Tabaxir
Tabaxir (also bamboo camphor or bamboo sugar , in the countries of origin Sanskrit Banslochan , Arabic tabasheer , Persian tabaschir or tabashir ) is a concretion from the cavities between the nodes of the bamboo tube . It was highly valued as a medicine in the Middle Ages, but is now only used in China and Arabia .
Tabaxir is likely formed with periodically slowed growth and forms irregular, pea-sized white, yellowish and brownish, opal-like translucent granules, which consist essentially of amorphous silica with 5 to 13% water . In terms of composition and physical properties, Tabaxir is most similar to opal . It becomes transparent in water and becomes opaque again when it dries, and it has the lowest refractive index of all known solid natural substances .
further reading
- David Brewster: On the natural history and properties of tabasheer, the siliceous concretion in the bamboo . In: The Edinburgh journal of science . tape 8 , 1828, pp. 285-294 ( online in the HathiTrust Digital Library ).
- Carl Curt Hosséus: The relationships between tabaschir, bamboo manna or bamboo sugar and the Σάϰχαρον of the Greeks . In: Supplements to the botanical Centralblatt . tape 30 , 1st department 1913, p. 88–109 ( online in the text archive - Internet Archive ).
- Jacek Klinowski, Chi-Feng Cheng, Jeús Sanz, José M. Rojo, Alan L. Mackay: Structural studies of tabasheer, an opal of plant origin . In: Philosophical Magazine A . tape 77 , no. 1 , 1998, p. 201-216 , doi : 10.1080 / 01418619808214238 .
Web links
- Carl Curt Hosséus: The relationships between tabaschir, bamboo manna or bamboo sugar and the Σάϰχαρον of the Greeks. (1913)
- Tabasheer in the Virtual Herbarium of the Fairchild Tropical Garden Herbarium
- Tabasheer in the Hobson-Jobson Dictionary on Bibliomania
Individual evidence
- ↑ It is mainly the product of the species Bambusa bambos (L.) Voss (Syn. Bambusa arundinacea (Retz.) Willd., Rohrbambus), see: Johann Baptist Henkel: Medizinisch- Pharma Botanik. H. Laupp, Tübingen 1873 ( online - Internet Archive ) and Hosséus (1913), p. 93 .
- ↑ On taxonomy and synonyms: Bambusa bambos in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland ..