Pistacia lentiscus

mastic • masticha • mistki

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Pistacia lentiscus L. (Anacardiaceae); mastik (Afrikaans); mastik (Dutch); mastic (French); Mastix (German); mastiha (Greek); mastice (Italian); goma de masilla (Spanish)

DESCRIPTION Mastic is solidified drops of tree resin that form small, ivory-coloured, hard, brittle and partly translucent lumps of about 6 mm (¼ in.) in diameter. It has a strong, slightly bitter and resinous taste and a sweet-smelling aroma. The product is quite expensive but will last indefinitely in a sealed container.

THE PLANT An evergreen woody shrub or small tree, barely 1.8 m (6 ft) high, which may reach 6 m (20 ft) under favourable conditions. The leaves are typically compound and lack a terminal leaflet. Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. The small red fruits first turn red and then black as they ripen.

ORIGIN Mastic is indigenous to the entire Mediterranean region. In Greece and the eastern Mediterranean, the resin has been used since ancient times for chewing gum (masticha in Greek, it becomes sticky when chewed), as oral hygiene product (as breath freshener and filler for dental caries), and as ingredient of incense, lotions, perfumes and varnish. Culinary uses apparently developed more recently.

CULTIVATION Trees are capable of surviving in shallow rocky soil under alkaline and saline conditions and can withstand frost and summer drought. Seeds are bird-dispersed. The plants are sometimes cultivated as attractive ornamental street or garden trees. On the southern part of the Greek island of Chios they are grown for mastic production. This form of the species is sometimes referred to as P. lentiscus var. chia. The mastic-producing villages or cooperatives are known as Mastichochoria.

HARVESTING Mastic production on Chios begins in mid-August, when cross-shaped cuts are made in the trunks and larger branches of the trees to start the resin flow. The drops or “tears” take two weeks or more to dry and solidify. They are meticulously cleaned and scratched with a knife, one by one, to remove sand and dirt particles. The next step is to sort and grade them according to size and quality.

CULINARY USES The strong taste and floral fragrance is utilized in Greek and Turkish mastic-flavoured sweets (e.g. halva and loukoúmia or Turkish delight), ice cream, confectioneries, sweet yeast breads and biscuits. Small amounts are used in Lebanese and Egyptian soups, stews and desserts, sometimes to mask unwanted smells. It is also a flavourant of some of the many different types of Greek ouzo.

FLAVOUR COMPOUNDS The gum yields small amounts of essential oil with several monoterpenoids. The main volatile compounds in mastic from Chios were determined to be α-pinene, β-myrcene, β-pinene, limonene and β-caryophyllene.3 It is likely that these compounds in combination give the pine-like or cedar-like fragrance but the main aroma-active compounds appear to be as yet unknown.

NOTES Pistacia vera (pistachio nut) is a close relative.

1. Mabberley, D.J. 2008. Mabberley’s plant-book (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

2. Milona, M. (Ed.) 2008. Culinaria Greece. Könemann (Tandem Verlag), Köningswinter.

3. Koutsoudaki, C., Krsek, M., Rodger, A. 2005. Chemical composition and antibacterial activity of the essential oil and the gum of Pistacia lentiscus var. chia. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 53: 7681−7685.