# Benzoin (Styrax benzoin)

**Belzoin**

**Known today as.** Gum benzoin, the resin of *Styrax benzoin* of Sumatra.

Kind: Resin & Wood

## What did Canale use it for?

In the oil for the bewitched (ch. 9).

## What does modern science say?

Antiseptic; still in compound tincture of benzoin. Compound tincture of benzoin, the [Friar’s balsam](https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/friars-balsam) of the old chests, is still painted on skin to make dressings adhere and breathed in steam for colds; benzoic acid and its salts preserve foods and soft drinks the world over.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **benzoic acid**: up to 20 per cent, free and as esters
- **cinnamic acid**: in Sumatra benzoin
- **coniferyl benzoate**: 
- **vanillin**: the sweetness

**Mechanism.** Benzoic acid is antiseptic and antifungal, and the resin painted on skin dries to a protective film, the “friar’s balsam” use; breathed in steam it is an expectorant by irritation. It is a recognised contact allergen.

**Dose.** Safe externally; allergic dermatitis is common enough that it is in patch-test series.

**Standing.** Compound benzoin tincture is in the USP and the BP as a skin protectant and inhalation; the FDA declined to list it as a skin protectant in its 2003 monograph.

## What lore surrounds it?

Sumatra benzoin, rich in cinnamic acid, went to the apothecaries; Siam benzoin, sweeter, to the perfumers; benzoic acid, first obtained from the resin by sublimation in the sixteenth century, took its name from it.

## What did the older authorities say?

**Its name.** From the Arabic *lubān jāwī*, “frankincense of Java,” worn down to *benjoin* by the Italian and French traders who brought it from Sumatra in the fifteenth century.

**The churches.** Burned it as incense, and in Russia and the Orthodox East it remains the chief ingredient of church incense; in the West it went into pomanders, pastilles, and the perfumes of the glovers.

## Sources

- Pomet, P. (1694). *Histoire générale des drogues*.
- Scardamaglia, L., et al. (2003). “Compound tincture of benzoin: a common contact allergen?” *Australasian Journal of Dermatology* 44.

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*Benzoin.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/benzoin

Historical description, not medical advice.