storax balsam
{{Short description|Resin from the genus liquidambar}}
{{For|the storax tree|Styrax}}
File:Deutsches Apothekenmuseum - Styrax.jpg
Storax ({{langx|la|storax}}; {{langx|el|στύραξ}}, stúrax),{{Cite web|url=https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=storax|title=The American Heritage Dictionary entry: storax|last=Company|first=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing|website=www.ahdictionary.com|access-date=2018-09-20}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/storax|title=Definition of STORAX|website=www.merriam-webster.com|language=en|access-date=2018-09-20}}{{Cite web|url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/storax|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160925133110/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/storax|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 25, 2016|title=storax {{!}} Definition of storax in English by Oxford Dictionaries|website=Oxford Dictionaries {{!}} English|access-date=2018-09-20}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.yourdictionary.com/storax|title=Storax dictionary definition {{!}} storax defined|website=www.yourdictionary.com|language=en|access-date=2018-09-20}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/storax|title=Storax definition and meaning {{!}} Collins English Dictionary|website=www.collinsdictionary.com|language=en|access-date=2018-09-20}} often commercially sold as styrax, is a natural fragrant resin isolated from the wounded bark of Liquidambar orientalis Mill. (Asia Minor) and Liquidambar styraciflua L. (Eastern US, Mexico, Central America) (Altingiaceae).{{citation | author=Karl-Georg Fahlbusch | contribution=Flavors and Fragrances | title=Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry | edition=7th | publisher=Wiley | year=2007 | page=115|display-authors=etal}} It is distinct from benzoin (also called "storax"), a similar resin obtained from the Styracaceae plant family.
Composition
Purified storax contains circa 33–50% storesin, an alcoholic resin, both free and as cinnamic esters. It contains 5–15% cinnamic acid, 5–15% cinnamyl cinnamate, circa 10% phenylpropyl cinnamate; small amounts of ethyl cinnamate, benzyl cinnamate, and styrene. Some may contain traces of vanillin. Some sources report a resin containing triterpenic acids (oleanolic and 3-epioleanolic acids).{{citation | author=James A. Duke | entry=Storax (Liquidambar orientalis Mill. and L., Styraciflua L.) | title=Duke's Handbook of Medicinal Plants of the Bible | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2008 | pages=258–259}}
Uses
Storax has a pleasant, floral/lilac, leathery, balsamic smell. Storax and its derivatives (resinoid, essential oil, absolute) are used as flavors, fragrances, and in pharmaceuticals (Friar's Balsam).{{citation | entry=Styrax | author=George A. Burdock | title=Fenaroli's Handbook of Flavor Ingredients | edition=6th | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2010 | pages=1853–1854}}{{citation | contribution=Compound Benzoin Tincture | title=British Pharmacopoeia | volume=3 | year=2009}}
American storax resin (Liquidambar styraciflua) is chewed like gum to freshen breath and clean teeth.{{citation | author=James A. Duke | entry=Benzoin (Styrax benzoin Dryander.) | title=Duke's Handbook of Medicinal Plants of the Bible | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2008 | page=445}}
History
Mnesimachus, Aristotle, Theophrastus (Historia Plantarum), Herodotus, and Strabo mention the storax tree and its balsam. In ancient Greece, storax also denoted the spike at the lower end of a spearshaft.{{citation | editor=Henry George Liddell | editor2=Robert Scott | chapter=στύραξ | title=Greek-English Lexicon | edition=8th | publisher=Harper & Brothers | year=1897 | page=1442 | chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/greekenglishlex00lidduoft}}
Pliny (Historia Naturalis 12.98, 15.26; 24.24) notes the use of storax as a perfume, while Scribonius Largus drank wine flavored with storax.{{citation | entry=styrax | title=Oxford Latin Dictionary | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1968 | page=1832}} Ciris mentions storax as a fragrant hair dye.{{citation | entry=storax | title=Oxford Latin Dictionary | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1968 | page=1825}} Dioscorides (De materia medica 1.79) reports its use as incense, similar to frankincense, having expectorant and soothing properties.{{citation | author=Dioscorides | author-link=Dioscorides | editor=Julius Berendes | entry=Styrax | title=De materia medica | publisher=PharmaWiki.ch | year=1902 | page=89 | url=http://www.pharmawiki.ch/materiamedica/images/Dioskurides.pdf | access-date=2014-10-10 | archive-date=2015-09-24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924072207/http://www.pharmawiki.ch/materiamedica/images/Dioskurides.pdf | url-status=dead }}
The 10th century Arab historian al-Masudi listed storax gum (mayʿa) as a spice in his book Murūdj al-dhahab (Meadows of Gold).{{citation | author=A. Dietrich | contribution=AFĀWĪH | title=The Encyclopaedia of Islam | edition=2nd | volume=12 (supplement) | publisher=Brill | year=2004 | pages=42–43}}
Chao Ju-Kuan, a 13th century trade commissioner in Fukien province, described liquid storax gum as a product of Ta-shï (the Arabs).{{Cite book|last=Hirth|first=F.|url=https://archive.org/details/chaujukuahiswork00chao/page/200/mode/2up|title=Chau Ju-Kua: His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, entitled Chu Fan Chï|last2=Rockhill|first2=W. W.|publisher=Printing Office of Imperial Academy of Sciences|year=1911|location=Saint Petersburg|pages=200}}
Linnaeus, who determined the scientific names of plants, thought that storax was extracted from the tree called in modern Hebrew livneh refu'i which he termed Styrax officinalis. However in the light of tests made in Israel it is very doubtful if a sap with medicinal or aromatic qualities can be extracted from this tree. The storax of the ancients was probably extracted from a different tree, seemingly from the Liquidambar orientalis which grows wild in northern Syria, and may even have been grown in Israel; from it is extracted an aromatic sap with healing qualities called storax liquidis. This may possibly be the biblical balm, though other sources conclude that the biblical balm is Balsam (opobalsamum).{{citation | author=Jehuda Feliks | contribution=Storax | title=Encyclopaedia Judaica | edition=2nd | volume=19 | year=2007 | publisher=Thomson Gale | page=238}}
This species originated in the Southern regions of Mesopotamia, present day Iraq and in particular Babylon. Babylonians used it for respiratory related diseases. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:abo:phi,0978,001:12 8]
In the nineteenth century, styrene was isolated by distillation of storax balsam.{{citation | author=Denis H. James | author2=William M. Castor | contribution=Styrene | title=Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry | edition=7th | publisher=Wiley | year=2007 | page=1}}
In North Africa, for mystical purposes, women burn benzoin and storax in potsherds.{{citation | author=D. S. Margoliouth | author-link=David Samuel Margoliouth | contribution=ḲĀDIRIYYA | title=The Encyclopaedia of Islam | edition=2nd | volume=4 | publisher=Brill | year=1997 | pages=380–383}}
Safety
Storax resin is "generally regarded as safe" (GRAS), but at low levels, for example, circa 15 ppm in candy and 25 ppm in baked goods.