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Galbanum is an aromatic natural gum resin and a product of certain Apiaceae Persian plant species in the genus Ferula, chiefly Ferula gummosa (synonym F. galbaniflua) and Ferula rubricaulis. Galbanum-yielding plants grow plentifully on the slopes of the mountain ranges of northern Iran. It occurs usually in hard or soft, irregular, more or less translucent and shining lumps, or occasionally in separate tears, of a light-brown, yellowish or greenish-yellow colour. Galbanum has a disagreeable, bitter taste, a peculiar, somewhat musky odour, and an intense green scent. With a specific gravity of 1.212, it contains about 8% ; about 65% of a resin which contains sulfur; about 20% gum; and a very small quantity of the colorless crystalline substance umbelliferone. It also contains α-pinene, β-pinene, limonene, cadinene, 3-carene, and ocimene.
It is occasionally used in the making of modern perfume, and is the ingredient which gives the distinctive smell to the fragrances "Must" by Cartier, "Vent Vert" by Pierre Balmain, "Chanel No. 19", "Vol De Nuit" by Guerlain, "Quelques Fleurs" by Houbigant Parfum, as well as Silver Mountain Water by Creed, the esteemed scent of James Gandolfini used during the filming of the sixth season of The Sopranos. The debut of galbanum in fine modern perfumery is generally thought to be the origin of the Fragrance wheel, exemplified by the scent "Vent Vert" first launched by Balmain in 1945. Galbanum absolute is a brown viscous liquid which will easily resinify over time even with minimal exposure to air obtained by solvent-extraction from the gum oleo-resin of the plant. Its odour profile is described as ambery-green, sweet, balsamic, resinous with hints of freshness, "similar to how galbanum oil would smell when mixed with labdanum". It acts as a base note in perfume compositions – one of a handful of green base notes of natural origin. Because it is perceived as simultaneously 'green' and sweet, it finds a more specific role to create a special effect in 'Chypre green', 'floral green', 'Chypre coniferous', 'Woody Fougères' and 'Aquatic Fougères'.
A ferula called narthex (or Giant fennel), which shares the galbanum-like scent, has long, straight and sturdy hollow stalks, which are segmented like bamboo.Encyclopædia Britannica They were used as torches in antiquity and it is with such a torch that, according to Greek mythology, Prometheus, who deceived his father stealing some of his fire, brought fire to humanity. Bacchae were described using the bamboo-like stalks as weapons. Such rods were also used for walking sticks, splints, for stirring boiling liquids, and for corporal punishment.
Some of the mythology may have transferred to the related galbanum which was referred to as the sacred "mother resin."Leopold Gmelin. Handbook of Chemistry, vol. 17.
In 1858, Lola Montez recommended using a mixture of galbanum (which she spelled "gaulbanum") and pitch plaster attached to a leather strip as a tool for removing hair from body parts where more visible hair might be unwanted, similar to modern day 'waxing'.
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