GALBANUM (Hebrew, Chelbenah∙, Greek, γαλβavr ∣ ), a gum-resin, believed to be the product of Ferula galbaniflua, Boiss. et. Buhse, and F. rubricaulis, Boiss., indigenous to Persia, and perhaps also of other umbelliferous plants. From the stems of these it is said to exude as a milk-white juice, which is rendered yellow by exposure to light and air. It occurs usually iu hard or soft, irregular, more or less translucent aud shining lumps, composed of agglutinated drops or tears, or occasionally in separate tears, and is of a light-brown, yellowish, or greenish-yellow colour, and has a disagreeable bitter taste, a peculiar, somewhat musky odour, and a specific gravity of 1 , 212. Exposed to cold, it becomes brittle, and may be reduced to powder (Pereira). To separate the vegetable and other impurities commonly present in it, galbanum is melted at 100° C., and strained. On analysis 100 parts yield about 65 of resin soluble in ether and alkaline liquids, 20 to 25 of gum, aud about 7 of volatile oil. The last furnishes a colourless crystallizable substance, umbelliferone, C 9 H 6 O 3 , which may be recognized by its formation of a blue colour with ammonia, destroyed by acids. Galbanum oil has been shown by J. Kachler (see Jouτn. Chem. Soc., xxiv., 1871, p. 258) to contain a colourless limpid oil, boiling at 160° to 165° C., and ablue oil, of boiling point 240° to 250° C., varying in quantity with the temperature of distillation, which is isomeric with oil of turpentine, and identical with the oil of Matricaria Chamomilla, L. Galbanum is one of the oldest of drugs. In Exodus xxx. 34 it is mentioned as a sweet spice, to be used in the making of a perfume for the tabernacle. Hippocrates employed it in medicine, and Pliny (Hat. Hist., xxiv. 13) ascribes to it ...

חלבנה, Exod. xxx, 34. Michaëlis makes the word a compound of חלב, _milk_ or _gum_, (for the Syriac uses the noun in both senses,) and לבן], _white_, as being the white milk or gum of a plant. It is the thickened sap of an umbelliferous plant, called _metopion_, which grows on Mount Amanus, in Syria, and is frequently found in Persia, and in some parts of Africa. It was an ingredient in the holy incense of the Jews.