Mastic

Mastic is the resin of Pistacia lentiscus, the lentisk, a dioecious evergreen shrub or small tree of the family Anacardiaceae, native around the Mediterranean from Morocco and Iberia through southern France and Turkey to Iraq and Iran, and to the Canary Islands. It usually stands one to five metres high, smells strongly of resin, thrives on dry, rocky and even salty ground near the sea, and bears leathery compound leaves and small fruit that ripen from red to black. Although the tree grows across the region, it yields resin only in a few places, above all the south of Chios, where the mastic villages tap it, and around Çeşme in Turkey; Chios mastic carries an EU protected designation of origin. The name goes back to words for chewing, and mastic was among the first chewing gums. It flavours liqueurs, sweets, festival breads and Turkish delight, goes into varnish, and is an essential ingredient of the chrism of the Orthodox churches. Hippocrates used it against digestive trouble and colds and to sweeten the breath, Egyptians burned it as temple incense and used it in embalming, and in Greece it was a symbol of virginity. Cunningham burns it to draw a spirit into manifestation and to strengthen psychic powers, notes its old use in Middle Eastern lust potions, and adds it to any incense to lend it power; Kynes burns it to prepare ritual space and in meditation for clarity.