Photo: Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, Public domain (via Wikimedia Commons)
Benzoin (Gum Benjamin)
Styrax benzoin
Also known as Gum Benjamin, Sumatra Benzoin, Siam Benzoin, Loban, Benjamin Tree
Key benefits
✦Traditional uses
✦For centuries, healers and priests alike prized benzoin as one of the great aromatic resins of the East, harvested by wounding the bark of the Styrax tree and letting fragrant tears of gum weep out and harden in the tropical air. Traded along the same routes as frankincense and myrrh, it perfumed temples, scented incense blends, and eventually found its way into apothecary shelves as compound tincture of benzoin, better known as Friar's Balsam, a staple steam inhalant for stubborn coughs and congested chests. Herbalists also dissolved the resin into oils and salves, valuing its warm, vanilla-like scent and its traditional reputation for protecting and soothing minor skin irritations.
How to grow & use it
✦The full apothecary for Benzoin (Gum Benjamin)
Traditional remedies and step-by-step preparations, a complete growing guide, and how to harvest, dry, and store it, all unlocked with HerbLens Unlimited.
- ✦Remedies & preparations
- ✦ Growing guide
- ✦Harvest & storage
From under $6 a month. Free plant identifications always included.
- ✦Frankincense
- ✦Myrrh
- ✦Eucalyptus
- ✦Frankincense
- ✦Myrrh
“When a cough won't quiet and the air itself needs warming, sweetening, and settling.”
The word "benzoin" traveled a long road to English, starting as the Arabic luban jawi, or "frankincense of Java," and slowly garbling through Latin and Old French along Mediterranean trade routes. That same word later gave chemistry the term "benzoic acid," first isolated from this very resin, and from there the whole benzene family of compounds took its name.
Benzoin resin is meant for steam and topical use, not swallowing, and it's a known skin sensitizer, so avoid it if you're allergic to balsams like Balsam of Peru and never apply it to broken skin. Avoid steam inhalation with infants and young children.