Ammoniacum, Gum Ammoniacum

Pliny on Gum Ammoniac:
  ‘Of a similar nature to galbanum is hammoniacum, a tear like gum, the qualities of which are tested in manner already stated. It is of an emollient, warming, resolvent, and dispellent nature. Employed as an ingredient in eye-salves, it improves the sight. It disperses prurigo, effaces the marks of sores, removes spots in the eyes, and allays tooth-ache, more particularly when burnt. It is very useful too, taken in drink, for hardness of breathing, pleurisy, affections of the lungs, diseases of the bladder, bloody urine, maladies of the spleen, and sciatica: employed in a similar manner, it acts as a purgative upon the bowels. Boiled with an equal proportion of pitch or wax, and with oil of roses, it is good for diseases of the joints, and for gout. Employed with honey it ripens hard tumours, extracts corns, and has an emollient effect upon in durations. In combination with vinegar and Cyprian wax, or oil of roses, it is extremely efficacious as a liniment for affections of the spleen. In cases of extreme lassitude, it is an excellent plan to use it as a friction, with vinegar and oil, and a little nitre.’ (The Natural History of Pliny, trans. by Bostock and Riley, Vol. 5, 1856)

Vegetable Materia Medica of Western India, Dymock, 1885:
Two species of Dorema, D. ammoniacum and D. Aucheri, Botes., both natives of Persia, are known to produce a gum-resin identical with the commercial article, and it is probable that some of the other species also contribute a portion of the ammoniacum of trade.

Dioscorides speaks of ammoniacum as the juice of a narthex growing about Cyrene in Libya, and it appears to have derived its name from the temple of Ammon. Pliny derives it from ‘Ammos,’ sand. Most Greek and Latin writers on medicine mention its use in fumigation, and speak of it as Thus Libycurn, ammoniacum thymiana, or ammoniacum suffimen. This kind of ammoniacum has now been ascertained to be the gum-resin of Ferula Tingitana, Linn., which grows in Morocco. It was probably the only kind known in Europe in olden times. (Confer. Pharma-cographia, p. 288.) The time when Persian ammoniacum first came into use cannot be exactly fixed.
It is not mentioned by the Greeks or Romans. Ibn Sina states that Ushak is the gum of the Tarthuth, and is called Lazak-el-dahab because it is used in gilding. His ammoniacum is doubtless Persian, like that of Abu Masur Mowajik, a Persian physician of the eleventh century, and of Ansari of the middle of the fourteenth century. The latter writer states that the Shirazi name for Ushak is Badian. In Bokhara the gum-resin bears the name Kandal. According to Bunge and Bienert, the same name, and Kamak, are given to the plant in Persia; whilst Wright gives Weschak, and Dr. Buhse Oschak, as the true names of the plant in that country.

According to Borszczow, D. ammoniacum is called by the Kirghises Bal-kurai or “Honey-cane.” (E. Hirschsohn Phar. Zeitschrift fur Russland, April 15, 1875, p. 225.) The author of the Makhzan-el-Adwiya says that Ushak is an Arabic corruption of the Persian Ushnah or Ooshah, and that the drug is also called Kalbani, and in Arabic Ushajj, Wushajj, Wushak and Lazak-el-Dahab. He gives the Greek names as Athanikun, Ammoniakun and Parnaksh, the Egyptian as Kinna, Shak and Kalakh, and the Indian as Kandar. Some Persian writers give Tarthdth as the Arabic and Samgh-i-bal-i-shirin as the Persian name. According to the dictionaries, Bal is the Persian for Tarthuth. Baghdadi tells us that Tarthuth is not the same as ammoniacum. In Bombay the current Persian name is Ushak. The Hindu brokers generally call it ammoniacum. Mahometan works on Materia Medica describe the drug as discutient and attenuant; for more particular opinions respecting it the reader may consult the Makhzan-el-Adwiya, article Ushak. Sanskrit writers do not mention it. Besides the gum-resin, the root of D. ammoniacum is largely imported into Bombay, and is one of the substances used by the Parsees as incense under the name of Boi, a word cognate with Bu, or Bo, fragrance. It is popularly spoken of as a wood. There can be little doubt that the use of this substance as an incense must date from a very remote period, otherwise the modern Parsees would not be at the trouble of importing it into India. Mr. K. R. Cama informs me that the “wood of fragrant trees” is mentioned in the Avesta as a class, and that one wood in particular is named, “Hadha Naeptanam,” which would mean translated into Persian, “Hamisheh naft,” always moist, i.e., green. He says: “In modern days we identify this wood, most likely mistakenly, with Pomegranate wood.” It would appear then, that there is no specific description of Boi in the Avesta, but that it is traditionally understood to be one of the fragrant woods mentioned therein. It is this root which was some years ago exported to Europe as Bombay Sumbul, after having been cut up and impregnated with musk. When old and worm-eaten it becomes of a loose and spongy texture, and might easily be mistaken for Sumbul by a superficial observer.’