Liquidambar orientalis

Liquidambar orientalis is endemic to the Muğla region of southwestern Türkiye — the same plant does not grow naturally anywhere else on earth. Its fragrant balsamic resin, called Sığla yağı in Turkish and storax in the wider history, was traded throughout the eastern Mediterranean from the Hittite period onward.

In Byzantine and Ottoman perfumery, storax was a base note — warming, sweet, leathery. Today the Sığla forests are protected; the resin remains a rare and quietly powerful ingredient in artisan natural perfumery.

Properties: warming, balsamic, mildly antiseptic. Traditional uses: perfumery (base note), incense, ritual ointments, skin balms.