The soluble portion of mastich, called Alpha-resin of Mastich, possesses acid properties, and like many other resins has the formula C₂₀H₃₂O₃. Hartsen[670] asserts that it can be obtained in crystals. Its alcoholic solution is precipitated by an alcoholic solution of neutral acetate of lead. Mastich contains a very little volatile oil.
Commerce—Mastich still forms the principal revenue of Scio, from which island the export in 1871 was 28,000 lb. of picked, and 42,000 lb. of common. The market price of picked mastich was equal to 6s. 10d. per lb.—that of common 2s. 10d. The superior quality is sent to Turkey, especially Constantinople, also to Trieste, Vienna, and Marseilles, and a small quantity to England. The common sort is employed in the East in the manufacture of raki and other cordials.[671]
Uses—Mastich is not now regarded as possessing any important therapeutic virtues, and as a medicine is becoming obsolete. Even in varnish making it is no longer employed as formerly, its place being well supplied by less costly resins, such for example as dammar.
Varieties—There is found in the Indian bazaars a kind of mastich which though called Mustagi-rúmí (Roman mastich), is not imported from Europe but from Kabul, and is the produce of Pistacia Khinjuk Stocks, and the so-called P. cabulica St. trees growing all over Sind, Belúchistan and Kabul.[672] This drug, of which the better qualities closely approximate to the mastich of Scio, sometimes appears in the European market under the name of East Indian or Bombay Mastich. We find that when dissolved in half its weight of acetone or benzol, it deviates the ray of light to the right.
The solid resin of the Algerian form of P. Terebinthus L., known as P. atlantica Desf., is collected and used as mastich by the Arab tribes of Northern Africa.[673]
TEREBINTHINA CHIA
Terebinthina Cypria; Chian or Cyprian Turpentine; F. Térébenthine ou Baume de Chio ou de Chypres; G. Chios Terpenthin, Cyprischer Terpenthin.
Botanical Origin—Pistacia Terebinthus L. (P. atlantica Desf., P. palæstina Boiss., P. cabulica Stocks), a tree 20 to 40 feet or more in height, in some countries only a shrub, common on the islands and shores of the Mediterranean as well as throughout Asia Minor, extending, as P. palæstina, to Syria and Palestine; and eastward, as P. cabulica, to Belúchistan and Afghanistan. It is found under the form called P. atlantica in Northern Africa, where it grows to a large size, and in the Canary Islands.
These several forms are mostly regarded as so many distinct species; but after due consideration and the examination of a large number of specimens both dried and living, we have arrived at the conclusion that they may fairly be united under a single specific name. The extreme varieties certainly present great differences of habit, as anyone would observe who had compared Pistacia Terebinthus as the straggling bush which it is in Languedoc and Provence, with the noble umbrageous tree it forms in the neighbourhood of Smyrna. But the different types are united by so many connecting links, that we have felt warranted in dissenting from the opinion usually held respecting them.
On the branches of Pistacia Terebinthus, a kind of galls is produced, which we shall briefly notice in our article Gallæe halepenses.