Balsams and Resins

C9H12O, Mr 136.19, bpmkP 237.5 °C, df 1.008, nf 1.5278, occurs both in free and esterified form in resins and balsams (e.g., benzoe resin and Peru balsam). It has been identified in fruit and ciimamon. 

Resins, Oleoresins, Gum Resins, and Balsams.—These substances represent products of metabolism in many plants which are formed either normally as Turpentine, Asafcetida, Mastiche, etc., or as a result of pathological processes through injury to the plant tissues as Styrax, Benzoin, Balsam of Tolu and Peru, etc. They occur usually in special cavities such as secretion cells, glands, or secretion reservoirs. 

Propolis (registration number chemical abstracts service - CAS 9009-62-5) is a sticky colored material, which honeybees collect from different plants exudates and modify in its hypopharyngeal glands, being used in the hive to fill gaps and to protect against invaders as insects and microorganisms. Raw propolis usually contains 50% resin and balsam, 30% wax. 

Essential oils an extremely heterogeneous mixture of volatile, lipophilic plant products with characteristic odors. The International Standard Organization (ISO) has defined the E.o. in the strict sense as the steam distillates of plants, or of oils obtained by pressing out the rinds of certain citrus fruits. However, in practice the products of extraction with organic solvents, enfleurage or maceration of blossoms (flower oils), and the resinoids which can be extracted from other plant parts, and from resins and balsams are all embraced by the term E.o. 

In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the distillation and extraction of plant and animal materials were the characteristic chemical operations of pharmacy. The focus of chemical-pharmaceutical practice was on the extraction of oils and juices and on the distillation of aqueous and oily substances from plants or vegetable materials such as herbs, blossoms, fruits, seeds, woods, resins, and balsams. However, in the sixteenth century Paracelsus and his followers began to use more frequently minerals as a source of medicines in addition to vegetable and animal substances. What was at first only a sporadic production of new chemical prepara-tions eventually induced a fundamental change in pharmacy. During the seventeenth century, preparations of mineral acids and salts surfaced as an important sector of chemical-pharmaceutical practice. This new commercial chemical practice spurred a process of reflection that contributed to the formation of the modem concept of the chemical compound. 

Gums (Mucilages) Resins (and Balsams) Essential Oils Camphors Expressed Oils Essential Salts (A Saline Matter) (Phlegma or Water) (An Earthy Substance)... 

This working technique is more frequently used since, as with all evaluations directly on the layer, very small amounts of material can be determined and suitable measuring apparatus is commercially available. A Chromoscan densitometer (Firm 78) has been used for the evaluation of spots of various resins and balsams which had been visualised with ethanolic phosphoric acid [333]. The densitometric measurement of some ester spots, visualised with vanillin-sulphuric acid, has been possible within a narrow range of concentration by using a photo-... 

Resins and balsams are plant excreta like essential oils. In contrast to these last named, they are only slightly or not at all volatile in steam. Resins are yellow to brown, solid, brittle, amorphous masses which soften only at higher temperature and have no sharp melting point. They are insoluble in water and only moderately so in alcohol chloroform or ethyl... 

There has been no lack of attempts to characterise resins and balsams chro-matographicaUy. Rothenheimer [215] and Stock [272] have used capillary analysis Valentin [313], chromatography on alumina colums Mills and Werner [169] and Rawlings and Werner [208], reversed phase procedures on paper. Successes have been only partial and none of these procedures has attracted any particular interest in practice. 

Fig. 108. Comparison of the most important resins and balsams on a 40 cm TLC plate. Detection with antimony(III)- and (V) chlorides (Rgt. Nos. 15 and 18). See text for...

Fig. 109. Thin-layer chromatogram of resins and balsams, photographed in UV light. See Fig. 108 for separation conditions and legend. Spray reagent antimony(III)-...

Essential oils are stored in special organs secretory cells, ducts and cavities located inside different plant tissues, or in glandular hairs situated in the outer cell layer, mainly of leaves or petals. Some plant species produce exudates such as resins and balsams that also can be used as sources of essential oils. The content of essential oil in resins achieves 30%, while the content in plant parts is lower and amounts to 0.02% for flowers, 1% for herbs and 3-5% for seeds and fruits. The exception is clove buds containing 15-20% of essential oil. 

Resinoids are products obtained by the extraction of natural materials, mostly resins, gum resins and balsams, by solvents other than petroleum ether or petrol. Chlorinated hydrocarbons (dichloromethane and chloroform), acetone, methanol or ethanol are typically used for this. Resinoids have a characteristic smell, which due to the volatile substances (essential oils) present. 

Resinoids are prepared by extracting plant exudates (balsams, oleo gum resins, natural oleo resins, and resinous products) with solvents such as methanol, ethanol, or toluene. Yields range from 50 to 95%. The products are usually highly viscous and are sometimes diluted (e.g., with phthalates or benzyl benzoate) to improve their flow and processing properties. 

Properties and Composition. — The odor of myrrh is peculiar, but balsamic and fragrant the tecte is bitter, aromatic, and somewhat pungent. Water dissolves the gum principally, while alcohol and ether take up the volatile oil and resin. Myrrh is readily dissolved by the alkalies. When it is subjected to the action of nitric acid, a vinous hue is produced. According to Pelletier it consists of thirty-four per cent, of resin and sixty-six of gum. Rdickholdt states that it contains, when of the best quality, between forty-four and forty-five per cent, of resin. Brandes and Bbaconnot have also analysed it, with the following results —... 

History, Pelletier and Walter (according to Ref 4) first discovered toluene while evaluating the degradation products obtd from heating a natural resin, the balsam of Tolu, named for a small town in Colombia, South America. This balm was used as a medicine and in perfumery, and. even today is so employed in small amounts. In... 

There are a few minor wood-based chemical industries. After chestnut blight wiped out the American chestnut, U.S. tannin production essentially ceased. The main natural tannins, watde and quebracho, are now imported. High U.S. labor costs and the advent of synthetic tannins make re-establishment of a U.S. tannin industry unlikely. Tannins are used in oil-weU drilling muds. Tree exudates are a continuing wood-based chemical industry. Tree exudates include mbber, tme carbohydrate gums (eg, acacia gum), kinos (eg, the phenolic exudates from eucalyptus), balsams (eg, Storax from l iquidambar spp.), and many different types of oleoresins (mixtures of a soHd resin and a liquid essential oil). The most important oleoresin stiU collected in the United States is pine gum (rosin plus turpentine). 

Hypericace(R or St. John s Wort Family.—Herbs or shrubs of temperate climes with opposite (Hypericum perforatum) rarely whorled branches and balsamic, resinous Juices, which, in the herbaceous species, are secreted by black or pellucid glands found in the... 

Plant preparations Comminuted or powdered plant material, extracts, tinctures, fatty or essential oils, resins, gums, balsams, expressed juices, and so on, prepared from plant material, and preparations whose production involves a fractionation, purification or concentration process, but excluding chemically defined isolated constituents. A plant preparation can be regarded as the active ingredient whether or not the constituents having therapeutic activities are known. 

Both the terms resin and plastic are in common use but there are no explicit definitions for them. The term resin originally referred to vegetable-derived organic products of relatively high molecular weight, the best known of which are rosin and balsam obtained from coniferous trees. But, the term is now used much more broadly, and rather loosely, to include the manmade polymeric substances used in a variety of applications, such as in plastics, textiles, and paints. It is often used interchangeably with the term plastic . 

Beduced Balsam of Coimiba, Balsam of copaiba, 4 pounds castor oil, 3 pounds mix. Or Balsam of copaiba. 7 pounds castor oil, 4 pound.s yellow resin, 2 pounds. Or Equal parts of balsam of copaiba and balsam of Canada mixed together. Or To tho last add 2 pounds of Venice turpentine. Or Balsams of Canlula am I copai bo, and nut or castor oil, cyellow resin, 2 pounds balsam of Canada, 1 pound. Tho above arc tho forms for tho reduction of copaiba balsam, that have from time to time been circulated in tho dnig trade. For the mode of distinguishing such compounds from tho pure balsam, see next receipt. 

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