Benzoin

Benzoin is the balsamic resin of Styrax benzoin, a tree native to Indochina and western Malesia and common in the forests of Sumatra, where it grows to between 12 and 30 metres and can live for 70 to 100 years. The tree makes no resin until it is wounded: harvesters cut into the trunk, and the white sap that seeps out hardens on the bark over four to six months before it is gathered, dried and shipped as loose tears or packed blocks. Resin from this species is sold as Sumatra benzoin, a dull reddish or greyish-brown material with a storax-like scent that holds cinnamic acid as well as benzoic acid; Siam benzoin comes from a different tree, Styrax tonkinensis. Benzoin has long been burned to perfume temples in the Middle and Far East, the ancient Egyptians used it in incense and perfume, and it still goes into Orthodox and Catholic church incense and is burned on charcoal in Arabia and in Hindu temples in India. Perfumers prize it as a fixative, and pharmacy knows it in compound tincture of benzoin. In Central and Eastern Europe it was believed to drive off evil spirits. Magical practice burns it to purify and cleanse, uses it as a base for incense blends, and calls on it for protection, banishing and love.