Labdanum - goats - Pharaoh

In ancient times, labdanum was collected by combing the beards and thighs of goats and sheep that had grazed on the cistus shrubs. They also used wooden instruments referred to as ergastiri or lambadistrion which was a kind of rake, to which a double row of leathern thongs were fixed instead of teeth. These were used to sweep the shrubs and collect the resin which was later extracted. It was collected by the shepherds and sold to coastal traders. The false beards worn by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt were actually the labdanum soaked hair of these goats.

10.000 years history.

Labdanum

Labdanum, a type of rock rose, is a base note and excellent fixative that's as old as the Pyramids — in fact, the pharoahs' false beards were made from hair soaked in this sweet, woody amber resin. Labdanum is present in many modern scents, and has become a frequent substitute for the animal-unfriendly base note ambergris. If you're looking for something that sticks to your skin, lasts all day, and has a complex sweetness, a labdanum-based fragrance might be a good option.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN SYMBOLS

Flail and CrookOsiris

A symbol of royalty, majesty and dominion.
Symbol of Guardianship.



Crook

The symbolism of the crook is similar to that of the stick and its derivatives, namely; power and authority. The royal Egyptian symbol was called heka when it was in the shape of a shepherd's crook, and was when it had the head of a canine animal and a two-pronged base. The triple sceptre was made up of a whip, a staff and stick, representing domination over matter, control of feeling and domination of thought. It is a symbol of the central axis, like the king himself, the intermediary between god and his subjects, a guarantee of peace and justice. The royal symbol of the kings was adopted from the god Osiris and the ancient shepherd deity, Andjeti. It denoted Pharaoh's role as guardian of the People of the Nile. The crook and flail were used in all royal ceremonies and were part of the mortuary regalia of the kings, ensuring the continued welfare of the diseased in the Afterlife.
Flail

The flail has long associations with the gods Osiris, Min, and several sacred animals. And like the crook (Sceptre), it was one of the important insignias of royalty. Some scholars believe it to be a whip, maybe derived from a fly whisk. Whilst others think it represents the ladanisterion, an instrument used by very early goatherders. As such, it would symbolise, past traditions and the shepherding aspects of Pharaoh's role as king. The ancient Egyptian name for a flail was nekhakha .

What is the Egyptian goatee called?

Answer from WikiAnswer.com

"In death, the kings were frequently portrayed wearing the divine Osird form of the beard, which was a long, narrow beard of several strands plaited like a pigtail with the end jutting forward, as on the gold mask of Tutankhamun. Even deceased non-royal men were shown with short, tuft-like beards. However, this is not a clear cut indication, for the dead king was not always presented with this type of beard.


Such beards in ancient Egyptian art, regardless of their context, always appear to represent divine nature, though certainly not all male gods wore such beards."


"In ancient times, the resin was scraped from the fur of goats and sheep that had grazed on the cistus shrubs. It was collected by the shepherds and sold to coastal traders. The false beards worn by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt were actually the labdanum soaked hair of these goats. Later long poles with leather or cloth strips were used to sweep the shrubs and collect the resin which was later extracted. It was used to treat colds, coughs, menstrual problems and rheumatism."


also called a "goat's-hair" beard



on line shopping labdanum from cistus creticus

ONCE UPON A TIME … (about labdanum).

In prehistoric (neolithic) North Africa there lived, amongst many peoples, a tribe of nomadic goat-herders. Occasionally, these people noticed that their goats acquired a blackish, sticky substance on their fleeces and eventually they realised that if this substance were removed and burned, it provided a very fragrant smoke.

As a brief aside it is worth mentioning that the use of aromatic materials as incense is the origin of perfumery and of aromatherapy. The word perfume itself comes from the Latin words per fumum, meaning through smoke.

Having lived in North Africa, not far from the Nile delta, I can appreciate what kind of impact a pleasant smell had on the people who lived there at that time. Even living with the benefits of hot water and soap one starts to smell like a cheese one or two hours after a shower. In summer the coolest time of day is in the middle of the night. Even then, with all windows open and movement restricted as near as possible to nil, the perspiration pours off as if one were in a sauna.

Goat with labdanum.

The value of a fragrant substance was apparent to our nomads and they isolated the origin of the black sticky stuff. The goats ‘collected’ it as they grazed among the rock roses (labdanum). It can’t have been long before the goats were removed from the equation. The invention of the ladanesterion, a flail with leather thongs later named after the plant by the Greeks, may have been the first technology to be related to aromatics. With it the nomads could flail the plants, the resin sticking to the thongs. From these it could be more conveniently squeeged off than it could from goats’ fleeces. (They actually used sand to separate the labdanum from the ladanesterion, the sand being easily removed later).

Naturally enough, the labdanum resin so collected was much in demand and the nomads eventually gave up goat herding to become labdanum traders. They were so successful in this that they became the first dynasty of Egypt. If you examine pictures of pharoahs or of Osiris (the imagery is largely interchangeable) you will see that the arms are crossed over the chest, one hand bearing a crook (a legacy of the goat-herding days), the other hand bearing a flail (ladanesterion). The pharoah wears a false beard (even if female!) actually made from goat hair which was evidently stuck to the chin using labdanum.

The importance of aromatics in antiquity is thrown into sharp relief when it is realised that that the humble rock rose is responsible for the iconic imagery so well known to us five thousand years later even if we have largely forgotten that the roots of this imagery are in incense (per fumum).

The oleoresin is obtained from various species of cistus , the best material being collected between May and July. It was Dioscorides who first mentioned the ladanesterion method of collection but the first written mention of labdanum as a modern medicine occurred in 1589 when it was listed in Dispensatorium Noricum. Its use as a medicine does seem to stretch back into antiquity though, because, although its principal uses were in incense and in the mummification process (along with the much better known frankincense and myrrh) there are ancient references to its use for liver and stomach problems as well as a remedy for breathing difficulties and for the loss of the hair.

The essential oil has a specific gravity of 0.925 and its boiling point can be as high as 280 deg., one of the reasons why it is an excellent fixative. Another reason is that, in the right proportion, it imparts an ambergris* note which is invaluable in some types of fine fragrances and lavender compounds.

*Ambergris is a pathological secretion of the sperm whale and was extensively used in former times as a fixer and toner for perfumes. While whaling is still carried out by Norwegian and Japanese barbarians it is very important for us not to use it. When whaling is a thing of the past, all ambergris appearing on the market will be ‘found’ and consequently usable.

Hystory of labdanum from Cistus Creticus

Labdanum farm - Summer 2009.

In ancient times, the resin was scraped from the fur of goats and sheep that had grazed on the cistus shrubs. It was collected by the shepherds and sold to coastal traders. The false beards worn by the pharaohs of ancient Egypt were actually the labdanum soaked hair of these goats. Later long poles with leather or cloth strips were used to sweep the shrubs and collect the resin which was later extracted.

Histori of labdanum from Cistus Creticus and Chypre Perfume. (Part 1)

The collection of genuine labdanum with the traditional way becomes only from the plant Cistus Creticus. Cistus Creticus exists in Eastern Medideranen.

The collection labdanum with the traditional way depends:

1. from the plant (only from Cistus Creticus).
2. from the ground.
3. from the climate. The climate is altered with the years so that are altered also the regions from where it is collected labdanum.

I will present all regions where they were collected the laudanum as well as the historical reports.




Part 1: North Africa

In prehistoric (neolithic) North Africa there lived, amongst many peoples, a tribe of nomadic goat-herders. Occasionally, these people noticed that their goats acquired a blackish, sticky substance on their fleeces and eventually they realised that if this substance were removed and burned, it provided a very fragrant smoke.


As a brief aside it is worth mentioning that the use of aromatic materials as incense is the origin of perfumery and of aromatherapy. The word perfume itself comes from the Latin words per fumum, meaning through smoke.



Having lived in North Africa, not far from the Nile delta, I can appreciate what kind of impact a pleasant smell had on the people who lived there at that time. Even living with the benefits of hot water and soap one starts to smell like a cheese one or two hours after a shower. In summer the coolest time of day is in the middle of the night. Even then, with all windows open and movement restricted as near as possible to nil, the perspiration pours off as if one were in a sauna.

The value of a fragrant substance was apparent to our nomads and they isolated the origin of the black sticky stuff. The goats ‘collected’ it as they grazed among the rock roses (labdanum). It can’t have been long before the goats were removed from the equation. The invention of the ladanesterion, a flail with leather thongs later named after the plant by the Greeks, may have been the first technology to be related to aromatics. With it the nomads could flail the plants, the resin sticking to the thongs. From these it could be more conveniently squeeged off than it could from goats’ fleeces. (They actually used sand to separate the labdanum from the ladanesterion, the sand being easily removed later).




Naturally enough, the labdanum resin so collected was much in demand and the nomads eventually gave up goat herding to become labdanum traders. They were so successful in this that they became the first dynasty of Egypt. If you examine pictures of pharoahs or of Osiris (the imagery is largely interchangeable) you will see that the arms are crossed over the chest, one hand bearing a crook (a legacy of the goat-herding days), the other hand bearing a flail (ladanesterion). The pharoah wears a false beard (even if female!) actually made from goat hair which was evidently stuck to the chin using labdanum.

The history of perfume began in East Mediterranean Sea

The history of perfume began in antiquity. The word perfume used today to describe scented mixtures, derives from the Latin "per fumus", meaning through smoke. Perfumery, or the art of making perfumes, began in ancient Egypt but was developed and further refined by the Romans and the Arabs. Although perfume and perfumery also existed in East Asia, much of its fragrances are incense based. The basic ingredients and methods of making perfumes are described by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia.

East Mediterranean Sea

1.Ancient Egypt


Perfume was at the centre of aesthetics and therapeutics for both men and women in Ancient Egypt. Although the techniques used are mostly unrecorded, historians look to the literature of Greek and Roman writers and relief paintings and artefacts to determine the production, fashions and uses of perfume in this fascinating era.

1.Mesopotamia

The world's first recorded chemist is a person named lafaunda , a perfume maker who was mentioned in a Cuneiform tablet from the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamia.

1.Cyprus(Chypre)


To date, the oldest perfumery was discovered on the island of Cyprus.[Excavations in 2004-5 under the initiative of an Italian archaeological team unearthed evidence of an enormous factory that existed 4,000 years ago during the Bronze Age. This covered an estimated surface area of over 4,000m² indicating that perfume manufacturing was on an industrial scale. The news of this discovery was reported extensively through the world press and many artifacts are already on display in Rome.

Biblical

The Bible describes a sacred perfume (Exodus 30:22-33) consisting of liquid myrrh, fragrant cinnamon, fragrant cane, and cassia. Its use was forbidden, except by the priests. The woman wore perfume to present their beauty.

2.Ancient Greek and 3.Roman

Roman road is not very different from ancient. The Romans had copied most Greeks technology manufacturing aromas, and some traditions : perfumes has been actively involved in religious and burial rites, the daily hygiene procedures. But, of course, the Romans made in the art of perfumery and a contribution.
As in ancient Greece, Rome incense received from tree resin, and then mixed with oils, which caused the body or okurivali their premises.
In ancient Rome smells weight attached force. One smells curing headaches, insomnia others, the third-anxiety nerves ... In fact, it then emerged aroma, which became so popular among modern people. Interestingly, in ancient Rome profession Perfumer was similar to the career doctor, as well as the manufacture of fragrances was closely linked to the medicine.

4.Islamic

Islamic cultures contributed significantly in the development of Western perfumery in both perfecting the extraction of fragrances through steam distillation and introducing new, raw ingredients. Both of the raw ingredients and distillation technology significantly influenced Western perfumery and scientific developments, particularly chemistry.


As traders, Islamic cultures such as the Arabs and Persians had wider access to different spices, herbals, and other fragrance material. In addition to trading them, many of these exotic materials were cultivated by the Muslims such that they can be successfully grown outside of their native climates. Two examples of this include jasmine, which is native to South and Southeast Asia, and various citrus, which are native to East Asia. Both of these ingredients are still highly important in modern perfumery.

In Islamic culture, perfume usage has been documented as far back as the 6th century and its usage is considered a religious duty. Muhammad said:
“ The taking of a bath on Friday is compulsory for every male Muslim who has attained the age of puberty and (also) the cleaning of his teeth with Miswaak (type of twig used as a toothbrush), and the using of perfume if it is available. (Recorded in Sahih Bukhari). ”

Such rituals gave incentives to scholars to search and develop a cheaper way to produce incenses and in mass production. Thanks to the hard work of two talented Arabian chemists: Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber, born 722, Iraq), and Al-Kindi (Alkindus, born 801, Iraq) who established the perfume industry. Jabir developed many techniques, including distillation, evaporation and filtration, which enabled the collection of the odour of plants into a vapour that could be collected in the form of water or oil.

Al-Kindi, however, was the real founder of perfume industry as he carried out extensive research and experiments in combining various plants and other sources to produce a variety of scent products. He elaborated a vast number of ‘recipes’ for a wide range of perfumes, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. His work in the laboratory is reported by a witness who said:
“ I received the following description, or recipe, from Abu Yusuf Ya'qub b. Ishaq al-Kindi, and I saw him making it and giving it an addition in my presence. ”

The writer goes on in the same section to speak of the preparation of a perfume called ghaliya, which contained musk, amber and other ingredients; too long to quote here, but which reveals a long list of technical names of drugs and apparatus. Al-Kindi also wrote in the 9th century a book on perfumes which he named ‘Book of the Chemistry of Perfume and Distillations’. It contained more than hundred recipes for fragrant oils, salves, aromatic waters and substitutes or imitations of costly drugs. The book also described one hundred and seven methods and recipes for perfume-making, and even the perfume making equipment, like the alembic, still bears its Arabic name.

The Persian Muslim doctor and chemist Avicenna (also known as Ibn Sina) introduced the process of extracting oils from flowers by means of distillation, the procedure most commonly used today. He first experimented with the rose. Until his discovery, liquid perfumes were mixtures of oil and crushed herbs, or petals which made a strong blend. Rose water was more delicate, and immediately became popular. Both of the raw ingredients and distillation technology significantly influenced western perfumery and scientific developments, particularly chemistry.

Crusaders


Eggs and floral perfumes were brought to Europe in the 11th and 12th centuries from Arabia, through trade with the Islamic world and with the returning Crusaders. Those who traded for these were most often also involved in trade for spices and dyestuffs. There are records of the Pepperers Guild of London, going back to 1179; which show them trading with Muslims in spices, perfume ingredients and dyes.

5.Western

Hungary

Knowledge of something perfumery came to Europe as early as the 14th century due partially to Arabic influences and knowledge. But it was the Hungarians who ultimately introduced the first modern perfume. The first modern perfume, made of scented oils blended in an alcohol solution, was made in 1370 at the command of Queen Elizabeth of Hungary and was known throughout Europe as Hungary Water. The art of perfumery prospered in Renaissance Italy, and in the 16th century, Italian refinements were taken to France by Catherine de' Medici's personal perfumer, Rene le Florentin. His laboratory was connected with her apartments by a secret passageway, so that no formulas could be stolen en route.

France

France quickly became the European center of perfume and cosmetic manufacture. Cultivation of flowers for their perfume essence, which had begun in the 14th century, grew into a major industry in the south of France. During the Renaissance period, perfumes were used primarily by royalty and the wealthy to mask body odors resulting from the sanitary practices of the day. Partly due to this patronage, the western perfumery industry was created. Perfume enjoyed huge success during the 17th century. Perfumed gloves became popular in France and in 1656, the guild of glove and perfume-makers was established. Perfumers were also known to create poisons; for instance, a French duchess was murdered when a perfume/poison was rubbed into her gloves and was slowly absorbed into her skin.

Perfume came into its own when Louis XV came to the throne in the 18th century. His court was called "le cour parfumee" (the perfumed court). Madame de Pompadour ordered generous supplies of perfume, and King Louis demanded a different fragrance for his apartment everyday. The court of Louis XIV was even named due to the scents which were applied daily not only to the skin but also to clothing, fans and furniture. Perfume substituted for soap and water. The use of perfume in France grew steadily. By the 18th century, aromatic plants were being grown in the Grasse region of France to provide the growing perfume industry with raw materials. Even today, France remains the centre of the European perfume design and trade.


After Napoleon came to power, exorbitant expenditures for perfume continued. Two quarts of violet cologne were delivered to him each week, and he is said to have used sixty bottles of double extract of jasmine every month. Josephine had stronger perfume preferences. She was partial to musk, and she used so much that sixty years after her death the scent still lingered in her boudoir.


England

Perfume reached its peak in England during the reigns of Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I. All public places were scented during Queen Elizabeth's rule, since she could not tolerate bad smells. It was said that the sharpness of her nose was equal led only to the slyness of her tongue. Ladies of the day took great pride in creating delightful fragrances and they displayed their skill in mixing scents.

All the world

19th century

As with industry and the arts, perfume was to undergo profound change in the 19th century. Changing tastes and the development of modern chemistry laid the foundations of perfumery as we know it today. Alchemy gave way to chemistry and new fragrances were created. The industrial revolution had in no way diminished the taste for perfume, there was even a fragrance called "Parfum à la Guillotine". Under the post-revolutionary government, people once again dared to express a penchant for luxury goods, including perfume. A profusion of vanity boxes containing perfumes appeared in the 19th century.

America

In early America, the first scents were colognes and scented water. Florida water, an uncomplicated mixture of eau de cologne with a dash of oil of cloves, cassia, and lemongrass, was popular.

Crook and flail - Ancient Egypt

Page 139.

Flail:

A royal symbol of Egypt, used with CROOK to represent the majesty of the rulers of the Two Lands, the flail, tarried originally by the god OSIRIS, is normally dis¬played in the hands of deceased rulers. It was once described as a whip but now is believed to represent the labdanisterion,(Site :labdanum.gr) the instrument used by early goatherds in the Neat East. Such a symbol, dining back to ancient limes, would have had magical connotations. Agricultural workers used the flail to gather labdanum an aromatic shrub that ylelded gum and resin. The crook and the flail were both identified with the god OSIRIS'S patronage of vegetation and eternal life. It associated each new ruler with the past traditions and with Osiris, thus providing the people with a clear image of an unbroken line of divinely inspired pharaohs.




















OSIRIS


Page:90

Crook

A royal symbol, the awet, carried by the rulers of ancient Egypt, representing the early shepherds, the scepter had magical powers and represented traditions of the past and government. The crook was carried with the flail, called the nekhakha, which represented OSIRIS and MIN.


Today...

1.labdanisterio 2.Crook

The Crook and Flail in Ancient Egypt

The crook (heka) and the flail or flabellum (nekhakha), are two of the most prominent items in the royal regalia of ancient Egypt. Actual, very fine examples of both survive from ancient Egypt, as do statues and various wall reliefs, paintings and papyrus with representations of these objects.

The crook and flail, though different scepters, could every so often be depicted separately, though usually paired with some other type of scepter, but they were most commonly represented together, held across the chest of the kings, Osiris, or other gods identified with them. They were insignias of kingship, and while other deities could proffer them, they never Note the flail held by King Narmer on his famous Palette, a very early example, but also note the lack of a crook.kept them.



Both insignias derived from the iconography of Andjety, who was the local god of the Delta town named Djedu. He was represented in human form with two feathers on his head and holding the crook and flail in his hands At a very early date in Egyptian history, Andjety, who had a close relationship with kingship from the earliest of times, was absorbed into Osiris of Busiris, who became a national god known simply as Osiris. Osiris, of course, was regarded not only as a god but also as a deified deceased king and consequently his insignia, and particularly that of the crook and flail, were treated as symbols of royalty.



Sacred models of them were kept in Heliopolis. The crook was a cane with a hooked handle, sometimes gold-plated and reinforced with blue copper bands. It probably derived from the shepherd's crosier. Its hieroglyphic value was "rule". The earliest example of a crook or heqa scepter comes from Abydos and the tomb There were many crooks and flails in the Tomb of Tutankhamun, including even adorning the small coffin that held his internal organslisted as U-547, dated to the late Naqada II period. This scepter, made of limestone, was found fragmented, but a complete scepter made of ivory was found in another Abydos grave, the one listed as tomb U-j. This is the largest tomb of Abydos found to date. The earliest representation of a king carrying the crook is a small statue of Ninetjer from the 2nd Dynasty.



The flail was a rod with three attached beaded, strands. The strands could very considerably, using different types of beads and the lengths between the beads could be broken up into several segments. The flail appears alone on some of the earliest representations of royal ceremonies, as shown in the example from a label of King Den in the 1st Dynasty, sitting under a canopy or in some ritual structure, waiting to run the Sed-festival. It possibly derived from a shepherd's whip or a fly whisk. However, some scholars prefer to regard it as a ladanisterion, a flail-like instrument used until the present day by shepherds in the Mediterranean region and elsewhere A very rare depiction of Osiris as Res-udja (he who awakens intact) from the tomb of Seti I. Looking more like Ptah than Osiris, he holds the typical crook and flail.for collecting ladanum, a gummy substance excreted from the leaves of the Cistus plant. According to classical writers, it was used in the preparation of incense and unguents. This suggestion, proposed by the late Professor P.E. Newberry who helped in the clearance of Tutankhamun's tomb, is plausible, but, as yet, there is no clear evidence that the Cistus plant grew in Egypt during pharaonic times, but perhaps it could have been used to harvest other gums.



Mysteriously, a flail is sometimes depicted floating above the upraised hand of Min and other ithyphallic deities. Certain sacred animals carried the flail on their backs.


Here, the Four Sons of Horus hold flails only, in both hands, above the canopic chamber door in the tomb of AyeAlthough the crook and flail were most often represented as emblems of the god Osiris, they were also carried on some ceremonial occasions, besides the coronation, by the reigning pharaoh. Very occasionally, the crook was held by viceroys of Nubia and also by viziers. A painted scene of tribute from Asia in the tomb of Tutankhamun's viceroy of Nubia, Huy, depicts the king holding both the crook and flail in his left hand and the sign for "life" in his right, while the viceroy holds a crook, but no flail, in his left hand and a single ostrich plume in his right. Only very rarely is the flail shown in the hands of priests or officials and such instances are limited to scenes of royal jubilee festivals.



The crook and flail did not die out altogether with the end of the Pharaonic Period of Egyptian history. At least visually, these objects wee carried over into Roman times.



In silhouette, the flail resembles the fly-whisk, a stick with three pendant animal pelts, but despite their similar appearance, they are not interchangeable.

History of perfumes (part 1)

ONCE UPON A TIME … (about labdanum).

In prehistoric (neolithic) North Africa there lived, amongst many peoples, a tribe of nomadic goat-herders. Occasionally, these people noticed that their goats acquired a blackish, sticky substance on their fleeces and eventually they realised that if this substance were removed and burned, it provided a very fragrant smoke.

As a brief aside it is worth mentioning that the use of aromatic materials as incense is the origin of perfumery and of aromatherapy. The word perfume itself comes from the Latin words per fumum, meaning through smoke.

Having lived in North Africa, not far from the Nile delta, I can appreciate what kind of impact a pleasant smell had on the people who lived there at that time. Even living with the benefits of hot water and soap one starts to smell like a cheese one or two hours after a shower. In summer the coolest time of day is in the middle of the night. Even then, with all windows open and movement restricted as near as possible to nil, the perspiration pours off as if one were in a sauna.

The value of a fragrant substance was apparent to our nomads and they isolated the origin of the black sticky stuff. The goats ‘collected’ it as they grazed among the rock roses (labdanum). It can’t have been long before the goats were removed from the equation. The invention of the ladanesterion, a flail with leather thongs later named after the plant by the Greeks, may have been the first technology to be related to aromatics. With it the nomads could flail the plants, the resin sticking to the thongs. From these it could be more conveniently squeeged off than it could from goats’ fleeces. (They actually used sand to separate the labdanum from the ladanesterion, the sand being easily removed later).

Naturally enough, the labdanum resin so collected was much in demand and the nomads eventually gave up goat herding to become labdanum traders. They were so successful in this that they became the first dynasty of Egypt. If you examine pictures of pharoahs or of Osiris (the imagery is largely interchangeable) you will see that the arms are crossed over the chest, one hand bearing a crook (a legacy of the goat-herding days), the other hand bearing a flail (ladanesterion). The pharoah wears a false beard (even if female!) actually made from goat hair which was evidently stuck to the chin using labdanum.

The importance of aromatics in antiquity is thrown into sharp relief when it is realised that that the humble rock rose is responsible for the iconic imagery so well known to us five thousand years later even if we have largely forgotten that the roots of this imagery are in incense (per fumum).

The oleoresin is obtained from various species of cistus , principally cistus ladaniferus, the best material being collected between May and July. It was Dioscorides who first mentioned the ladanesterion method of collection but the first written mention of labdanum as a modern medicine occurred in 1589 when it was listed in Dispensatorium Noricum. Its use as a medicine does seem to stretch back into antiquity though, because, although its principal uses were in incense and in the mummification process (along with the much better known frankincense and myrrh) there are ancient references to its use for liver and stomach problems as well as a remedy for breathing difficulties and for the loss of the hair.

*Ambergris is a pathological secretion of the sperm whale and was extensively used in former times as a fixer and toner for perfumes. While whaling is still carried out by Norwegian and Japanese barbarians it is very important for us not to use it. When whaling is a thing of the past, all ambergris appearing on the market will be ‘found’ and consequently usable.