Uses for sweetgum trees

Discussion in 'General chat' started by purecajn, Oct 5, 2011.

  1. purecajn

    purecajn Junior Member

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    Besides the norm, furniture what are some other uses for this seemingly anoying tree? As it is considered a "Pioneer " type of tree I was wondering if anyone has heard of copicing it. Curious as to its chop and drop potential. I know you can use the balls as mulch in areas where there is dog and cat problems. Just like mulching in with pinecones. I normally grab a honeysuckle vine or the equilivant and use the tree as a flower post. Great for bringing in bees and such. Plan on doing that too the pine trees as well this year. I can't climb them so their use for grapes is nill. but if I turn them all into flower poles ....
     
  2. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    Try it and tell us how it went.
    If its being called a pioneer tree it must be good for something.
    What are the little balls?seed cone sort of things?
     
  3. Michaelangelica

    Michaelangelica Junior Member

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    Liquidambar styraciflua?
    Capturing dinosaur DNA as in Jurasic Park?

    Wiki says
    The hardened sap, or gum resin, excreted from the wounds of the Sweetgum, for example the American Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), can be chewed on like chewing gum and has been long used for this purpose in Southern United States as a substitute for chewing gum.[1] The sap was also believed to be a cure for sciatica, weakness of nerves, etc.
    In Chinese herbal medicine, lu lu tong, or "all roads open," is the hard, spiky fruit of native sweetgum species. It first appeared in the medical literature in Omissions from the Materia Medica, by Chen Cangqi, in 720 CE. Bitter in taste, aromatic, and neutral in temperature, lu lu tong promotes the movement of blood and Qi, water metabolism and urination, expels wind, and unblocks the channels. It is an ingredient in formulas for epigastric distention or abdominal pain, anemia, irregular or scanty menstruation, low back or knee pain and stiffness, edema with difficult urination, or nasal congestion. [2]
    Uses of resin
    Benzoin resin, a dried exudation from pierced bark, is currently 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 جاوي, "Javan frankincense"); compare the obsolete terms "gum benjamin" and "benjoin". This incidentally 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.
    The chemical benzoin (2-Hydroxy-2-phenylacetophenone), despite the apparent similarity of the name, is not contained in benzoin resin in measurable quantities. However, benzoin resin does contain small amounts of the hydrocarbon styrene, named however for Levant styrax (from Liquidambar orientalis), from which it was first isolated, and not for the genus Styrax itself; industrially produced styrene is now used to produce polystyrene plastics, including StyrofoamTM.
    [edit]History of sources


    Styrax officinalis resin was mainly used in antiquity
    Since Antiquity, styrax resin has been used in perfumes, some kinds of incense, and medicines.
    There is some degree of uncertainty as to exactly what resin old sources refer to. Turkish sweetgum (Liquidambar orientalis) is a quite unrelated tree in the family Altingiaceae that produces a similar resin traded in modern times as storax or as "Levant styrax," like the resins of other sweetgums, and a number of confusing variations thereupon. Turkish sweetgum 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 from this sweetgum, rather than a Styrax, although 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[3].
    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: Exodus 30:34), or an unspecific "gum resin" or similar term (NIV: Exodus 30:34). 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.
    [edit]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[4]. Nothing except the smoke of storax will drive them away from the trees."[5]


    Sumatra Benzoin (Styrax benzoin) parts drawing.
    Franz Eugen Köhler: Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen in naturgetreuen Abbildungen, etc. (1887)
    [edit]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 (Ibn Seena, ابن سینا) discusses S. officinalis it in his Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (القانون في الطب, The Law 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 recovery from the common cold, bronchitis, or asthma. Benzoin resin and its derivatives are also used as an additives in cigarettes due to this soothing effect.
    The antibiotic activity of benzoin resin seems mostly due to its abundant benzoic acid and benzoic acid esters, which were named after the resin; other less well known secondary compounds such as lignans like pinoresinol are likely significant too[6].
     
  4. adiantum

    adiantum Junior Member

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    I lived in Georgia(USA) for twenty years, where sweetgum is native and common. I read about the resin years ago and basically thought it was a myth, because I never saw the trees produce it for years. Simply slashing the bark and expecting it to ooze out didn't work. The one time I saw it forming naturally was on a large tree that had been nearly or completely girdled by a beaver. Then again I saw it on a tree that I had girdled myself to make more light for some bamboo I was establishing. So it seems to me the tree has to be killed or severely wounded to get any resin. I suppose in a landscape overrun with it where it needs to be thinned or cleared, some resin yield could be obtained.
    Other than resin, sweetgum coppices readily, at least when fairly young...say under six inches in diameter. Big old trees are a valuable cabinet wood, and any size makes a pretty decent firewood. Note that it must be split immediately upon felling....if the logs are allowed to season they are nearly impossible to split!
    It's very difficult to eradicate in a new clearing without a bulldozer. The roots are often connected under the ground so stumps can be supported by live trees at some distance. It's possible to wear them down over several years by continuous clipping, mulching with carpets or something else impenetrable, and hacking into the stubs to encourage decay fungi. The sprouts will grow two meters (six feet) or more in a single rainy summer.
    Goats will browse it, but only after browsing out more palatable species (elm, maple, oak, privet, eleagnus...just about anything but pine)....
     

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