Myrrh

MYRRH, a gum-resin (see REsiNs), highly esteemed by the ancients as an unguent and perfume, used for incense in temples and also in embalming; it was one of the gifts offered by the Magi. True myrrh is the product of Commiphora Myrrha, a small tree of the family Burseraceae that grows in eastern Africa and Arabia, but the name is also applied to gum-resins obtained from other species of Commiphora.

Baisa Bol, Bhesa Bol

or Bissa Bol, from Commiphora Kataf, resembles true myrrh in appearance, but has a disagreeable taste and is scarcely bitter. It is used in China, mixed with food, to give to cows to improve the quality and increase the quantity of milk, and when mixed with lime as a size to impart a gloss to walls. Opaque bdellium produced by C. Playfairii, when shaken with water forms a slight but permanent lather. It is known as meena hcirma in Bombay, and was formerly used there for the expulsion of the guinea-worm. African bdellium is from C. afri

canum, and like opaque bdellium lacks the white streaks which are characteristic of myrrh and bissa bol; both are acrid, but have scarcely any bitterness or aroma. Indian bdellium, probably identical with the Indian drug googul obtained in Sind and Baluchistan from C. Muku/ and C. pubescens, Hook, is of a dark reddish colour, has an acrid taste and an odour resembling cedar wood, and softens in the hand.

As met in commerce true myrrh occurs in pieces of irregular size and shape, from 4 in. to 2 or 3 in. in diameter, and of a red dish-brown colour. The transverse fracture has a resinous ap pearance with white streaks; the flavour is bitter and aromatic, and the odour characteristic. It consists of a mixture of resin, gum and essential oil, the resin being present to the extent of 25 to with 2i. to 8% of the oil, myrrhol, to which the odour is due.