Balsam of Mecca

Commiphora gileadensis, the Arabian balsam tree is a shrub species in the genus Commiphora growing in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, southern Oman, and in southeast Egypt where it may have been introduced. Other common names for the plant include balm of Gilead and Mecca myrrh, but this is due to historical confusion between several plants and the historically important expensive perfumes and drugs obtained from them. True balm of Gilead was very rare, and appears to have...