Ladanum

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Ladanum or Labdanum , also (incorrectly called Laudanum in the late Middle Ages) , is a resin that is obtained from different species of rockrose in the Mediterranean region . In summer, under the action of the sun, the oily resin emerges from the leaves and branches as if the plant were sweating.

Ladanum resin
Cretan rockrose ( Cistus creticus )
Dried Ladanum IUDs in the German Pharmacist Museum, Heidelberg

Ladanum was already popular in ancient Egypt and was part of the well-known incense mixture " Kyphi ". The resin was also used as incense , among other things . Because of its amber-like , balsamic aroma, it is used as a raw material for the perfume industry . Good “labdanum” has a lovely, subtle scent reminiscent of honey, which you can easily smell from many chypre perfumes. Like most resins used in perfumery, labdanum is also a good fixative .

The designation Ladanum or Labdanum (sometimes also Laudanum) has its origin in the Syrian-Phoenician language area (cf. Assyrian ladanu ). There the plant was called Ladan (sticky herb). It was used for beauty care as well as a medicine.

The name was derived from the Semitic-Greek word ládanon or ledanon or from the Greek lēdon (corresponds to Arabic lādan and Persian laden ) and already in ancient times referred to the resin of Cistus species such as Cistus creticus and Cistus cyprius.

In antiquity, the resin of the Cretan rockrose ( Cistus creticus ) was mainly used and the Greek scholar Dioscurides described how shepherds drove their animals into the thick bushes and then combed the lumps of resin out of the fur (especially from the goatee).

This extraction method can also be found in Otto Warburg's book "Die Pflanzenwelt", in which he describes how to get the pleasantly scented resin "(...) from the beard and thigh hair of the goats that grazed in the rock rose bushes and smeared their fur with the glandular secretions (…) ”.“ Ropes were also pulled through the cistus bushes in order to catch the sticky resin on them, which is still done in Crete, only that instead of ropes, thin leather straps are used . ”

Today the labdanum is mostly obtained from the lacquer rockrose ( Cistus ladanifer ) because it produces significantly more resin than other species. It occurs in the western Mediterranean region (southern France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco). Labdanum production is mainly concentrated in Spain. In France, however, the Ladanifer is only a cultivated plant and is therefore not freely accessible in the landscape. In the Massif de l'Esterel there are small plantations in private gardens. However, the wild growing Montpellier rock rose with its small flowers - the leaves of this species are only slightly sticky - exudes a very similar scent. A real Ladanifer can be recognized by the large, white flowers, which have small, brownish-black spots at the base. The sticky leaves are lanceolate in shape.

It is also mentioned in the Bible ( Gen 37.25  EU , Gen 43.11  EU ).

The labdanum oil, which is also used in the perfumery and soap industry, is extracted from the resin by steam distillation . The ingredients such as B. pinene , camphene , myrcene , phellandrene and others were isolated and characterized analytically.

literature

Web links

Commons : Labdanum  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hieronymus Brunschwig : Dis is the book of the Cirurgia. Handling of the wundartzny. Johann Grüninger, Strasbourg 1497, sheet 239 (“Laudanum: a thick gedert juices einß krutz uber mere her”).
  2. ↑ Eucharius Roesslin: The Swangern frawen and hebammen Roßgarten. , Worms 1513; Neudruck Berlin undated, O Iv ("Laudanum: a black gumi wolriechend").
  3. ^ Theodor Husemann : Ladanum and Laudanum. (End) In: Archives of Pharmacy. Volume 227, Issue 24, 1889, pp. 1105-1132 ( PDF-Online ).
  4. ↑ Helmut Genaust: Etymological dictionary of botanical plant names. Birkhäuser, Basel / Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-7643-0755-2 , pp. 215 and 219.
  5. ↑ Labdanum from mediterranean Cistus species: GC-MS fingerprints and relative quantification of antispirochaetal manoyloxides. By K. Kuchta, K. Grötzinger, C. Birkemeyer and HW Rauwald. In: Planta Med 2012; 78 - PA10; doi : 10.1055 / s-0032-1320325 .
  6. ↑ Werner Dressendörfer: Late medieval medicine taxes of the Munich city doctor Sigmund Gotzkircher from the Grazer Codex 311. A contribution to the early history of the southern German pharmacy. Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 1978 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 15), p. 233.
  7. ↑ Petrus Uffenbach (Ed.): Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbaei Kraeuterbuch ... (translated into German by Johannes Danzius), Frankfurt am Main (with Johann Bringern) 1610, p. 59 (“Ladanum: Es ist noch ein geschlecht des Cisti, von called a number of shops, a Staeudtlin growing like the Cistus [...]. The Ladanum is also made from this, because if the Geyssen and Geyßboeck wove the leaves of this Cisti, the tough feistiness apparently stuck to the baths and hard feet [ ...]. ") And 472 ( laudanum in the register).
  8. ^ Otto Warburg: The world of plants. Volume 2. Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig, Leipzig / Vienna 1921, pp. 465–467.
  9. ↑ perflavory.com: Labdanum gum .
  10. ↑ L. Roth and K. Kormann: Scented plants plant scents - ethereal oils and odorants , ecomed Verlagsgesellschaft, Landsberg 1997, ISBN 3-609-65140-7 .
  11. ↑ K. Thefeld: Investigation of the essential oils of Cistus ladaniferus L. (Labdanum oil), Tanacetum fruticulosum Ledeb. and Hedychium gardnerianum Sheppard , dissertation, TU Berlin 1997, DNB 953221911 .