Balsam
yellow, oily, resinous exudation obtained from the balsam fir. It is an oleoresin (see resin) with a pleasant odor but a biting taste. It is a turpentine rather than a true balsam. On standing, the essential oil in Canada balsam evaporates, leaving behind the resin as a hard, transparent varnish. Canada balsam is valued as an optical mounting cement, e.g., for lenses and microscope slides, since it yields, when dissolved in an equal volume of xylene, a noncrystallizing cement with a refractive index nearly equal to that of ordinary glass. It is used also in paints and polishes.
Dictio-definitions :
1. A viscous, yellowish, transparent resin obtained from the balsam fir and used as a cement for glass lenses and for mounting specimens on microscopic slides.
2. A resin containing more or less of an essential or volatile oil.
3. A species of tree (Abies balsamea).
4. An annual garden plant (Impatiens balsamina) with beautiful flowers; balsamine.
5. Anything that heals, soothes, or restores.
6. To treat or anoint with balsam; to relieve, as with balsam; to render balsamic.
7. an East Indian plant (Momordica balsamina), of the gourd family, with red or orange-yellow cucumber-shaped fruit of the size of a walnut, used as a vulnerary, and in liniments and poultices.
|
|
Sponsored Links :
|
Usage :
1. Many of the dead trees are Fraser firs that were victims of the balsam wooly adelgid, a non-native insect that has killed an estimated 90 percent of those trees in the Smokies, according to park officials.
2. There was quite a different sound, coming from inside a forest of dry Himalayan balsam stalks that stretched between the river and the thicket — a harsh growling sound
|
Synonyms :
analeptic, aromatic, bergamot oil, brilliantine, collyrium, demulcent, drops, drug, electuary, elixir, embrocation, emollient, fixative, inunctum, jasmine oil, lanolin, lavender oil, oil, ointment, parfum, patent medicine, pomade, pomatum, receipt, rose oil, salve, tisane, unction, unguent, unguentum, vegetable remedies, volatile oil, vulnerary
|
|
