*3.2. Storax Balsam from Liquidambar Orientalis (Sweetgum)*

Cinnamic Acid (C9H8O2, 148 MW, 9.61 min at Brandeis, 10.68 min at Penn) Oleanolic Acid (C30H48O3 456 MW, 20.07 min at Brandeis)

Cinnamic acid is a carboxylic acid with strong fixative, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties [24]. In the initial Penn Chemistry study, the compound had been noted in the Mochlos chromatograms but was not recognized at the time as cinnamic acid, instead having been categorized among the repeatedly occurring unknowns, and was retroactively identified. Cinnamic acid is a white, crystalline compound with a pleasant, leathery odor. In both the Tourloti and Mochlos perfumes, the cinnamic acid was probably obtained from the balsamic oleoresin exuded from the inner bark of *Liquidambar orientalis* [25], a species that contains up to 150,000 ppm cinnamic acid [26]. While cinnamic acid occurs up to 90,000 ppm in the fruit of *Laurus nobilis* (laurel), the complete absence of cineole, the prevailing diagnostic compound in *L. nobilis* (occurring up to 283,700 ppm in its fruit), disqualifies laurel as the source botanical. Moreover, oleanolic acid, another biomarker of *L. orientalis* according to a GC-MS characterization of aromatic resins carried out by Modugno et al. [27], was identified in sample 4428 (i.e., the third extraction). This is one of the major biomarkers that helped determine that the extant cinnamic acid was derived from storax balsam sourced from *L. orientalis*, rather than storax benzoin (or benzoe) sourced from *Styrax officinalis* [28].

The Roman historian, Pliny the Elder, suggests that *L. orientalis* grew on Crete (*Naturalis Historia* 12.55), although it is unclear whether the species was present on the island 1200 years earlier during the LBA. Well-watered locales, such as the Kephalo Vrisi Valley (Mesa Mouliana) or the Richtis Gorge (Exo Mouliana), both nearby to Tourloti and Mochlos, would have been suitable environments judging by the regular occurrence today of *Platanus orientalis* (plane), which is known to grow in similar riparian ecosystems [1]. Storax balsam from *L. orientalis* could also have been readily sourced from the Dodecanese or southwest Anatolia (roughly 200 km from East Crete), where the tree grows to this day on the island of Rhodes and in the Mu ˘gla Province of the Turkish mainland, directly across from the island. Used today to anchor scents in Bourjois' "Soir de Paris" and Hermès' "Bel Ami" [19], in both the Tourloti and Mochlos perfumed oils, storax likely had the same effect of lending the final aromatic product a balsam quality to its lower and middle body (i.e., the base and heart notes). In antiquity, its antimicrobial and antioxidant qualities would have also held great value as a kind of preservative, delaying spoilage of the olive oil-based perfume.
