Tinkturenpresse

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Guaiacum officinale L. - Zygophyllaceae - guaiacum, lignum vitae, Guajak-Baum, Franzosenholz, Pockholz

Evergreen tree, up to 13m high, native to West Indies, Colombia, Venezuela; leaves opposite, short petioled, leathery, two- or tripinnate, leaflets obovate, obtuse; flowers showy, blueish purple to pale blue; fruit a compressed capsule heart-shaped, orange-yellow; seed perisperm red, testa black.
„The greenish brown resin yields a drug known as ‘Guaicum’. The hardest and heaviest of woods called “lignum vitae” is a remedy against morbus gallicus. The wood is extensively used for making blocks and pulleys, rulers and many other similar articles.“ http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=5&taxon_id=250064408

Guaiac refers to the resin of G.officinale and G.sanctum, constituting 18-25% of the wood of these trees. The alcoholic extract of the resin gives a royal blue color in air and may be used as sensitive test for oxidising agents like peroxidases.
[761. The chemistry of extractives from hardwoods. Part XXXVI. The lignans of Guastiacum officinale L., King, F.E., Wilson, J.G., J. Chem. Soc., 1964, 4011-4024]

„The term guaiac denotes the name of the paper surface used in the test which has a phenolic compound, alpha-guaiaconic acid, that is extracted from the wood resin of Guaiacum trees.“
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stool_guaiac_test

„α-Guaiaconic acid, the constituent of gum guaiac resin that turns blue upon oxidation, was purified by elution from a polyamide column with aqueous formic acid and shown to be 2,5-di-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-3,4-dimethylfuran. The blue product, guaiacum blue, is the bis-methylenequinone obtained by twofold one-electron oxidation of α-guaiaconic acid.“
[Isolation and characterization of α-guaiaconic acid and the nature of guaiacum blue., Kratochvil, J.F., Burris, R.H., Seikel, M.K., Harkin, J.M., Phytochemistry, Vol.10(10), 1971, 2529-2531]

Woodville, W., Hooker, W.J., Spratt, G., Medical Botany, 3th edition, vol.4, t.200 (1832)
http://plantgenera.org/species.php?id_species=482112