Mastic Gum

What Is Mastic Gum?

Mastic gum is tree resin, not a ground herb. It weeps from cuts in the bark of Pistacia lentiscus var. Chia, a low evergreen grown on the Greek island of Chios, and hardens in the sun into brittle golden tears. Those tears are cleaned, sorted by hand and milled.

How It Works in the Body

Mastic is a mixture, not a single compound. About a quarter of the resin is cis-1,4-poly-beta-myrcene, a natural polymer and the reason mastic behaves like gum. Most of the rest is triterpenic acids, led by masticadienonic and isomasticadienonic acid, plus a light volatile oil of pinene, myrcene and limonene.

The resin is not water-soluble, so it travels the gut much as it arrives. This capsule holds that whole milled material rather than one fraction pulled out of it.

What It Supports

• Digestive comfort: Supports digestive comfort, the everyday use Aegean households have put the resin to since antiquity.
• An old habit: Mastic was the Mediterranean's first chewing gum, and the Greek verb behind its name gave English the word masticate.
• Whole resin: Milled resin, 1,000 mg per serving, so the polymer and the triterpenic acids arrive together.
• One active: No blend and no added flavor, just resin in a vegetarian capsule with rice flour.

Who It May Suit

This suits people who would rather take one botanical with a long record than a stacked formula. The vegetarian capsule and rice flour keep it free of animal ingredients, so it fits vegetarian and vegan routines.

Good To Know

Resin is a natural material, so color and aroma shift from harvest to harvest. Pistacia lentiscus sits in the same plant family as pistachio, cashew and mango, so an allergy to those nuts can carry over. Talk with your healthcare provider before use, especially if you react to tree nuts, or if you are pregnant or nursing, since little is known about mastic in pregnancy.