Astragalus sarcocolla

Astragalus sarcocolla, also known as Persian gum, is a shrub or tree from Persia historically famed for its balsam, which was used to create ancient and medieval paint and in traditional medicines. Although its identity was uncertain to Europeans after it fell from use in the medieval period, it has since been identified with a species of Astragalus (Papilionaceae).

Name
Sarcocolla is the latinized form of Greek (σαρκοκόλλα), from sárx (σάρξ, "flesh") and kólla (κόλλᾰ, "glue"). It is variously known in Arabic as or, as Persian gum , and as Kerman gum  and in Persian as , as  or , and as. The medieval Latin name of the product was acarud from corruption of the Andalusian Arabic form of or, probably via Old Spanish.

Plant
Formerly, the genus Penaea, belonging to the Thymelaeaceae, was generally considered to be the original plant, namely either Penaea mucronata L., or Penaea sarcocolla L. or Penaea squamosa L. But in 1879 W. Dymock was able to prove that at least the Persian sarcocolla is the product of what he called Astragalus sarcocolla Dym. (Leguminosae). Widely known in antiquity, the drug practically disappeared from the European store of medicines, but, according to Meyerhof, it remained still well known in North Africa and Asia, especially in the drug market in Cairo.

History
Pliny reports the use of sarcocolla in creating paints and as a medicine.

Dioscorides and Galenus mention its power of healing wounds.

The 8th century philosopher Al-Kindi used sarcocolla as a component of many recipes in his medical formulary Akrabadhin, among others for leprosy.

The most detailed description is given by the 13th century botanist and pharmacologist Ibn al-Baytar on the basis of Greek and Arabic sources as well as his own observations. The resin consumes the festering flesh of putrescent abscesses, assists the ripening of tumours, carries away mucus and yellow gall, and is a remedy for inflammations of the eye, for agglutinating eyelids and for excessive secretion of the eye. Taken internally, the resin is a strong purgative, but causes also the hair to fall out. The best sarcocolla consists of crushed, white seeds, mixed with walnut oil. Measured out in different ways, it can be mingled with other drugs (sagapenum, myrobalanum, aloes, bdellium, etc.). When taken neat, the resin can be lethal; therefore, the dose should not be more than 2¼ dirhams. Ibn al-Baytar, however, maintains that he saw in Egypt women partaking, immediately after a bath, of up to 4 ounces of anzarūt, together with the pulp of the yellow melon, hoping to increase thus their corpulence.

According to the c. 13th-century Liber Ignium ("Book of Fires") of Marcus Graecus, sarcocolla was an ingredient of Greek Fire.

The 16th-century surgeon Brunus of Calabria recommended a plaster for skull fractures consisting of sarcocolla, bitter vetch meal, dragon's blood, and myrrh.