Benzoil
or BENJAMIN, in botany and commerce, as benjamin, a kind of resin, obtained from a tree, the styrax benzoin, which belongs to the order ebenacex (ebenads). It grows in Sumatra, Borneo, and the adjacent islands. It is used as a medicine in chronic diseases of the lungs, as an ingredient in perfumery, and in the incense of Roman Catholic and Ritualist churches.
In botany, as benzoin, a genus of plants belonging to the order lauraceæ (laurels). The species are found in North America and in Nepaul. The berries of benzoin odoriferum yield an aromatic stimulant oil.
In chemistry (C14H12O2) a polymeric modification of benzoic aldehyde, which BEOWULF remains in the retort when the crude oil is distilled with lime or iron oxide to free it from hydrocyanic acid.
BEOWULF (bā'ō-wölf), an Anglo Saxon epic, the only only manuscript ma of which belongs to the 8th or 9th century, and is in the Cottonian Library (British Museum). From internal evidence it is concluded that the poem in its essentials existed prior to the Anglo-Saxon colonization of Britain. It recounts the adventures of the hero Beowulf, especially his delivery of the Danish kingdom from the monster Grendel and his equally formidable mother, and, lastly, the slaughter by Beowulf of a fiery dragon, and his death from wounds received in the conflict.