1. Ferula galbaniflua Boiss. et Buhse,[1215]—a plant with a tall, solid stem, 4 to 5 feet high, greyish, tomentose leaves, and thin flat fruits, 5 to 6 lines long, 2 to 3 broad, discovered in 1848 at the foot of Demawend in Northern Persia, and on the slopes of the same mountain at 4,000 to 8,000 feet, also on the mountains near Kushkäk and Churchurä (Jajarúd?). Bunge collected the same plant at Subzawar. Buhse says that the inhabitants of the district of Demawend collect the gum-resin of this plant which is Galbanum; the tears which exude spontaneously from the stem, especially on its lower part and about the bases of the leaves, are at first milk-white, but become yellow by exposure to light and air. It is not the practice, so far as he observed, to wound the plant for the purpose of causing the juice to exude more freely, nor is the gathering of the gum in this district any special object of industry.[1216] The plant is called in Persian Khassuih, and the Mazanderan dialect Boridsheh.
2. F. rubricaulis Boiss.[1217] (F. erubescens Boiss. ex parte, Aucher exsicc. n. 4614, Kotschy n. 666).—This plant was collected by Kotschy in gorges of the Kuh Dinar range in Southern Persia, and probably by Aucher-Eloy on the mountain of Dalmkuh in Northern Persia. Borszczow,[1218] who regards it as the same as the preceding (though Boissier[1219] places it in a different section of the genus), says, on the authority of Buhse, that it occurs locally throughout the whole of Northern Persia, is found in plenty on the slopes of Elwund near Hamadan, here and there on the edge of the great central salt-desert of Persia, on the mountains near Subzawar, between Ghurian and Kháf, west of Herat, and on the desert plateau west of Kháf. He states, though not from personal observation, that its gum-resin, which constitutes Persian Galbanum, is collected for commercial purposes around Hamadan. F. rubricaulis Boiss. has been beautifully figured by Berg[1220] under the name of F. erubescens.
History—Galbanum, in Hebrew Chelbenah, was an ingredient of the incense used in the worship of the ancient Israelites,[1221] and is mentioned by the earliest writers on medicine as Hippocrates and Theophrastus.[1222] Dioscorides states it to be the juice of a Narthex growing in Syria, and describes its characters, and the method of purifying it by hot water exactly as followed in modern times. We find it mentioned in the 2nd century among the drugs on which duty was levied at the Roman custom-house at Alexandria.[1223] Under the name of Kinnah it was well known to the Arabians, and through them to the physicians of the school of Salerno.
In the journal of expenses of John, king of France, during his captivity in England, a.d. 1359-60, there is an entry for the purchase of 1 lb. of Galbanum which cost 16s., 1 lb. of Sagapenum (Serapin) at the same time costing only 2s.[1224] In common with other products of the East, these drugs used to reach England by way of Venice, and are mentioned among the exports of that city to London in 1503.[1225]
An edict of Henry III. of France promulgated in 1581, gives the prices per lb. of the gum-resins of the Umbelliferæ as follows:—Opopanax, 32 sols, Sagapenum 22 sols, Asafœtida 15 sols, Galbanum 10 sols, Ammoniacum 6 sols 6 deniers.[1226]
Description—Galbanum is met with in drops or tears, adhering inter se into a mass, usually compact and hard, but sometimes found so soft as to be fluid. The tears are of the size of a lentil to that of a hazel-nut, translucent, and of various shades of light brown, yellowish or faintly greenish. The drug has a peculiar, not unpleasant, aromatic odour, and a disagreeable, bitter, alliaceous taste.
In one variety, the tears are dull and waxy, of a light yellowish tint when fresh, but becoming of an orange-brown by keeping; they are but little disposed to run together, and are sometimes quite dry and loose, with an odour that somewhat reminds one of savine. In recent importations of this form of galbanum, we have noticed a considerable admixture of thin transverse slices of the root of the plant, an inch or more in diameter.
Chemical Composition—Galbanum contains volatile oil, resin and mucilage. The first, of which 7 per cent. may be obtained by distillation with water, is a colourless or slightly yellowish liquid, partly consisting of a hydrocarbon, C₁₀H₁₆, boiling at from 170° to 180°. This oil affords easily crystals of terpin, C₁₀H₁₆ + 3OH₂, if it is treated as mentioned in the article Oleum Cajuputi; it also affords the crystallized compound C₁₀H₁₆ + HCl. But the prevailing part of oil of galbanum consists of hydrocarbons of a much higher boiling point. The crude oil has a mild aromatic taste, and deviates the ray of polarized light to the right.
The resin, which we find to constitute about 60 per cent. of the drug, is very soft, and dissolves in ether or in alkaline liquids, even in milk of lime, but only partially in bisulphide of carbon. When heated for some time at 100° C. with hydrochloric acid, it yields Umbelliferone, C₉H₆O₃, which may be dissolved from the acid liquid by means of ether or chloroform; it is obtained on evaporation in colourless acicular crystals. Umbelliferone is soluble in hot water; its solution exhibits, especially on addition of an alkali, a brilliant blue fluorescence which is destroyed by an acid. If a small fragment of galbanum is immersed in water, the fluorescence is immediately produced by a drop of ammonia.[1227] The same phenomenon takes place with asafœtida, not at all with ammoniacum; it is probably due to traces of Umbelliferone pre-existing in the former drugs. By boiling the umbelliferone with concentrated caustic lye, it splits up into resorcin, carbonic acid and formic acid.
Umbelliferone is also produced from many other aromatic umbelliferous plants, as Angelica, Levisticum and Meum, when their respective resins are submitted to dry distillation. According to Zwenger (1860) it may be likewise obtained from the resin of Daphne Mezereum L. The yield is always small; it is highest in galbanum, but even in this does not much exceed 0·8 per cent. reckoned on the crude drug.