Balls Against the Pestilence or Plague

Here is a recipe for scented balls that contains Gum Arabic. It is from The Secrets of Alexis of Piedmont, 1558 (as reprinted in The Perfume Handbook, Nigel Groom, 1992).




Balles against the pestilence or plague, whiche also give an odour unto all things

'Take storax, one part, labdanum one parte, cloves halfe a parte, camphor at your discretion, but less than any of the other substances, of spikenard a good quantity, and of nutmegs also, of all this make paste with Rose water, in the which you shall temper gomme dragant and gomme Arabic, stirring and brusyng them well. Of this paste, you shall make balles to hold in your handes, and smell to.'











See also William Ward (1534-1604) author of The Secretes of the Reverende Maister Alexis Piemont. (Containyng excellent remedies against divers diseases and other accidents, with the manner to make distillations, parfumes, confitures, diynges, colours, fusions, and meltynges. …) (Translated out of French into English by William Warde)
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ward,_William_(1534-1604%3F)_(DNB00)