  This  account  is  confirmed  by  the  aspect 
ot  some  of  the  Siam  benzoin  of  commerce,  as  well  as  by  that  of  pieces 
ot  bark  ;  but  it  is  also  evident  that  all  the  Siam  drug  is  not  thus  ob- 
tained. Schomburgk  adds  that  the  resin  is  much  injured  and  broken 
during  its  conveyance  in  small  baskets  on  bullocks'  backs  to  the  navi- 
gable parts  of  the  Lenam,  whence  it  is  brought  down  to  Bangkok. 
The  most  esteemed  sort  is  that  which  consists  entirely  of  flattened 
