Bdellium encyclopedia topics

Related Searches

on Ask.com

what color is bdellium

colour is bdellium

bdellium gum

where does bdellium grow

where does bdellium come from

bdellium

2 reference results for: Bdellium

Columbia Encyclopedia

bdellium, aromatic gum resin obtained from trees of the genus Commiphora (Balsamodendron of the incense-tree family). It is similar to myrrh. Bdellium is used in medicines and perfumes.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004, Columbia University Press.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

CITE THIS SOURCE|PRINT

Wikipedia

Bdellium (Hebrew bedolach) was an aromatic gum like myrrh that was exuded from a tree. It has been identified with the species Commiphora wightii, now called guggul, although bdellium was also used for the African species C. africana and at least one other Indian species, C. stocksiana. Bdellium was an adulterant of the more costly myrrh (Commiphora myrrha); guggul is still used as a binder in perfumes.

The word occurs only twice in the Hebrew Bible. The first is in Genesis 2:12, where it is described as a product of the land of Havilah; the context has led some readers to link bedolach with pearls or other precious stones. Bdellium is mentioned once again, as something familiar, in Numbers 11:7, where manna is compared to it in color:

"Now the manna was like zera gad [coriander seed], and its appearance as the appearance of bedolach.''

Bdellium appears in a number of ancient sources. In Akkadian, it was known as budulhu. Theophrastus is the first classical author to mention it, and Plautus the second in his play Curculio. Pliny the Elder describes it as a "tree black in colour, and the size of the olive; its leaf resembles that of the oak and its fruit the wild fig" (N.H. 12.19). It was an ingredient in the prescriptions of ancient physicians from Galen to Paul of Aegina, and in the Greater Kuphi.