Benzoin & Storax
Benzoin and Storax are both Pungent, Sweet, Aromatic Gums. They powerfully move the Qi and Blood, regulate the Qi, stop Wind, ease Pain, relieve Tension, open the Orifices of the Mind and clear the Senses.
They are similar in nature and function, but mutually enhance each other when combined.
They are useful for Wind, Phlegm, and Damp from the Head, Brain and Nerves, and are used for Headaches, Migraine, Depression, Fainting, as well as Convulsions, Epilepsy and Apoplexy associated with Wind and Phlegm. They are also used for certain Mental Disorders and were traditionally used for diseases caused by ‘Evil Spirits’.
Also effective for Chest Oppression or Pain, Heart Disease and Phlegm Obstructions of the Chest.
Together, they act as an Expectorant for Cold Phlegm of the Lungs, especially when combined with Wind, such as with Spasmodic Cough or Bronchitis with excess Phlegm.
Storax and Benzoin were tinctured with S.V. to make the Almond-like Tincture, used for Cold Phlegm of the Chest with Cough, asthma, Catarrh, Wheezing and Shortness of Breath, and was also given ‘against the malignity of contagious Fevers’.
This same tincture, when added to Water and Rose water, formed Virgin’s Milk or White Water, used externally as a cleansing facial toner, being an excellent traditional cosmetic preparation which is milky white in appearance and sweet to smell.
Key Indications
- Wind-Damp diseases of the Brain and Senses
- Chest oppression, obstruction of the Heart
- Cold Cough and Wheezing with excess sputum
Additions
1. Chest Pain add Saffron and Myrrh
2. When combined with Aloeswood, Ambergris and Camphor, they formed the basis of Sugreons Musked Troches, used to invigorate the Brain and Heart; used for Epilepsy, Apoplexy, Fainting, Vertigo, Headaches, Migraine, Fainting and Asthma.
3. When Flowers of Sulphur (ie Sublimed Sulphur) is added it forms the Pills of Storax, much used for Asthma, Dyspnoea and Suffocative Catarrhs.
4. Heart Pain, Blood Stasis, Fright etc.: combine with Costus, Clove, Sandalwood, Chebulic Myrobalan, Frankincense and Borneol Camphor (as in Benzoin Pills of TCM)
5. For Gout and Arthritis (externally) add: Betony, Agrimony, Sage, Comfrey, Frankincense, Orris, and Turpentine, made into a Plaster with Wax and Oil (as in Betony Plaster)
6. Also for Gout and Arthritis (externally) combined Plaster of Chalcitis and Oil of Hypericum, with Storax and Benzoin.
Examples
The Almond-like Tincture, Surgeon’s Musked Troches, Pills of Storax, Compound Tincture of Benzoin (‘Friar’s Balsam’)