Opo'panax

Opo'panax, a gum-resin obtained in Persia, which comes to Europe at rare intervals. It has an unpleasant odour resembling bruised ivy leaves. Holmes suggests that it may be the produce of some Araliaceous plant, but nothing is known of its botanical origin. The ancient physicians attached great importance to it as an antispasmodic medicine; Hippocrates, Theophrastus, and Dioscorides have each left descriptions of it. The plant Opopanax chironium, from which it was supposed to be obtained, grows generally throughout southern Europe. The perfume known as opopanax is not derived from this gum-resin. There is a commercial opopanax, a kind of perfumed myrrh, obtained from a Balsamodendron, largely imported into Germany, where an essential oil is distilled from it.