Balsam

Balsam (also: turpentine) is the resinous exudate (or sap), which forms on certain kinds of trees and shrubs. Balsam (from Hebrew bosem בֹּשֶׂם, "spice", "perfume") owes its name to the biblical Balm of Gilead.

Safety

Some balsams, such as Balsam of Peru, may be associated with allergies.^[1][2] In particular, Euphorbia latex ("wolf's milk") is strongly irritant and cytotoxic.

Chemistry

Balsam is a solution of plant-specific resins in plant-specific solvents (essential oils). Such resins can include resin acids, esters, or alcohols. The exudate is a mobile to highly viscous liquid and often contains crystallized resin particles. Over time and as a result of other influences the exudate loses its liquidizing components or gets chemically converted into a solid material (i.e. by autoxidation).^[3]

Some authors require balsams to contain benzoic or cinnamic acid or their esters.^[4] Plant resins are sometimes classified according to other plant constituents in the mixture, for example as:^[4]

• pure resins (guaiac, hashish),
• gum-resins (containing gums/polysaccharides),
• oleo-gum-resins (a mixture of gums, resins and essential oils),
• oleo-resins (a mixture of resins and essential oils, e. g. capsicum, ginger and aspidinol),
• balsams (resinous mixtures that contain cinnamic and/or benzoic acid or their esters),
• glycoresins (podophyllin, jalap, kava kava).

List of balsam-like substances

Gum resins

• Bdellium
• Frankincense (Olibanum)
• Myrrh
• Opopanax

Other

• Ammoniacum
• Asafoetida (Laser)
• Balm of Gilead
• Balsam of Peru
• Balsam of Tolu
• Benzoin resin
• Bukhoor
• Camphor
• Canada balsam
• Chinese lacquer (Japanese lacquer)
• Copaiba balsam
• Copal
• Damar
• Elemi
• Galbanum
• Gurjun balsam
• Labdanum
• Mastic
• Rosin (Colophony)
• Sagapenum
• Sandarac
• Sarcocolla
• Styrax balsam
• Turpentine
• "Venice turpentine" from the (Larix occidentalis)

Balsam of Mecca

The liquid balsam called Balsam of Mecca is extracted from the tree Commiphora gileadensis (synonym: Commiphora opobalsamum)^[5] It is designated in the Bible by various names: bosem, besem, ẓori, nataf, and, in rabbinic literature, kataf, balsam, appobalsamon, afarsemon. It was used as a perfume and as a drug.^[6]

It was extracted both as the volatile component of the sap of the tree, and by boiling the stems and leaves.^[6] It was the only tropical, and the most expensive, spice grown in Israel.^[7] It was known to Pliny (Historia Naturalis 12:116; 13.18) as opobalsamum.^[8]

See also

• Basamum
• Balsam apple
• Balsam pear (disambiguation)
• Balsamic vinegar (contains no Balsam)
• Tincture of benzoin (Friars' Balsam)

References

1. Edward T. Bope, Rick D. Kellerman (2013). Conn's Current Therapy 2014: Expert Consult. Elsevier Health Sciences. Retrieved March 6, 2014.
2. "Balsam of Peru induced contact allergy", DermatitisFacts.com. Accessed: October 11, 2007
3. Klemens Fiebach; Dieter Grimm (2007), "Resins, Natural", Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry (7th ed.), Wiley, p. 2
4. Andrew Pengelly (2004), "Essential oils and resins", The constituents of medicinal plants (2nd ed.), Allen & Unwin, p. 102
5. Lumír O. HanuÅ¡; et al. (2005), "Myrrh-Commiphora Chemistry", Biomed. Papers 149 (1): 3–23, doi:10.5507/bp.2005.001, PMID 16170385
6. Groom, N. (1981). Frankincense and Myrrh: A Study of the Arabian Incense Trade. London and New York: Longman, Librairie de Liban. pp. 126–129. ISBN 0-582-76476-9.
7. Jehuda Feliks (2007), "Balsam", Encyclopaedia Judaica 3 (2nd ed.), Thomson Gale, p. 95
8. "opobalsamum", Oxford Latin Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1968, p. 1254