Labdanum

LABDANUM also called ladanum, frankincense or ladanone, is a sticky brown resin obtained from the shrubs Cistus ladanifer (western Mediterranean) and Cistus creticus (eastern Mediterranean), species of rockrose. It was historically used in herbalism and is still used today in the preparation of some perfumes and vermouths.

History: In ancient times, labdanum was collected by combing (wiping) the hairs on the thighs of goats and sheep that grazed on cistus bushes. In Crete in the 19th century, wooden instruments were also used, which were marked ("labdanum - picker"). It was a type of rake to which a double row of leather straps was attached instead of teeth. These were used to sweep the bushes and collect the resin, which was later extracted. It was collected by shepherds and sold to coastal traders. The resin was used as an ingredient in incense.

Labdanum was produced in ancient times on the Mediterranean coast. The book of Genesis contains two references to labdanum being brought to Egypt from Canaan. The word lot (לט "resin") in these two passages is usually interpreted as referring to labdanum based on its Semitic cognates.

Percy Newberry, a specialist in ancient Egypt, speculated that the false beards worn by Osiris and the pharaohs may have originally represented "goat's beards charged with labdanum". He also argued that the sceptre of Osiris, usually interpreted as a flail or flabellum, was more likely a tool collection of labdanum similar to that used in nineteenth-century Crete.

Some scholars, such as Samuel Bochart, Abrahams, and Rabbi Saʻadiah ben Yosef Gaon (Saadya), 882–942, state that the mysterious שכלת (onycha), an ingredient in the sacred incense (ketoret) mentioned in the Torah (Exodus 30:34), was in actually labdanum