Myrospermum toluiferum / Tolubalsam / Leguminosae (Pea family)

Information

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Scent

Tolubalsam has a pleasant vanilla-like odor, and a sweetish aromatic taste. The Balsam of Tolu is preferred over Peru Balsam. When a small portion of it is burned, it fills a room with an agreeable aroma, and promotes expectoration. A milder fragrance is given to the atmosphere by adding a few grams to a quart of boiling water.

Aromatic Properties

It is soluble in alcohol, ether, and essential oils.

Contents

About 80 per cent amorphous resin, with cinnamic acid, a volatile oil, and a little vanillin, benzyl benzoate and benzyl cinnamate.
To distinguish it from Balsam of Peru it can be tested with sulphuric acid and water, yielding a grey mass instead of the lovely violet colour of the genuine Peruvian Tolu Balsam.

Synergic Combinations

Palo Santo, Pine, Rosewater

Historical

There is still some obscurity about the origin of the different South American balsam-yielding trees. The appearance of the above variety is said to differ but slightly from the Peruvian, but the method of gathering the balsam is quite different. V-shaped cuts are made in the tree, and the liquid is received into calabash cups placed at an angle; these are emptied into flasks of raw hide, conveyed by donkeys to the depôts, and finally shipped in tin or earthen vessels, which occasionally contain large pieces of red brick.
On arrival the balsam is soft and sticky, but exposure to the air makes it hard and brittle, more like resin, with a crystalline appearance. In colour it is pale, yellowish red or brown. As the balsam solidifies, its odour becomes more feeble, but the quantity of cinnamic acid increases, and it thus becomes valuable to perfumers as a fixative, an ounce added to a pound of volatile perfume making it much more permanent.
Tolu Balsam is frequently adulterated with turpentines, styrax, colophony, etc., and may be tested by heating it in sulphuric acid. If pure, it will yield a cherry-red liquid, and will dissolve without any appearance of sulphurous acid.

Plant Description

It is a tree which grows throughout the forests of South America, especially on the elevated parts near Carthagena, Tolu, and in the Magdalena provinces of Columbia. The balsam is obtained by making incisions into the tree.

References

Balsam of Tolu, A Modern Herbal, by Maud Grieve
Myrospermum Peruiferum. Balsam Peru. The Physiomedical Dispensatory (1869), by William Cook, M.D.