Spruce gum

Spruce gum is a chewing material made from the resin of spruce trees. In North America, spruce resin was chewed by Native Americans and was later introduced to the early American pioneers and was sold commercially by the 19th century, by John B. Curtis among others. It has also been used as an adhesive. Indigenous women in North America used spruce gum to caulk seams of birch-bark canoes.[1]

Spruce gum has been used medicinally, primarily to heal deep cuts and sores in the Dene culture. In the 1870s, Sisters of Providence located in Montreal, Canada, developed a spruce gum syrup for treating coughs and bronchitis.[2]

References

  1. ^ Van Kirk, Sylvia (1984). "The role of native women in the creation of fur trade society in Western Canada, 1670–1830". Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies. 7 (3): 9–13. doi:10.2307/3346234. JSTOR 3346234.
  2. ^ Little, J.I. (March 2014). "Charities, manufactures and taxes: The Montreal Sisters of Providence spruce gum syrup case, 1876–78". Canadian Historical Review. 95 (1): 54–77. doi:10.3138/chr.1862.


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