Opopanax
Greek opopanax, “the juice of all-heal”
- Known today as
- A gum-resin of Opopanax chironium, a Mediterranean plant of the carrot family; the name has since passed to a myrrh.
- Kind
- Resin & Wood, in 1 older authority
- Constituents
- resin acids, bisabolene and cis-alpha-bisabolene, coumarins
- Earliest authority here
- Theophrastus (c. 371–c. 287 BC)
- In other databases
- Plants of the World Online search · GBIF search · Wikidata search
Opopanax: what was it used for?
For cramps, the nerves, the womb, and old wounds; among the gums of the great compounds and antidotes.
Opopanax: what does modern science say?
No clinical evidence.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- resin acidsof Opopanax chironium, a Mediterranean umbellifer
- bisabolene and cis-alpha-bisabolenein the perfumer’s opoponax, which is the myrrh relative Commiphora guidottii
- coumarins
- Mechanism
- A gum resin of the galbanum type, carminative and antispasmodic, taken for cramps and hysteria into the nineteenth century; the perfumer’s opoponax is a sweet myrrh from Somalia and a different plant. Nothing is established clinically for either.
- Toxic dose
- Safe at the old doses.
- Standing
- Obsolete as a drug; a perfume note.
- Langenheim, J. H. (2003). Plant Resins: Chemistry, Evolution, Ecology, and Ethnobotany. Timber Press. Verified against its record · doi:10.2307/3647483
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Opopanax: what lore surrounds it?
Its plant, panakes, the all-heal, was said to be the gift of Chiron the centaur, healer and teacher of Asclepius, whence chironium.
Opopanax: what did the older authorities say?
- Theophrastus
- Names the panakes of Chiron among the healing plants.
Sources
- Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants IX. Verified against its record · doi:10.4159/dlcl.theophrastus-enquiry_plants.1916
- Dioscorides, De materia medica. Read in part · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the pass over the remaining 343 entries
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- Sources
- 3 cited: 1 read in part, 2 verified against its record.
- Corrections
- None were needed.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 30, 2026
- Chicago
“Opopanax.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified September 30, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/opopanax.
- MLA
“Opopanax.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 30 Sept. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/opopanax. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Opopanax. (2026, September 30). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/opopanax
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See Also
Sharing coumarins
Also in Theophrastus
Peony in Theophrastus · Mandrake in Theophrastus · White lead in Theophrastus · Licorice in Theophrastus · everything Theophrastus names →
Drawing on the same sources: Theophrastus, Dioscorides
Silphium · Orache · Opium poppy · Oregano and squinanth · the bibliography →
Nearby in the alphabet
Onycha and stacte (Ingredients of the Temple incense (Exodus 30) · Orpiment and realgar (Yellow and red arsenic sulfides) · Onion (Allium cepa) · Orris (The dried root of Iris germanica ‘Florentina’ and I) · Olive-wood ash lye (Lye made by steeping the ash of olive wood in river water)
Historical description, not medical advice.