Botanical Name: Styrax Benzion

Origin: Siam

You can put Benzoin Essential Oil into hand creams for people who work in the open - gardeners, foresters, builders, usually adding Lemon and or Lavender, to mask the vanilla smell and contribute their own healing powers. Benzoin Essential Oil also combines well with Rose Absolute.

Benzoin Essential Oil is derived from the tree Styrax Benzoin which grows in Thailand and adjacent islands. It is not, strictly speaking, an essential oil, as pure Benzoin is a resin, and has to be melted by heating over hot water before it can be used.

The granulated gum, called 'gum Benjamin' in old herbals, is a dark reddish-brown, and is often used as a fixative in pot pourris, but the form in which benzoin is probably best known is as 'Friar's Balsam' or compound tincture of benzoin. The active constituents of pure Benzoin include benzoic acid, benzoresinol, siaresinotannol and vanillin, which gives it its characteristic 'ice cream' aroma.