Benzoin (anxi xiang, an-hsi hsiang)

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by Sally K. Church

Benzoin, also called jinyin incense (kemenyan, gum Benjamin), is a resin from certain styracaceous trees of Sumatra and Java. It is used in medicine and perfumery.

Commenting on benzoin in Dhofar, listed among the items presented by the people of that country to the Chinese envoys, Mills says:

“This benzoin (An hsi hsiang, Giles, nos. 44; 4034; 4256, ‘Persian aromatic’) is gum-gugul, an aromatic gum-resin obtained from trees of the Balsamodendron species and from Boswellia serrata (Wheatley, ‘Commodities’, p. 55.”

- J. V. G. Mills, trans., ed., Ma Huan, Ying-yai Sheng-lan: The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores [1433], Hakluyt Society Extra Series 42 (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 1970), "The Country of Tsu-fa-erh", p. 153, n. 3

In the chapter on Palembang (Old Haven) Mills has the following note:

“Giles, nos. 2032; 23,253; a transliteration of Malay kemenyan; gum benjamin or benzoin (Wheatley, ‘Commodities’, p. 56; 0. W. Wolters, ‘The Po-ssu Pine Trees’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. XXIII pt. 2. (1960), p. 336). Pelliot thought that Ma Huan’s chin-yin incense was probably sweet benjamin, and he identified benjoin (benzoin) with the substance called by the Chinese ‘An-hsi [Parthian, Persian] aromatic’ (Pelliot, ‘Voyages’, p. 382); but Wheatley and Wolters in the articles above quoted have demonstrated that after the eighth century the name ‘An-hsi aromatic’ was applied to the Sumatran benzoin, which is the resinous product of trees of the genus Styrax.”

- J. V. G. Mills, trans., ed., Ma Huan, Ying-yai Sheng-lan: The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores [1433], Hakluyt Society Extra Series 42 (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 1970), "The Country of Old Haven" [Palembang], n. 5, p. 100