[Sca-cooks] Re: Mastic for Stefan

[Philippa Alderton]

--- I had said:

> > Why the difference in interest in mastic, I
> wonder.
> > Was the
> > source of the mastic just much closer to the
> Arabs?
>
> I gather that that's where it grew, and its usage
> spread from the Arabic areas to every place else-
> I'm
> thinking that if we look, we might find it was in
> vogue in several odd places, during the latter part
> of, and shortly following, the Crusades. We might
> also
> find it in Rome, during the Empire, when there was
> so
> much trade between Europe and North Africa.
>
> Think I'm going to play on the web a bit, see what I
> can see- that is, if this idiot chicken lets me.

Well, I did, and I found this url:

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/mastic23.html

which says:

---Description and Habitat---A shrub rarely growing
higher than 12 feet, much branched, and found freely
scattered over the
       Mediterranean region, in Spain, Portugal,
France, Greece, Turkey, the Canary Islands, and
Tropical Africa. It has been cultivated in
       England since 1664. It is principally exported
from Scio, on which island it has been cultivated for
several centuries. The trees there are
       said to be entire male.

       The best Mastic occurs in roundish tears about
the size of a small pea, or in flattened, irregular
pear-shaped, or oblong pieces covered
       with a whitish powder. They are pale yellow in
colour, which darkens with age. The odour is agreeable
and the taste mild and resinous,
       and when chewed it becomes soft, so that it can
easily be masticated. This characteristic enables it
to be distinguished froma resin
       called Sanderach, which it resembles, but which
when bitten breaks to powder.

       ---Constituents---Mastic contains a small
proportion of volatile oil, 9 per cent of resinsoluble
in alcohol and ether, and 10 per cent of a
       resin insoluble in alcohol.

       ---Medicinal Action and Properties---Stimulant,
diuretic. It has many of the properties of the
coniferous turpentines and was
       formerly greatly used in medicine. Of late
years it has chiefly been used for filling carious
teeth, either alone or in spirituous solution,
       and for varnishes, and in the East in the
manufacture of sweets and cordials.

       In the East it is still used medicinally in the
diarrhoea of children and masticated to sweeten the
breath.

I'd say that pretty well answers most of our
questions, folks ;-) Nice site- might go play on it
some more.

Phlip

=====
Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....

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