Resin - Specimen details
| Catalogue Number: 54154 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Image | Plant Name | 80.00 UMBELLIFERAE Ferula galbaniflua | Entry Book Number | ||
| Artefact Name | Resin | Vernacular Name | |||
| Iso Country | Iran | TDWG Region | Iran | ||
| Parts Held | Resin | Geography Description | Persia ? | ||
| Uses | ResinUse: User: Not defined | TDWG use | |||
| Storage | Bottles, boxes etc | Related Items | |||
| Donor | Hanbury D | Donor No | |||
| Donor Date | Donor Notes | ||||
| Collector | Collector No | ||||
| Collection Notes | Collection Date | ||||
| Exhibition | Expedition | ||||
| Number Components | Publication | ||||
| Notes: | Label source: History, uses etc. - Besides the plant which is placed at the head of this article Boissier makes another sp - F. rubricaulis, to grow in Persia. Berszezow, however, regards it as only a var of F galbaniflua. He states, though not from p, ersonal observation that its gum resin which constitutes Persian galbanum, is collected for communal? purposes around Ramadan (confer Pharmacogr) Persian brokers in Bombay state that the galbanum plant is very abundant between Shiraz and Kirman, and there, would seem to be no reason to doubt that this market is supplied from that district. The stems, fruits, and flowers, which often come here mixed with the drug appear to me to answer to the description of either plant. The old Hindu writers make no ment, ion of galbanum; Ainslie found that the Tamil physicians were unacquainted with it. In many Mohometan works the notices of galbanum appear to have been copied from Greek writers, the synonyms given being generally Barzad and Kinneh. The author of the ', Makhzan-ul-adwiya' speaking of Barzad, says it is called Kinneh in Arabic, Khalbani in Greek, and Bireja or Ganda-biroza in Hindu, and is the produce of an umbelliferous plant like that which produces sagapenum, but he adds that the drug which he has met, with in India under these names is the produce of a tree called deodar, growing in the north of India. His experience accords with that of the present day, the only ganda-biroza obtainable being the turpentine of Pinus longifolia. In Bombay Persian Galba, num is known as Jawashir. On referring to the 'Makhzan ' I find this word explained as an Arabic corruption of the Persian gaoshir. The author says that it is a fetid gum resin, and describes its collection from an umbelliferous plant, its appearance etc,, and with regard to its properties informs us that it is a attenuant, detergent, antispasmodic, and expectorant and prescribed in paralytic affections, hysteria, and chronic bronchitis, also on account of its stimulant action upon the uterus. External it, is used as a plaster. In short, he enumerates the uses to which galbanum is generally applied. It is then clear that the Arabs and Persians have not identified the Persian Gaoshir with the galbanum of Greek writers. To the native practitioners of India g, albanum may be said to be an unknown drug, the bulk of what is imported into Bombay being sent to Egypt and Turkey as Jawashir. It is hardly necessary to add that those writers that have identified jawashir with opoponax can never have seen the latter dru, g. I have never met with opoponax in Bombay. Description - Jowashir is a yellow or greenish yellow fluid of the consistency of thick honey and having an odour between that of Levant galbanum and sagapenum. It generally arrives mixed with portions of the s, tem, flowers, and fruit of the plant; the root is rarely to be met with. I have never seen this gum resin quite dry but in some samples the consistency has been sufficient to enable to trace the outline of separate tears in the sticky mass. The fragments, of the plant found in jawashir agree with the botanical characters of F. galbaniflua. Chemical composition - for an account of the chemistry of Levant galbanum, which is the ordinary galbanum of commerce, the reader is referred to the 'Pharmacographia' an, d other standard works of Materia Medica. According to Hirschsohn, good Persian galbanum should yield to petroleum spirit not less than 65% consisting of volatile oil and resin, the average yield of Levant galbanum being between 60 and 63%. The amount of, ash in Levant galbanum should not exceed 4%, being less than the ash of ordinary lump Levant galbanum by 2%. The best Levant in tears gives the same ash as clean Persian. As a qualitative reaction to distinguish the varieties of galbanum, hydrochloric ac, id can be used, as it colours the Persian resin yellow-red, passing into red, and the Levant different shades of violet. The petroleum spirit extracts from the Persian sorts give, with nitric acid a rose red colour; those from the Levant sorts different s, hades of violet bromine vapour colours; the Persian weakly or intensely violet, but the Levant yellow. The ether-resin from both kinds of galbanum upon boiling with water gives indications of umbelliferon. As to the origin of galbanum, Hirschsohn believes, from its varied behaviour with reagants, the different action of the volatile oils upon polarised light, and the different proportions of volatile oils to the gum resin that it is derived from different plants. He also points out that the Levant galbanumo, ccurring in commerce contains no fruit and seldom stalks, but always slices of root, whilst the Persian galbanum always contains fruit and stalks. Commerce - Jawashir is imported from Persia, where it is said to be collected between Shiraz and Kirman. The, imports are irregular; sometimes large quanities arrive; most of it is re-exported to Egypt and Turkey. Dr Dymock | ||||