Pistacia lentiscus

Pistacia Lentiscus L-Mastice of Chios

Pistacia lentiscus L. (Anacardiaceae) or Lentiscus is a small evergreen tree species typical of the Mediterranean maquis, growing up to 8 m tall. It prefers dry forests and thickets in the Mediterranean region (extending to the from Portugal and Canary Islands to the Mediterranean scrub mergine on sandy soils and dry rocky slopes of Turkey and is distributed in all geographical regions of the Aegean and Mediterranean1. It has great value as a vegetable as it is the source of a compound in traditional medicine called mastic "Chios gum," an oleoresin traditionally used in the pharmaceutical industry.

The phytocomplex that each individual plant gives us each year consists of the resin and essential oil, in no more than 200 grams. The mastic is composed of resinous exudates obtained from the stem and main leaves. It has been discovered and proven that the resin of said mastic manifests carcinogenic properties against the bacterium called Heliobacter pylori that is responsible for peptic ulcers, and this action is manifested very effectively2. Therefore, clinically, mastic has been and is effective in the treatment of benign gastric ulcers3 and duodenal ulcers4 and in this it has also been used by Greek medicine for more than 2500 years in gastric pain5.

Numerous studies using a phytochemical approach have confirmed that Pistacia lentiscus L7 contains flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, glycosides, terpenoids, and steroids and does not contain anthraquinones and quinones8-9 . Quantitative analysis also showed a high concentration of flavonoids. It is also used to promote digestive system function, regularize intestinal transit and for its action on bronchial secretions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

DAVIS, P. H., 1966: Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean islands, 2. Edinburgh Univ. Press, Edinburgh.

AL-SAID, M. S., AGEEL, A. M., PARMAR, N. S., TARIQ, M., 1986: Evaluation of mastic, a crude drug obtained from Pistacia lentiscusfor gastric and duodenal anti-ulcer activity. J. Ethnopharmacol. 15, 271-278

HUWEZ, F. U., AL-HABBAL, M. J., 1986: Mastic in treatment of benign gastric ulcers. Gastroenterol. Japan 21, 273-274.

AL-HABBAL, M. J., AL-HABBAL, Z., HUWEZ, F. U., 1984: A double blind controlled clinical trial of mastic and placebo in the treatment of duodenal ulcer. J. Clin. Exp. Pharm. Physiol. 11, 541-4.

Palevitch D, Yaniv Z. Medicinal Plants of the Holy Land. Modan Publishing House, Tel Aviv, Israel ., 2000.

 Bahman Fazeli-nasab . Ziba Fooladvand . Classification and Evaluation of medicinal plant And medicinal properties of mastic. Int J Adv Biol Biom Res., 2014;2(6):2155-2161

 Zitouni Amel, Belyagoubi-Benhammou Nabila, Ghembaza Nacéra, Toul Fethi, AtikBekkara Fawzia. Antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the Pistacia lentiscus and Pistacia atlantica extracts. African Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology Vol. 2(2). pp. 022-028, April., 2008.

 Atmani D, Chaher N, Berboucha M, Ayouni K, Lounis H, Boudaoud H, et al. Antioxidant Capacity and Phenol Content of Selected Algerian Medicinal Plants. Food Chemistry .,2009,112(2): 303-309.

 Atmani D, Chaher N, Ayouni K, Berboucha M. Antioxidant capacity of Pistacia lentiscus and Fraxinus angustifolia extracts and their fractions. Planta Med 2011;77(12):1407-1407.