# Wax

**Cera**

**Known today as.** Beeswax; in the final oil, wax of the Paschal candle.

Kind: Animal

## What did Canale use it for?

Fresh wax in the oil for hexes; Paschal wax to set the oil for the bewitched and, in Treatise Two, in amulet packets and pouches for the house (ch. 9; Treatise Two).

## What does modern science say?

Paschal wax carried the blessing given the candle in the Easter rite of Holy Saturday, which was its whole purpose here; at Rome the Agnus Deis were made from what remained of the paschal candles.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **triacontanyl palmitate**: the chief ester of beeswax
- **cerotic acid**: 
- **hydrocarbons**: 

**Mechanism.** Beeswax is a water-repellent base that stiffens an ointment and forms an occlusive barrier on the skin, giving anything from soft creams to firm ointments and cerates; eaten, its wax esters are poorly digested. The Paschal wax of the amulet packets is the same wax with a blessing.

**Dose.** Edible, of negligible toxicity, like the plant waxes.

**Standing.** A pharmacopoeial excipient (cera alba, cera flava) and a food additive (E901).

## What did the older authorities say?

**Pliny.** Records that before paper, private memoranda “were impressed upon linen cloths, or else engraved on tablets of wax,” which Homer shows in use before the Trojan war; that the books of Numa lay on a stone “bound on every side with cords enveloped in wax,” which was thought to have kept them from rotting; and that balsam adulterated with Cyprian wax betrays itself on hot coals.

## Sources

- Pliny the Elder, *Natural History* 13.21, 13.27, 12.54, trans. J. Bostock & H. T. Riley (1855), Perseus Digital Library.
- Wikipedia, “Beeswax.”
- Huanbutta, K., et al. (2026). Beeswax in pharmaceutical sciences: a comprehensive review of its chemical composition, functional applications, types, and formulation roles. *International Journal of Molecular Sciences*.

---

*Wax.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-03. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/wax

Historical description, not medical advice.