Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects. Amber is used in jewelry and has been used as a healing agent in folk medicine.
In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on naturally occurring resins.
Myrrh is a gum-resin extracted from a number of small, thorny tree species of the genus Commiphora. Myrrh resin has been used throughout history as a perfume, incense and medicine. Myrrh mixed with posca or wine was common across ancient cultures, for general pleasure and as an analgesic.
Incense is aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt. The term is used for either the material or the aroma. Incense is used for aesthetic reasons, religious worship, aromatherapy, meditation, and ceremony. It may also be used as a simple deodorant or insect repellent.
Varnish is a clear transparent hard protective coating or film. It is not a stain. It usually has a yellowish shade from the manufacturing process and materials used, but it may also be pigmented as desired, and is sold commercially in various shades.
Frankincense is an aromatic resin used in incense and perfumes, obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia in the family Burseraceae. The word is from Old French franc encens. There are several species of Boswellia that produce true frankincense: Boswellia sacra, B. frereana, B. serrata, and B. papyrifera. Resin from each is available in various grades, which depends on the time of harvesting. The resin is hand-sorted for quality.
Dragon's blood is a bright red resin which is obtained from different species of a number of distinct plant genera: Calamus spp. also including Calamus rotang, Croton, Dracaena and Pterocarpus. The red resin has been in continuous use since ancient times as varnish, medicine, incense, and dye.
Agarwood, aloeswood, eaglewood or gharuwood is a fragrant dark resinous wood used in incense, perfume, and small carvings. This resinous wood is most commonly referred to as "oud" or "oudh". It is formed in the heartwood of aquilaria trees when the Acquilara Tree becomes infected with a type of mold and secretes a resin to combat the mold. Prior to infection, the heartwood is odourless, relatively light and pale coloured; however, as the infection progresses, the tree produces a dark aromatic resin, called aloes or agar as well as gaharu, jinko, oud, or oodhaguru, in response to the attack, which results in a very dense, dark, resin-embedded heartwood. The resin-embedded wood is valued in East and South Asian cultures for its distinctive fragrance, and thus is used for incense and perfumes.
The Burseraceae are a moderate-sized family of 17-19 genera and about 540 species of flowering plants. The actual numbers differ according to the time period in which a given source is written describing this family. The Burseraceae are also known as the torchwood family, the frankincense and myrrh family, or simply the incense tree family. The family includes both trees and shrubs, and is native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia, Australasia, and the Americas.
Sandarac is a resin obtained from the small cypress-like tree Tetraclinis articulata. The tree is native to the northwest of Africa with a notable presence in the Southern Morocco part of the Atlas mountains. The resin exudes naturally on the stems of the tree. It is also obtained by making cuts on the bark. It solidifies when exposed to the air. It comes to commerce in the form of small solid chips, translucent, and having a delicate yellow tinge. Morocco has been the main place of origin of sandarac. A similar resin is obtained in southern Australia from some species of the Australian cypress-like trees Callitris, but the resin has not been systematically collected in Australia.
Dominican amber is amber from the Dominican Republic derived from resin of the extinct tree Hymenaea protera.
Hymenaea is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. Of the fourteen living species in the genus, all but one are native to the tropics of the Americas, with one additional species on the east coast of Africa. Some authors place the African species in a separate monotypic genus, Trachylobium. In the Neotropics, Hymenaea is distributed through the Caribbean islands, and from southern Mexico to Brazil. Linnaeus named the genus in 1753 in Species Plantarum for Hymenaios, the Greek god of marriage ceremonies. The name is a reference to the paired leaflets.
Kauri gum is resin from kauri trees, which historically had several important industrial uses. It can also be used to make crafts such as jewellery. Kauri forests once covered much of the North Island of New Zealand, before the arrival of people caused deforestation, causing several areas to revert to sand dunes, scrubs, and swamps. Even afterwards, ancient kauri fields continued to provide a source for the gum and the remaining forests.
Hymenaea courbaril, the courbaril or West Indian locust, is a tree common in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. It is a hardwood that is used for furniture, flooring, and decoration. Its hard fruit pods have edible dry pulp surrounding the seeds. Its sap, called animé, is used for incense, perfume, and varnish.
In India, incense sticks, called Agarbatti, are a large part of the economy and many religions in the region.
Religious use of incense has its origins in antiquity. The burned incense may be intended as a symbolic or sacrificial offering to various deities or spirits, or to serve as an aid in prayer.
Hymenaea verrucosa is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae. It belongs to the paraphyletic subfamily Caesalpinioideae. It is a large tree native to the tropical regions of East Africa and is cultivated in many tropical parts of the world. The species is currently treated as a species of Hymenaea, though a few authors isolate it into a separate monospecific genus Trachylobium as Trachylobium verrucosum.
Gum copal is a resin produced by the sap of forest tree in the genus Daniellia. Due to common impurities and differences in regions, gum copal ranges in color from black to yellow to white. Gum copal, along with ivory and slaves, was a significant export from East Africa in the 19th century. It can have an appearance similar to amber and may be mistaken for it. Unlike amber, gum copal is usually only 100–1,000 years old and it has not yet fossilized.
New Jersey Amber, sometimes called Raritan amber, is amber found in the Raritan and Magothy Formations of the Central Atlantic (Eastern) coast of the United States. It is dated to the Late Cretaceous, Turonian age, based on pollen analysis of the host formations. It has been known since the 19th century, with several of the old clay-pit sites now producing many specimens for study. It has yielded a number of organism fossils, including fungi, plants, tardigrades, insects and feathers. The first identified Cretaceous age ant was described from a fossil found in New Jersey in 1966.
