# Galbanum (Ferula gummosa)

**Galbano**

**Known today as.** Gum resin of *Ferula gummosa*.

Kind: Resin & Wood

## What did Canale use it for?

In the fumigation; an ingredient of Scripture’s incense in Treatise Two (ch. 8; Treatise Two; Exodus 30:34).

## What does modern science say?

Green-smelling; used in perfumery.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **beta-pinene and delta-3-carene**: the green oil
- **umbelliferone**: 
- **galbanic acid**: a sesquiterpene coumarin
- **undecatriene**: the green smell

**Mechanism.** A giant-fennel gum resin like asafoetida without the sulfur: carminative in the gut, counter-irritant on the skin in plasters, and a perfume note. In the fumigation it is smoke.

**Dose.** Safe externally.

**Standing.** A perfumery material; in the Iranian pharmacopoeia; no European monograph.

## What lore surrounds it?

Thiselton-Dyer quotes Lucan's fires against serpents, “There foreign galbanum dissolving fries, And crackling flames from humble wallwort rise,” among the plants “burned for the purpose of expelling serpents.”

Grieve: the gum “was well known to the ancients and Pliny called it ‘bubonion,’” and under dry distillation it “yields a thick oil of a bluish colour, which after purification becomes the blue colour of the oil obtained from the flowers of Matricaria Chamomilla.”

## What did the older authorities say?

**Exodus 30:34.** One of the four ingredients of the holy incense of the Tabernacle, with stacte, onycha, and frankincense (see [Onycha and stacte](https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/onycha-and-stacte)).

## Sources

- Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (1889). *The Folk-lore of Plants*. Project Gutenberg #10118.
- Grieve, M. (1931). *A Modern Herbal*, “Galbanum.” botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/g/galban02.html
- Sadraei, H., et al. (2001). “Spasmolytic activity of essential oil and various extracts of *Ferula gummosa* Boiss. on ileum contractions.” *Phytomedicine* 8.

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

Historical description, not medical advice.