A great book, "A Modern Herbal", I recommend it to anyone,
has great descriptions
about the content of the various herbs.
For example, myrrh seems extremely interesting, with its content
of sulphates, benzoates, salts, etc.

Myrrh is a constituent of tooth pastes and
fights canker sores, herpes,

Perl Molson

Myrrh
Botanical: Commiphora myrrha (HOLMES)
Family: N.O. Burseraceae
Description
Constituents
Medicinal Action and Uses
Dosages
Other Species
---Synonyms---Balsamodendron Myrrha. Commiphora Myrrha, var. Molmol.
Mirra. Morr. Didin. Didthin. Bowl.
---Part Used---The oleo-gum-resin from the stem.
---Habitat---Arabia, Somaliland.

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---Description---The bushes yielding the resin do not grow more than 9
feet in height, but they are of sturdy build, with knotted branches,
and branchlets that stand out at right-angles, ending in a sharp
spine. The trifoliate leaves are scanty, small and very unequal, oval
and entire. It was first recognized about 1822 at Ghizan on the Red
Sea coast, a district so bare and dry that it is called 'Tehama,'
meaning 'hell.'
Botanically, there is still uncertainty about the origin and identity
of the various species.

There are ducts in the bark, and the tissue between them breaks down,
forming large cavities, which, with the remaining ducts, becomes
filled with a granular secretion which is freely discharged when the
bark is wounded, or from natural fissures. It flows as a pale yellow
liquid, but hardens to a reddish-brown mass, being found in commerce
in tears of many sizes, the average being that of a walnut. The
surface is rough and powdered, and the pieces are brittle, with a
granular fracture, semi-transparent, oily, and often show whitish
marks. The odour and taste are aromatic, the latter also acrid and
bitter. It is inflammable, but burns feebly.

Several species are recognized in commerce. It is usually imported in
chests weighing 1 or 2 cwts., and wherever produced comes chiefly from
the East Indies. Adulterations are not easily detected in the powder,
so that it is better purchased in mass, when small stones, senegal
gum, chestnuts, pieces of bdellium, or of a brownish resin called
'false myrrh,' may be sorted out with little difficulty.

It has been used from remote ages as an ingredient in incense,
perfumes, etc., in the holy oil of the Jews and the Kyphi of the
Egyptians for embalming and fumigations.

Little appears to be definitely known about the collection of myrrh.
It seems probable that the best drug comes from Somaliland, is bought
at the fairs of Berbera by the Banians of India, shipped to Bombay,
and there sorted, the best coming to Europe and the worst being sent
to China. The true myrrh is known in the markets as karam, formerly
called Turkey myrrh, and the opaque bdellium as meena harma.

The gum makes a good mucilage and the insoluble residue from the
tincture can be used in this way.

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---Constituents---Volatile oil, resin (myrrhin), gum, ash, salts,
sulphates, benzoates, malates, and acetates of potassa.

It is partially soluble in water, alcohol, and ether. It may be tested
by a characteristic violet reaction if nitric acid diluted with an
equal volume of water is brought into contact with the residue
resulting from the boiling of 0.1 gramme of coarsely powdered myrrh
with 2 c.c. of 90 per cent alcohol, evaporated in a porcelain dish so
as to leave a thin film.

The oil is thick, pale yellow, and contains myrrholic acid and
heerabolene, a sesquiterpenene.

---Medicinal Action and Uses---Astringent, healing. Tonic and
stimulant. A direct emmenagogue, a tonic in dyspepsia, an expectorant
in the absence of feverish symptoms, a stimulant to the mucous
tissues, a stomachic carminative, exciting appetite and the flow of
gastric juice, and an astringent wash.

It is used in chronic catarrh, phthisis pulmonalis, chlorosis, and in
amenorrhoea is often combined with aloes and iron. As a wash it is
good for spongy gums, ulcerated throat and aphthous stomatitis, and
the tincture is also applied to foul and indolentulcers. It has been
found helpful in bronchorrhoea and leucorrhoea. It has also been used
as a vermifuge.

When long-continued rubefacient effect is needed, a plaster may be
made with 1 1/2 OZ. each of camphor, myrrh, and balsam of Peru rubbed
together and added to 32 OZ. of melted lead plaster, the whole being
stirred until cooling causes it to thicken.

Myrrh is a common ingredient of toothpowders, and is used with borax
in tincture, with other ingredients, as a mouth-wash.

The Compound Tincture, or Horse Tincture, is used in veterinary
practice for healing wounds.

Meetiga, the trade-name of Arabian Myrrh, is more brittle and gummy
than that of Somaliland and has not its white markings.

The liquid Myrrh, or Stacte, spoken of by Pliny, and an ingredient of
Jewish holy incense, was formerly obtainable and greatly valued, but
cannot now be identified.

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---Dosages---10 to 30 grains. Of fluid extract, 5 to 30 minims.
Tincture, B.P. and U.S.P., 1/2 to 1 drachm. Of tincture of aloes and
Myrrh, as purgative and emmenagogue, 30 minims. Of N.F. pills of aloes
and Myrrh, 2 pills. Of Rufus's pills of aloes and Myrrh, as stimulant
cathartic in debility and constipation, or in suppression of the
menses, 4 to 8 grains of Br. mass.

---Other Species---
Bissa Bôl, or perfumed bdellium of theArabs, has an odour like
mushrooms. Though it is sent from Arabian ports to India and China, it
was formerly known as East Indian Myrrh. It is of a dark colour, and
may be a product of Commiphora erythraea, var. glabrescens, of B.
Kalaf, A. Kafal, B. Playfairii or Hemprichia erythraea.

B. Kua of Abyssinia has been found to yield Myrrh.

Mecca balsam, a product of B. or C. Opobalsamum, is said to be the
Myrrh of the Bible, the Hebrew word mar having been confused with the
modern Arabic morr or Myrrh in translation.

Bdellium, recognized as an inferior Myrrh and often mixed with or
substituted for it, is a product of several species of Commiphora,
according to American writers, or Balsamodendron according to English
ones. Four kinds are collected in Somaliland, making sub-divisions of
African Bdellium:
Perfumed Bdellium or Habaghadi,
African Bdellium,
Opaque Bdellium,
Hotai Bdellium.
These African bdelliums, said by some writers to be products of
Balsamodendron (Heudelotia) Africanum, are in irregular, hard,
roundish tears about an inch in diameter, pale yellow to red-brown,
translucent, the fracture waxy, taste and odour slight.
The product of Ceradia furcata is also called African Bdellium.

The commercial Gugul, or Indian Bdellium, is said by some writers to
be a product of Commiphora roxburghiana, by others of B. Mukul, and by
others again of B. roxbhurghii or Amyris Bdellium. It is more moist
than Myrrh; is found in irregular, dark reddishbrown masses, with a
waxy fracture; softens with the heat of the hand; adheres to the teeth
when chewed; and smells slightly of Myrrh.

It is used in the East Indies in leprosy, rheumatism and syphilis, and
in Europe for plasters.

http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/myrrh-66.html