What are flowers of benjamin?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
June 22, 2004
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Gum benjamin or gum benzoin is a wound-response resin produced by the Sumatran snowbell (Styrax benzoin Dryander). The resin or balsam forms only after the bark of the tree is wounded. Harvesting gum benzoin [ben' zo in] begins with damaging one side of the tree with an axe. The milky resin oozes from the gashes forming 'tears' and collects between the bark and the wood. When the resin has hardened, the wounded bark is stripped away and scraped and the tears collected.
Harvesting starts when the tree is 6 to 7 years old and continues until the tree is 11 or 12. The first three years' resin is considered the finest gum benzoin; the final collection, considered an inferior product, comes when the snowbell is chopped down and split to collect any remaining pockets of resin. The resin was known to the Arabic traders as luban jawi giving rise to the names benjamin and benzoin.
Gum benzoin has been burned as incense probably since some ancient person first threw a resinous branch on a fire. The gum proved valuable in medicinals—in Pagliari's Styptic used on wounds to halt profuse bleeding and allow venous and small arterial damage time to heal, in friar's balsam or tinctura benzoini composita added to hot water and the vapors inhaled for the treatment of colds, bronchitis and pneumonia, in Jesuit's Drops as an expectorant, in adeps benzoatus used as a topical ointment for skin infections, and mixed with salicylic acid as a cure for Tinea pedis, athlete's foot.
'Flowers of benjamin' or benzoic acid, a fine white powder, was first described in 1608 by Blaise de Vigenere (of cipher fame) from the dry distillation of gum benzoin. The gum also contains varying amounts of vanillin (its fragrance) and cinnamic acid. Benzoic acid, an aromatic carboxylic acid, provides most of gum benzoin's antifungal and antibacterial properties and protects damaged trees from decay.
Benzoic acid has since been discovered in numerous plant and animal products. The first large-scale commercial extraction of benzoic acid was from the collection and distillation of horse and cattle urine in Germany. Benzoic acid is now produced mostly by a toluene/oxygen reaction under high pressure and temperature. Gum benzoin is still used in various cosmetics, potpourris, perfumes, and lotions.
Where needed only for the antibacterial and antifungal properties (preservative), benzoic acid or a salt or ester (benzoate) is used—soft drinks, tooth pastes, flours and bakery items. Benzoic acid is an intermediary for the production of phenolic compounds. It serves as a plasticizer for adhesives, activates and controls the polymerization of rubber and is the corrosion inhibitor in antifreeze/coolant. It is a stabilizer in photographic film processing and halts the fermentation process in beer. It is found in disinfectants, penetrating oils and pesticides.
Thomas Schoepke with the Pharmazeutische Biologie of the Universität Greifswald has posted photographs of Styrax taken by Kazuo Yamasaki. To view Styrax benzoin and Styrax japonica, click on the link:
http://pharm1.pharmazie.uni-greifswald.de/gallery/gal-styr.htm
Click on the underlined names to view the individual images.
(Compiled from: Merck Index, 11th Edition, Susan Budavari, ed. Merck & Co. Inc. Rahway, NJ, 1989; "Gum Benzoin" & "Benzoin", Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911; "Styrax Benzoin", Physiomedical Dispensatory, William Cook, MD, 1869; "Benzoinum (USP)—Benzoin", H.W. Felter, MD & J.U. Lloyd, PhrM, PhD, King's American Dispensatory, 1898; "Benzoic Acid (Carboxybenzene)", Chemical Land 21)
killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~
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