Gum/resin - Specimen details

Gum/resin - Specimen details

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Catalogue Number: 60025

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Plant Name 57.01 LEGUMINOSAE-PAPILIONOIDEAE Astragalus sp Entry Book Number
Artefact Name Gum/resin Vernacular Name
Iso Country Iran TDWG Region Iran
Parts Held Gum/resin Geography Description Persia
Uses Gum/resinUse: NON-VERTEBRATE POISONS User: Man TDWG use NON-VERTEBRATE POISONS
Storage Bottles, boxes etc Related Items
Donor India Museum Donor No 02/06/2000
Donor Date Donor Notes
Collector Collector No
Collection Notes Collection Date
Exhibition Expedition
Number Components Publication
Notes: Label source: Imported into Bombay from Persia. Penoea sarcocolla. A new light on the source of gum sarcocolla, which is also known in Bombay as Gujar and in Arabia and Persia and Anzeroot is given by Dr Dymock in his Vetetable Materia Medica of Western, India. For a long time this substance has been doubtfully referred to a sp of Penaea, belonging to the natural order Penaeaceae, but it has always been felt to have a very shaky position there, inasmuch as the sp are all African. Dioscorides describes, sarcocolla as the tear of a Persian tree, that the gum resembles powdered frankinsense, with a bitterish taste and a reddish colour. It is seldom seen in Europe at the present time, though it is still largely used in the East as a drug. It is also used, internally as an anthirheumatic and anthelmintic, and the Egyptian women eat it on account of its fattening properties. It is imported into Bombau from the Perisan port of Bushire in bags containing about a cwt. Dr Dymock says the total quantity importe, d must be considerable as from twelve to 20 bags may often be seen in a single warehouse. From pods and other portions of the plant taken from bales of the gum, he is strongly of the opinion that its source will prove to be one of the desert Leguminose, ae, not far removed from Astragalus. From the entire absence of leaves in the bales it would seem that the sarcocolla is collected by beating the bushes after the leaves have fallen.

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