# Labdanum (Cistus ladanifer)

**Laudano*; *ladano**

**Known today as.** The resin of the rockrose, *Cistus ladanifer* and *C. creticus*.

Kind: Resin & Wood

## What did Canale use it for?

In the fumigation and the oil (chs. 8–9).

## What does modern science say?

A perfume base. Not to be confused with laudanum, the tincture of opium.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **labdanolic acid**: a labdane diterpene
- **ambrox precursors**: sclareol-like diterpenes, the base of synthetic ambergris
- **alpha-pinene and camphene**: 

**Mechanism.** The gum of the rock-rose, combed from goats’ beards in antiquity: an antiseptic resin and a perfume fixative of the amber family, whose diterpenes are the industrial precursors of ambroxide. In the fumigation and the oil it is a scent.

**Dose.** Safe externally.

**Standing.** A perfumery material; *Cistus* leaf tea has small trials for colds (Kalus, 2009).

## What lore surrounds it?

Folkard says the ladanum of the Cretan cistus is “more highly valued as a perfume, and extensively used in oriental countries in fumigations,” gathered “by means of a kind of rake, to which numerous leather thongs are appended instead of teeth.” “In olden times this resin was believed to have been gathered from the shrubs by goats who rubbed their beards against the leaves,” which Gerarde called a fable of the “Greekish monkes,” but Bacon kept: “There are some teares of trees, which are kembed from the beards of goats; for when the goats bite and crop them, especially in the morning, the dew being on, the teare cometh forth, and hangeth upon their beards: of this sort is some kinde of Ladanum.”

## What did the older authorities say?

**Herodotus.** Says that labdanum was combed from the beards of goats that had browsed among the rockrose bushes.

## Sources

- Folkard, R. (1884). *Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics*, “Cistus.” Project Gutenberg #44638.
- Kalus, U., et al. (2009). “*Cistus incanus* (CYSTUS052) for treating patients with infection of the upper respiratory tract.” *Antiviral Research* 84.

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

Historical description, not medical advice.