styrax n : any shrub or small tree of the genus Styrax having fragrant bell-shaped flowers that hang below the dark green foliage

Styrax is also the companion of the She-Ra: Princess of Power villain Shadow Weaver and the race horse that won the 1895 Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris.

Styrax is a genus of about 130 species of large shrubs or small trees in the family Styracaceae, mostly native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the majority in eastern and southeastern Asia, but also crossing the equator in South America. Common names include Styrax, or the more ambiguous Storax, Snowbell and Benzoin.

The genus Pamphilia, sometimes regarded as distinct, is now included within Styrax based on analysis of morphological and DNA sequence data.

Styrax trees grow to 2-14 m tall, and have alternate, deciduous or evergreen simple ovate leaves 1-18 cm long and 2-10 cm broad. The flowers are pendulous, with a white 5-10-lobed corolla, produced 3-30 together on open or dense panicles 5-25 cm long. The fruit is an oblong dry drupe, smooth and lacking ribs or narrow wings, unlike the fruit of the related snowdrop trees (Halesia) and epaulette trees (Pterostyrax).

Uses and ecology

Several species are popular ornamental trees in parks and gardens, especially S. japonicus and its cultivars like 'Emerald Pagoda', and Styrax obassia. The wood of larger species is suitable for fine handicrafts. That of egonoki (エゴノキ, S. japonicus) is used to build kokyū (胡弓), the Japanese bowed instrument.

Since the Antiquity, styrax resin has been used in perfumes, some kinds of incense and medicine. Benzoin resin is a dried exudation from the pierced bark, produced from various Styrax species native to Sumatra, Java, and Thailand. Commonly traded are the resins of S. tonkinensis (Siam Benzoin), S. benzoin (Sumatra Benzoin), and S. benzoides. The name "benzoin" is probably derived from Arabic lubān jāwī (لبان خاوي, "Javan frankincense"); compare the obsolete terms "gum benjamin" and "benjoin". This incidentially shows that the Arabs were aware of the origin of these resins, and that by the late Middle Ages at latest international trade in them was probably of major importance.

Ego no hana ("Egonoki blossom") is the title of an essay collection by haiku poet Takashi Matsumoto. A track by hip hop artist Daniel Dumile, released under various stage names, also references the present genus: "Benzoin Gum" is an instrumental version of "Krazy World" from Take Me to Your Leader. It was released on the Special Herbs 3/4 albums, and remixed with vocals by MF Grimm (as "Asafoetida") to produce "Tick Tick Pt. 2" on Special Herbs and Spices Volume 1. "Styrax Gum" on the same Special Herbs release would seem to refer to sweetgum resin (storax) which is used similarly to and often confused with styrax resins.

The resin of Styrax acts to kill wound pathogens and deter herbivores. Consequently, for example few Lepidoptera caterpillars eat it compared to other plants. Those of the Two-barred Flasher (Astraptes fulgerator) were recorded on S. argenteus, but they do not seem to use it on a regular basis. Some styrax species have declined in numbers due to unsustainable logging and habitat degradation; while most of these are classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN, only 4 trees of the nearly extinct palo de jazmin (S. portoricensis) are known to survive at a single location. Although legally protected, the entire species could be wiped out by a single hurricane.

Use as incense

Styrax incense is used in the Middle East and adjacent regions as an air freshener. This was adopted in the European Papier d'Arménie. Though highly toxic benzene and formaldehyde are produced when burning Styrax incense (as with almost all organic substances), the amounts produced by burning a strip of Papier d'Arménie every 2-3 days are less than those achieved by many synthetic air fresheners. Styrax resin from southern Arabian species was burned during frankincense (Boswellia resin) harvesting; it was said to drive away snakes: "[The Arabians] gather frankincense by burning that storax which Phoenicians carry to Hellas; they burn this and so get the frankincense; for the spice-bearing trees are guarded by small winged snakes of varied color, many around each tree; these are the snakes that attack Egypt. Nothing except the smoke of storax will drive them away from the trees."

There is some degree of uncertainty as to what resin exactly old sources refer to. Turkish Sweetgum (Liquidambar orientalis) is a quite unrelated tree that produces a similar resin traded in modern times as "Levant Styrax" or as storax like the resins of other sweetgums, and a number of confusing variations thereupon. It is a relict species that occurs only in a small area in SW Turkey (and not in the Levant at all); presumably, quite some of the "styrax resin" of the Ancient Greek and the Ancient Roman sources was not actually from a Styrax though at least during the former era genuine Styrax resin, probably from S. officinalis, was imported in quantity from the Near East by Phoenician merchants and Herodotus of Halicarnassus in the 5th century BC indicates that different kinds of "storax" were traded. The nataf (נטף) of the incense sacred to Yahweh, mentioned in the Book of Exodus, is variously translated to the Greek term staktḗ (στακτή, AMP: Bible verse |Exodus|30:34|45), or an unspecific "gum resin" or similar term (NIV: Bible verse |Exodus|30:34|31). Nataf may have meant the resin of Styrax officinalis or of some other plant, perhaps Turkish Sweetgum which is unlikely to have been imported in quantity into the Near East. Since the Middle Ages, Southeast Asian benzoin resins became increasingly available; today there is little international trade in S. officinalis resin and little production of Turkish Sweetgum resin due to that species' decline in numbers.

Medical uses

There has been little dedicated research into the medical properties of styrax resin, but it has been used for long, and apparently with favorable results. It was important in Islamic medicine; Avicenna discusses S. officinalis it in his Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (القانون في الطب, The Canon of Medicine). He indicates that styrax resin mixed with other antibiotic substances and hardening material gives a good dental restorative material. Benzoin resin is a component of the "Theriaca Andromachi Senioris", a Venice treacle recipe in the 1686 d'Amsterdammer Apotheek. Tincture of benzoin is benzoin resin dissolved in alcohol. This and its numerous derived versions like lait virginal and Friar's Balsam were highly esteemed in 19th-century European cosmetics and other household purposes; they apparently had antibacterial properties.

Today tincture of benzoin is most often used in first aid for small injuries, as it acts as a disinfectant and local anesthetic and seems to promote healing. It can also be added to boiling water to produce fumes which when inhaled have a soothing effect on the lungs and bronchia, helping to recover from common cold, bronchitis or asthma. Resin and its derivatives are also used as an additives in cigarettes due to this effect. The antibiotic activity seems mostly due to abundant benzoic acid and its esters, which were named after the resin; other less well known secondary compounds such as lignans like pinoresinol are likely significant too. Benzoin (2-Hydroxy-2-phenylacetophenone), despite the apparent similarity of the name, is not contained in benzoin resin in measurable quantities. However, it does contain small amounts of styrene, and this hydrocarbon was named after the genus Styrax.

Selected species

• Styrax agrestis – China
• Styrax americanus – SE USA
• Styrax argenteus
• Styrax argentifolius – China
• Styrax argyrophyllus – Peru
• Styrax bashanensis – China
• Styrax benzoides – Thailand, S China
• Styrax benzoin Dryand. – Sumatra Benzoin – Sumatra
• Styrax calvescens – China
• Styrax camporum Pohl
• Styrax chinensis – China
• Styrax chrysocarpus – China
• Styrax confusus – China
• Styrax crotonoides – Malaysia
• Styrax dasyanthus – central China
• Styrax faberi – China
• Styrax ferax – Peru
• Styrax ferrugineus Ness et Mart.
• Styrax formosanus – China
• Styrax foveolaria – Peru
• Styrax fraserensis – Malaysia
• Styrax grandiflorus – China
• Styrax grandifolia – SE USA
• Styrax hainanensis – S China
• Styrax hemsleyanum – China
• Styrax hookeri – Himalaya
• Styrax huanus – China
• Styrax japonicus – egonoki – Japan
• Styrax limpritchii – SW China (Yunnan)
• Styrax litseoides – Vietnam
• Styrax loxensis – Ecuador
• Styrax macranthus – China
• Styrax macrocarpus – China
• Styrax martii Seub.
• Styrax mathewsii – Peru
• Styrax obassia – Japan, China
• Styrax odoratissimus – China
• Styrax officinalis L. – SE Europe, SW Asia
• Styrax parvifolium Pohl.
• Styrax perkinsiae – China
• Styrax peruvianum – Peru
• Styrax philadelphoides – China
• Styrax platanifolius – Texas, NE Mexico
• Styrax pohlii A.DC.
• Styrax portoricensis – palo de jazmin – Puerto Rico
• Styrax redivivus – California
• Styrax roseus – China
• Styrax rugosus – China
• Styrax schweliense – W China
• Styrax serrulatus – Himalaya, SW China
• Styrax shiraianum – Japan
• Styrax socialis – Peru
• Styrax suberifolius – China
• Styrax supaii – China
• Styrax tafelbergensis – Suriname
• Styrax tonkinensis Craib – Siam Benzoin – SE Asia
• Styrax veitchiorum – China
• Styrax vilcabambae‎ – Peru
• Styrax wilsonii – W China
• Styrax wuyuanensis – China
• Styrax zhejiangensis – China

Footnotes

References

• (2006): Problems with DNA barcodes for species delimitation: 'ten species' of Astraptes fulgerator reassessed (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae). Systematics and Biodiversity 4(2): 127–132. PDF fulltext
• (2001). Phylogeny and Biogeography of the Styracaceae. Int. J Plant Sci. 162(6, Supplement): S95–S116. HTML abstract, first page image
• aut Herodotus of Halicarnassus (c.440 BC): The Histories. Annotated HTML fulltext of 1921 A. D. Godley translation.
• (1997): Analytical Study of Free and Ester Bound Benzoic and Cinnamic Acids of Gum Benzoin Resins by GC-MS and HPLC-frit FAB-MS. Phytochem. Analysis 8(2): 63-73. DOI:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1565(199703)8:23.0.CO;2-Y HTML abstract
• (2004): Ten species in one: DNA barcoding reveals cryptic species in the semitropical skipper butterfly Astraptes fulgerator. PNAS 101(41): 14812-14817. PDF fulltext Supporting Appendices
• (1997). A revision of Styrax L. section Pamphilia (Mart. ex A. DC.) B. Walln. (Styracaceae). Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien 99B: 681–720.