SG Heritage Dictionary

Balsam [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. An oily, aromatic, resinous substance, flowing spontaneously or by incision, from certain plants. A (p.22)

2. great variety of substances pass under this denomination. But in modern chimistry, the term is confined to such vegetable juices, as are liquid or spontaneously become concrete, and consist of a resinous substance, combined with benzoic acid, or capable of affording it by decoction or sublimation. The balsams are either liquid or solid; of the former, are the balm of Gilead and the balsams of copaiba, Peru and tolu; of the latter, benzoin, dragon's blood, and storax.

3. Balsam apple, an annual Indian plant; included under the genus Momordica. A water and a subtil oil are obtained from it, which are commended as deobstruents.

4. Balsam tree. This name is given to a genus of plants called Clusia; to another, called Copaifera, which produces the balsam of Copaiba; and to a third, called Pistacia, turpentine tree or mastich tree.

5. Balsam of Sulphur is a solution of sulphur in oil

6. Balsam of Tolu is the produce of the Toluifera, or Tolu tree, of South America. It is of a reddish yellow color, transparent, thick and tenacious, but growing hard and brittle by age. It is very fragrant, and like the balsam of Peru, is a stimulant, and used as a pectoral.

7. Balsam of Peru, the produce of a tree in Peru, possessing strong stimulant qualities.

Balsam [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. A resin containing more or less of an essential or volatile oil.

2. A species of tree (Abies balsamea).

3. An annual garden plant (Impatiens balsamina) with beautiful flowers; balsamine.

4. Anything that heals, soothes, or restores.

Balsam [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1913

To treat or anoint with balsam; to relieve, as with balsam; to render balsamic.

Balsam Encyclopedia Britannica

BALSAM, an oleo-resin or natural compound of resin and essential oil, in such proportions that the substance is in a viscous or semi-fluid condition. The gradations from a solid resin to a limpid essential oil are insensible, and most resins have a balsamic consistency on their exudation, only hardening by exposure to air. It has been proposed to limit the name balsam to such substances as contain cinnamic or an analogous acid in addition to the volatile oil and resin which turpentines contain alone; but this distinction has not been carried out....

The fragrant balsams which contain cinnamic or benzoic acid may, however, be regarded as a distinct class, allied to each other by their composition, properties, and uses. Those of this class found in commerce are the balsam of Peru, balsam of Tolu, liquid storax, and liquidambar. Balsam of Peru is the produce of a lofty leguminous tree, Myrospermum peruiferum, growing within a limited area in San Salvador, Central America, but now introduced into Ceylon. It is a thick, viscid oleo-resin of a deep brown or black colour and a fragrant balsamic odour. It has been analysed by Kaehler, who thus states its percentage composition,—cinnamic acid 46, resin 32, benzylic alcohol 20. It is used in perfumery, and in medicine as a stimulant application to indolent sores, as well as internally for asthma and pectoral complaints. Balsam, of Tolu is likewise produced from a species of Myrospermum, Μ. toluiferum. It is of a brown colour, thicker than Peru balsam, and attains a considerable degree of solidity on keeping. It also is a product of equatorial America, but is found over a much wider area than is the balsam of Peru. Tolu balsam consists of a combination of inodorous resin with cinnamic acid, no benzoic acid being present in it. It is used in perfumery and as a constituent in cough syrups and lozenges. Liquid storax is a balsam yielded by Liquidambar orientalis, a native of Asia Minor. It is a soft resinous substance, with a pleasing balsamic odour, especially after it has been kept for some time. It contains a principle—styrol or cinnamene—to which it owes its peculiar odour, besides cinnamic acid, stryacin, and a resin. Liquid storax is used in medicine as an external application in skin diseases, and internally as an expectorant. An analogous substance is derived from Liquidambar Altingia in Java. Liquidambar balsam, is derived from Liquidambar styraciflua, a tree found in the United States and Mexico. It contains cinnamic acid, but is destitute of benzoic acid.

Of balsams entirely destitute of cinnamic and benzoic constituents the following are found in commerce :— Mecca Balsam, or Balm of Gilead, yielded by the Balsamodendron Berryi (B. gileadense of De Candolle), a tree growing in Arabia and Abyssinia, is supposed to be the balm of Scripture and the βάλσαμον of Theophrastus. When fresh it is α viscid fluid, with a penetrating odour, but it solidifies with age. It was regarded with the utmost esteem among the nations of antiquity, and to the present day it is peculiarly prized among the people of the East. Balsam of Copaiba or Capivi is a fluid oleo-resin of a pale brown or straw colour, produced from several trees of the genus Copaifera, growing in tropical America. It possesses a peculiar odour and a nauseous persistent tarry taste. Balsam of copaiba contains from 40 to 60 per cent, of essential oil, holding in solution a resin from which capivic acid can be prepared. It is chiefly used in medicine for the treatment of inflammatory affections of mucous surfaces. Under the name of JFo<κZ Oil, or Gurjun Balsam, an oleoresin is procured in India and the Eastern Archipelago from several species of Dipterocarpus, chiefly D. turbinatus, which has the odour and properties of copaiba, and is used for it in East Indian hospital practice. Wood oil is also used as a varnish in India, and forms an effective protection against the attacks of white ants. A substitute for copaiba is also found in the dark red balsam yielded by Hardwickia pinnata, a leguminous tree.

Canada Balsam.— The oleo-resins obtained from coniferous trees are usually termed turpentines, but that yielded by Abies balsamea is known in commerce as Balsam of Canada. It is a very transparent substance, somewhat fluid when first run, but thickening considerably with age, possessed of a delicate yellow colour, and a mild terebinthous odour. According to Fliickiger and Hanbury it contains 24 per cent of essential oil, 60 per cent, of resin soluble in alcohol, and 16 per cent, of resin soluble only in ether. It has been used for the same purposes as copaiba, but its chief uses are for mounting preparations for the microscope and as a varnish.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 3, p. 292
[794 words — estimated reading time: 5 minutes]

Balsam Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

TREE, בעל־שמין; in Arabic, _abuschâm_, that is, “father of scent,” sweet-scented. According to Mr. Bruce, the _balessan_, _balsam_, or _balm_, is an evergreen shrub, or tree, which grows to about fourteen feet high, spontaneously and without culture in its native country, Azab, and all along the coast to Babelmandel. There were three kinds of balsam extracted from this tree. The first was called _opobalsamum_, and was most highly esteemed. It was that which flowed spontaneously, or by means of incision, from the trunk or branches of the tree in summer time. The second was _carpobalsamum_, made by expressing the fruit when in maturity. The third, and least esteemed of all, was _hylobalsamum_, made by a decoction of the buds and small young twigs. The great value set upon this drug in the east is traced to the earliest ages. The Ishmaelites, or Arabian carriers and merchants, trafficking with the Arabian commodities into Egypt, brought with them צרי as a part of their cargo, Gen. xxxvii, 25; xliii, 11. Josephus, in the history of the antiquities of his country, says that a tree of this balsam was brought to Jerusalem by the queen of Saba, and given among other presents to Solomon, who, as we know from Scripture, was very studious of all sorts of plants, and skilful in the description and distinction of them. And here, indeed, it seems to have been cultivated and to have thriven; so that the place of its origin, through length of time, combined with other reasons, came to be forgotten. Notwithstanding the positive authority of Josephus, and the great probability that attends it, we cannot put it in competition with what we have been told in Scripture, as we have just now seen that the place where it grew, and was sold to merchants, was Gilead in Judea, more ...

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary
[734 words — estimated reading time: 5 minutes]

Balsam-sweating [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Yielding balsam.

Balsamation [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

The act of rendering balsamic.

Balsamation [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. The act of imparting balsamic properties.

2. The art or process of embalming.

Balsami-cal [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Having the qualities of balsam; stimulating; unctuous; soft; mitigating; mild.

Balsami-cal [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

A warm, stimulating, demulcent medicine, of a smooth and oily consistence.

Balsamic [\N] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. BALSAM'IC

2. BAL'SAMINE, noun touch-me-not, or Impatiens, a genus of plants.

Balsamic [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Alt. of Balsamical

Balsamical [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Having the qualities of balsam; containing, or resembling, balsam; soft; mitigative; soothing; restorative.

Balsamiferous [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Producing balsam.

Balsamine [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

The Impatiens balsamina, or garden balsam.

Balsamous [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Having the quality of balsam; containing balsam.