_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.
[671] Consul Cumberbatch, _Report on Trade of Smyrna_ for 1871.—_Raki_,
derived from the Turkish word _sâqiz_, for mastich, which, strange to
say, would appear to have its home on the Baltic. In the vocabularies
of the Old-Prussian idiom “sachis” is found meaning resin.—Blau,
_Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenl. Gesellsch._, xxix. 582.
[672] Powell, _Economic Products of the Punjab_, Roorkee, 1868. 411.
[673] Guibourt, _Hist. d. Drog._ iii. (1850) 458; Armieux, _Topographie
médicale du Sahara_, Paris, 1866. 58.
=History=—The terebinth was well known to the ancients; it is the
τέρμινθος of Theophrastus, τερέβινθος of other authors, and the _Alah_
of the Old Testament.[674] Among its products, the kernels were
regarded by Dioscorides as unwholesome, though agreeable in taste. By
pressing them, the original _Oil of Turpentine_, τερεβίνθινον ἔλαιον,
a mixture of essential and fat oil was obtained, as it is in the East
to the present day. The resinous juice of the stem and branches, the
true, primitive turpentine, ῤητίνη τερμινθίνη, was celebrated as the
finest of all analogous products, and preferred both to mastich and the
pinic resins. To the latter however the name of turpentine was finally
applied.[675]
=Collection=—The resinous juice is secreted in the bark, according to
Unger,[676] and Marchand,[677] in special cells precisely as mastich in
_P. Lentiscus_. That found in commerce is collected in the island of
Scio. To some extent it exudes spontaneously, yet in greater abundance
after incisions made in the stems and branches. This is done in spring,
and the resin continues to flow during the whole summer; but the
quantity is so small that not more that 10 or 11 ounces are obtained
from a large tree in the course of a year. The turpentine, hardened
by the coolness of the night, is scraped from the stem down which it
has flowed, or from flat stones placed at the foot of the tree to
receive it. As it is, when thus collected, always mixed with foreign
substances, it is purified to some extent by straining through small
baskets, after having been liquefied by exposure to the sun.
When Tournefort[678] visited Scio in 1701, the island was said to
produce scarcely 300 okes or ocche (one occa = 2·82 lb. avdp.); a
century later Olivier[679] stated, that the turpentine was becoming
very scarce, 200 ocche only, or even less, being the annual yield. It
was then carefully collected by means of little earthen vessels tied to
the incised stems. The trade is asserted to be now almost exclusively
in the hands of the Jews, who dispose of the drug in the interior part
of the Turkish Empire.[680]
=Description=—A specimen collected by Maltass near Smyrna in 1858 was,
after ten years, of a light yellowish colour, scarcely fluid though
perfectly transparent, nearly of the odour of melted colophony or
mastich, and without much taste. We found it readily soluble in spirit
of wine, amylic alcohol, glacial acetic acid, benzol, or acetone, the
solution in each case being very slightly fluorescent. The alcoholic
solution reddens litmus, and is neither bitter nor acrid. Two parts of
this genuine turpentine dissolved in one of acetone deviate a ray of
polarized light 7° to the right[681] in a column 50 mm. long.
[674] Genesis xii. 6, where the word is rendered in our version _plain_.
[675] Further historical information on the Terebinth may be found in
Hehn’s _Kulturpflanzen und Hausthiere_, Berlin, 1877. 336.
[676] Unger u. Kotschy, _die Insel Cypern_, 1865. 361. 424.
[677] _Revision du groupe des Anacardiacées._ Paris, 1869. 150. Plate
iii. shows the resiniferous ducts of a branch two years old.
[678] _Voyage into the Levant_, i. (1718) 287.
[679] _Voy. dans l’Empire Othoman_, etc., ii. (1801) 136.
[680] Maltass, _Pharm. Journ._ xvii. (1856) 540.
[681] A solution of mastich made in the same proportion deviates 3° to
the right.
Chian turpentine as found in commerce and believed to be genuine,
is a soft solid, becoming brittle, by exposure to the air; viewed
in mass it appears opaque and of a dull brown hue. If pressed while
warm between two slips of glass, it is seen to be transparent, of a
yellowish-brown, and much contaminated by various impurities in a state
of fine division. It has an agreeable, mild terebinthinous odour and
very little taste. The whitish powder with which old Chian turpentine
becomes covered, shows no trace of crystalline structure when examined
under the microscope.
=Chemical Composition=—Chian turpentine consists of resin and essential
oil. The former is probably identical with the _Alpha-resin_ of
mastich. The _Beta-resin_ or _Masticin_ appears to be absent, for we
find that Chian turpentine deprived of its essential oil by a gentle
heat, dissolves entirely (impurities excepted) in alcohol sp. gr.
0·815, which is by no means the case with mastich.
The essential oil which we obtained by distilling with water 64 ounces
of Chian turpentine of authentic origin, amounted to nearly 14½ per
cent. It has the odour of the drug; sp. gr. 0·869; boiling point 161°
C.; it deviates the ray of polarized light 12·1° to the right. In
common with turpentine oils of the _Coniferæ_, it contains a small
amount of an oxygenated oil, and is therefore vividly attacked by
sodium. When this reaction is over and the oil is again distilled,
it boils at 157° C. and has a sp. gr. of 0·862. It has now a more
agreeable odour, resembling a mixture of cajuput, mace, and camphor,
and nearly the same rotatory power (11·5° to the right). By saturation
with dry hydrochloric acid, it yields a solid compound after some
weeks. After treatment with sodium and rectification, the oil was
found[682] to consist of C 88·75, H 11·40 per cent., which is the
composition of oil of turpentine.
=Uses=—Chian Turpentine appears to have exactly the properties of the
pinic turpentines; in British medicine it is almost obsolete. In Greece
it is sometimes added to wine or used to flavour cordials, in the same
manner as turpentine of the pine, or mastich.