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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: FRA-GAE |
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FRANKINCENSE ,' or OLIBANUM2 (Gr. A1il3avwros, later 9(los; Lat., tus or thus; Heb., lebonah; 3 Ar., luban; 3 Turk., ghyunluk; Hind., ganda-birosa5), a gum-resin obtained from certain species of trees of the genus Boswellia, and natural order Burseraceae. The members of the genus are possessed of the following characters:Bark often papyraceous; leaves deciduous, com-t pound, alternate and imparipinnate, with leaflets serrate or entire; flowers
pink
, Stephen Skinner, M.D. (Etymologicon linguae Anglicanae, Lond., 1671), gives the derivation: " Frankincense, Thus, q.d. Incensum (i.e. Thus Libere seu Liberaliter, ut in sacris of lciis par est, adolendum." 2 " Sic olibanum dixere pro thure ex Graeco o Waves "(Salmasius, C. S. Plinianae exercitationes, t. ii. p. 926, b. F., Traj. ad Rhea., 1689 fol.). So also Fuchs (Op. didact. pars. ii. p. 42, 1604 fol.), Officinis non sine risu eruditorum, Graeco articulo adjecto, Olibanus vocatur." The term olibano was used in ecclesiastical Latin as early as the pontificate of Benedict IX., in the 11th century. (See Ferd. Ughellus, Italia sacra, torn. i. 1o8, D., Yen., 1717 fol.) 3 So designated from its whiteness (J. G. Stuckius, Sacror. et sacrific. gent. descrip., p. 79, Lugd. Bat., 1695, fol. ; Kitto, Cycl. Bibl. Lit. ii. p. 8o6, 187o) ; cf. Laben, the Somali name for cream (R. F. Burton, First Footsteps in E. Africa, p. 178, 1856). 6 Written Louan by Garcias da Horta (Aromat. et simpl. medicament. hist., C. Clash Atrebatis Exoticorum lib. sept., p. 157, 1605, fol.), and stated to have been derived by the Arabs from the Greek name, the term less commonly used by them being Conder: cf. Sanskrit Kunda. According to Colebrooke (in Asiatick Res. ix. p. 379, 1807), the Hindu writers on Materia Medica use for the resin of Boswellia thurifera the designation Cunduru. 6 A term applied also to the resinous exudation of Pinus longifolia (see Dr E. J. Waring, Pharmacopoeia of India, p. 52, Lond., 1868). 1871) distinguishes five species of Boswellia: (A) B. thurifera, Colebr. (B. glabra and B. serrata, Roxb.), indigenous to the mountainous tracts of central India and the Coromandel coast, and B. papyrifera (Plosslea floribunda, Endl.) of Abyssinia, which, though both thuriferous, are not known to yield any of the olibanum of commerce; and (B) B. Frereana (see ELEMI, vol. X. p. 259), B. Bhua-Dajiana, and B. Carterii, the " Yegaar," " Mohr Add," and " Mohr Madow " of the Somali country, in East Africa, the last species including a variety, the " Maghrayt d'Sheehaz " of Hadramaut, Arabia, all of which are sources of true frankincense or olibanum. The trees on the Somali coast are described by Captain G. B. Kempthorne as growing, without soil, out of polished marble rocks, to which they are attached by a thick oval mass of substance resembling a mixture of lime and mortar: the purer the marble the finer appears to be the growth of the tree. The young` trees, he states, furnish the most valuable gum, the older yielding merely a clear glutinous fluid resembling copal
village
Porter
is used as incense in China. The last authority also mentions ' See " Appendix," vol. i. p. 419 of Sir W. C. Harris's Highland of Aethiopia (2nd ed., Lond., 1844); and Trans. Bombay Geog. Soc. xiii. (1857), p. 136. 2 Cruttenden, Trans. Bombay Geog. Soc. vii. (1846), p. 121; S. B. Miles, J. Geog. Soc. (1872). 2 Or Dhafar. The incense of " Dofar " is alluded to by Camoens, Os Lusiadas, x. 201. H. J. Carter, " Comparative Geog. of the South-East Coast of Arabia," in J. Bombay Branch of R. Asiatic Soc. iii. (Jan. 1851), p. 296; and Muller, Geog. Graeci Minores, i. p. 278 (Paris, 1855). ' J. Vaughan, Pharm. Journ. xii. (1853) pp. 227-229; and Ward, op. Olt. p. 97. 6 Pereira, Elem. of Mat. Med. ii. pt. 2, p. 380 (4th ed., 1847). ' " Boswellia thurifera," . says Waring (Pharm. of India, p. 52), " has been thought to yield East Indian olibanum, but there is no reliable evidence of its so doing."olibanum as a reputed natural product of China. Bernhard von Breydenbach,3 Ausonius, Florus and others, arguing, it would seem, from its Hebrew and Greek names, concluded that olibanum came from Mount
Frankincense, or olibanum, occurs in commerce in semi-opaque, round, ovate or oblong tears or irregular lumps, which are covered externally with a white dust, the result of their friction against one another. It has an amorphous internal structure, a dull fracture; is of a yellow to yellowish-brown hue, the purer varieties being almost colourless, or possessing a greenish tinge, and has a somewhat bitter aromatic taste, and a balsamic odour, which is developed by heating. Immersed in alcohol it becomes opaque, and with water it yields an emulsion. It contains about 72% of resin soluble in alcohol (Kurbatow); a large proportion of gum soluble in water, and apparently identical with gum arabic; and a small quantity of a colourless inflammable essential oil, one of the constituents of which is the body oliben, C1H16. Frankincense burns with a bright white flame, leaving an ash consisting mainly of calcium carbonate, the remainder being calcium phosphate, and the sulphate, chloride and carbonate of potassium (Braconnot).9 Good frankincense, Pliny tells us, is recognized by its whiteness, size, brittleness and ready inflammability. That which occurs in globular drops is, he says, termed " male frankincense " ; the most esteemed, he further remarks, is in breast-shaped drops, formed each by the union of two tears.10 The best frankincense, as we learn from Arrian," was formerly exported from the neighbourhood of Cape Elephant in Africa (the modern Ras Fiel) ; and A. von Kremer, in his description of the commerce of the Red Sea (Aegypten, &c., p. 185, ii. Theil, Leipzig
the Arabian origin of the drug, remarks that the term " Indian " is often applied by the Arabs to a dark-coloured variety.'4 According to Pliny (Nat. Hist. xiv. 1; cf. Ovid, Fasti
6 " Libanus igitur est mons redolentie & summe aromaticitatis. nam ibi herbe odorifere crescunt. ibi etiam arbores thurifere coalescunt quarum gummi electum olibanum a medicis nuncupatur."Perigrinatio, p. 53 (1502, fol.). 9 See, on the chemistry of frankincense, Braconnot, Ann. de chimie, lxviii. (1808) pp. 6o-69; Johnston, Phil. Trans. (1839), pp. 301-305; J. Stenhouse, Ann. der Chem. and Pharm. xxxv. (184o) p. 306; and A. Kurbatow, Zeitsch. fur Chem. (1871), p. 201. 10 " Praecipua autem gratia est mammoso, cum haerente lacryma priore consecuta alia miscuit se " (Nat. Hist. xii. 32). One of the Chinese names for frankincense, Jxi-hiang, " milk-perfume," is explained by the Pen Ts'au (xxxiv. 45), a Chinese work, as being derived from the nipple-like form of its drops. (See E. Bretschneider, On the Knowledge possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arabs, &c., p. 19, Lond., 1871.) " The Voyage of Nearchus, loc. cit. 12 Vaughan (Pharm. Journ. xii. 1853) speaks of the Arabian Luban, commonly called Morbat or Shaharree Luban, as realizing higher prices in the market than any of the qualities exported from Africa. The incense of " Esher," i.e. Shihr or Shehr, is mentioned by Marco Polo, as also by Barbosa. (See Yule, op: cit. ii. p. 377.) J. Raymond Wellsted (Travels to the City of the Caliphs, p. 173, Lond., 184o) distinguishes two kinds of frankincense" Meaty," selling at $4 per cwt., and an inferior article fetching 20%less. 13 " Es scheint, dass selber die Araber ihr eignes Rauchwerk nicht hoch schatzen; denn die Vornehmen in Jemen brauchen gemeiniglich indianisches Rauchwerk, ja eine grosse Menge Mastix von der Inset Scio " (Beschreibung von Arabien, p. 143, Kopenh., 1772). 14 " De Arabibus minus mirum, qui nigricantem colorem, quo Thus Indicum praeditum esse vult Dioscorides [lib. i. c. 70], Indum plerumque vocent, ut ex Myrobalano nigro quern Indum appellant, patet " (op. sup. cit. p. 157). sq.), frankincense was not sacrificially employed in Trojan times. It was used by the ancient Egyptians in their religious rites, but, as Herodotus tells us (ii. 86), not in embalming. It constituted a fourth part of the Jewish incense of the sanctuary. (Ex. xxx. 34), and is frequently mentioned in the Pentateuch. With other spices it was stored in a great chamber of the house of God at Jerusalem (1 Chron. ix. 29, Neh. xiii. 5-9). On the sacrificial use and import of frankincense and similar substances see INCENSE. In the Red Sea regions frankincense is valued not only for its sweet odour when burnt, but as a masticatory; and blazing lumps of it are not infrequently used for illumination instead of oil lamps. Its fumes are an excellent insectifuge. As a medicine it was in former times in high repute. Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxv. 82) mentions it as an antidote to hemlock. Avicenna (ed. Plempii, lib. ii. p. 161, Lovanii, 1658, fol.) recommends it for tumours, ulcers of the head and ears, affections of the breast, vomiting, dysentery and fevers. In the East frankincense has been found efficacious as an external application in carbuncles, blind boils and gangrenous sores, and as an internal agent is given in gonorrhoea. In China it was an old internal remedy for leprosy and struma, and is accredited with stimulant, tonic, sedative, astringent and vulnerary properties. It is not used in modern medicine, being destitute of any special virtues. (See Waring, Pharm. of India, p. 443, &c.; and F. Porter
Common frankincense or thus, Abietis resina, is the term applied to a resin which exudes from fissures in the bark of the Norway spruce fir, Abies excelsa, D.C.; when melted in hot water and strained it constitutes " Burgundy pitch," Pix abietina. The concreted turpentine obtained in the United States by making incisions in the trunk of a species of pine, Pinus australis, is also so designated. It is commercially known as " scrape," and is similar to the French " galipot " or " barras." Common frankincense is an ingredient in some ointments and plasters, and on account of its pleasant odour when burned has been used in incense as a substitute for olibanum. (See Fluckiger and Hanbury, Pharmacographia.) The" black frankincense oil " of the Turks is stated by Hanbury (Science Papers, p. 142, 1876) to be liquid storax. (F. H. B.) End of Article: FRANKINCENSE If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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