Myrrh Resinoid

#### Myrrh Resinoid. For the preparation of **Myrrh Resinoid **and other perfumery materials, it is essential that the starting material, the crude botanical (in this case, the **Myrrh**), be selected for the purpose, i.e. it must be of the highest olfactory value. Not only must it be the so-called "heerabol"-myrrh, but it should be free from odorless, foreign resins, etc. Commercial myrrh contains various amounts of "bisabol"-myrrh which today is called **Opopanax **(see this monograph), but since the latter is considered more valuable, the "bisabol"-myrrh is usually distinguished from the true myrrh. The two raw materials have distinctly different odor characteristics. **Myrrh**** ****Resinoid**** **is produced from selected myrrh which is extracted with benzene, petroleum ether or ethyl alcohol. The product from the latter solvent is described under **Myrrh**** ****Tincture**** **and **Myrrh Absolute.** **Myrrh Resinoid **is a very dark, reddish-orange- brown, viscous mass, hardly pourable at ordinary room temperature. It is soft and sticky, however, unless essential oil has been removed from the myrrh prior to the extraction. This is one way of producing a low-grade myrrh resinoid. The odor is intensely warm, deep-spicy, balsamic-aromatic and very rich. The resinoid is distinguished by its bitter taste as opposed to the flavor of **Opopanax **extracts. In spite of its intense color which is a drawback, **Myrrh Resinoid **finds use in perfumery as an excellent fixative and sweetener in Oriental-spicy bases, chypres, woody bases, forest notes, pine fragrances, etc. It blends excellently with cinnamic alcohol, geranium oil, linalool, nitromusks, patchouli oil, spice oils, etc., and with the heavier, floral perfume bases. In flavors, the biting-burning, somewhat acrid-aromatic taste blends favorably in mouth-washes, toothpastes, etc. with clove oil, thyme oil, spearmint and peppermint oils, methyl salicylate, etc. Its actual medicinal value is disputable, but it does impart a pleasant-aromatic body to gargles, mouthsprays, etc. ---