According to Hager, myrrh consists in 100 parts of about 2.5 parts volatile oil (myrrhol), 25 to 35 parts resin (myrrhin), 55 to 65 parts gum soluble in water, 3 to 8 parts salts, impurities, and water. Water forms with myrrh an emulsion, and dissolves the gum. The resinous constituents are dissolved by spirit of wine. The gum, which forms the portion of the myrrh soluble in water, but insoluble in alcohol, and amounts to from 57 to 59 per cent., is, according to Oscar Koehler, a hydrocarbon of the formula C_{6}H_{10}O_{5}. The portion soluble in alcohol is, according to the same chemist, a mixture of various resins, an indifferent soft resin of the formula C_{26}H_{34}O_{5}, soluble in alcohol and ether, forming the greater portion of it. There are further present two resin acids, one of which has to be considered a bibasic acid of composition C_{12}H_{16}O_{8}, and the other as a monobasic acid of the formula C_{26}H_{32}O_{9}. The principal constituent of the volatile oil of which, according to Koehler, 7 to 8 per cent. is present, while Ruickholdt formerly found only 2.18 per cent. corresponds to the formula C_{10}H_{14}O. The volatile oil is laevorotatory, and when diluted with bisulphide of carbon becomes, according to Flückiger, violet by the action of bromine. An extract of myrrh, prepared with bisulphide of carbon, gives the same reaction with bromine vapor. Hydrochloric or nitric acid also colors myrrh violet, which also applies to the volatile oil. Petroleum-ether should, at the utmost, take up 6 per cent. of the myrrh, and the extract must be colorless.