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Deeply revered for many thousands of years, Frankincense has perhaps the greatest association with spiritual practice of any natural plant material on earth. In many great ancient cultures, including the Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, Hebrew, Greek and Roman civilizations, it has played a role in religious and domestic life. Frankincense resin has been sought after by kings, valued as highly as gold, and offered as a gift at the birth of one of history’s most revered prophets. More recently, the essential oil is gaining popularity with spiritual seekers and natural healers alike – what’s so unique about the rich smelling resin and it’s essential oil, and how might we use it for our own benefit?

The term Frankincense refers to the resin from any one of four trees or shrubs of the Boswellia genus. The most common are Boswellia carteri and Boswellia seratta — and these actually have significantly different chemical (and therapeutic) properties. The carteri species is considered by some to produce the highest grade raw material; the essential oil has lovely, unexpected citrus notes and is very uplifting. The seratta produces an oil with a deeper, richer aroma, considered the finest of the scents by some aromatherapy professionals, and lending itself to meditative and spiritual practices. The resin is collected from the Olibanum trees and shrubs without doing damage to the plants — in this way the highly revered medicine can be harvested in the wild without diminishing the long-term availability of the natural resource.

The most medicinally efficacious essential oil is possibly the “super-critical carbon dioxide” distillation of Boswellia carteri — this fancy new distillation method makes a more complex, thicker, and possibly more healing oil than the classic steam distillation. One of the advantages is that the plant material is not heated nearly as much as it would be if processed with steam, the result being a product closer to the original in chemical formulation. Some prominent aromatherapists who didn’t particularly care for this extraction method with other plants have given it the “thumb’s up” when used with Frankincense.

The very wide range of therapeutic applications is one of the most appealing features of Frankincense. First off, it is highly revered for its use in skin care, particularly for mature skin that may be prematurely aging due so sun exposure. The desert-source of the plant material makes this use almost obvious. Extracts of the resin have even been the subject of double-blind studies, where one have of each participant’s face received the preparation with the “active ingredient”. The result was a significant improvement in skin texture (a measurable decrease in roughness), as well as a reduction in the appearance of fine lines. To benefit from the oil this way, you could add 4 to 12 drops per ounce to a cream or lotion you’re already using, or if making up a new formula, use the essential oil at a concentration between .5% and 2%.

Boswellic-acid creams are becoming popular in over-the-counter topical pain relieving formulas. These are simple extracts of Frankincense resin, which are available to you in the form of the CO2 distillations. The extracts are highly anti-inflammatory and analgesic, and can be excellent ingredients in massage formulas for any sort of joint pain. The oil will blend in a synergistic manner with other pain relieving and anti-inflammatory essential oils such as Helichrysum, Ginger, Black Pepper and Marjoram. Simply mixing all these oils together, using a 1 to 2 percent concentration of each in any carrier oil, will make a fine arthritis care recipe.

Perhaps the most impressive therapeutic potential of Frankincense lay in its now extensively researched anti-cancer activity. The resin and its extracts have been shown to specifically target cancer cells in a number of different organs, causing apoptosis (normal cell death, which doesn’t “normally” occur in cancer cells) to the cancerous cells, leaving healthy ones unaffected. While treatment protocols are still a ways off, it is possible to include daily doses of Frankincense as a protective measure. The essential oil is rapidly absorbed through the skin and into the bloodstream — small doses can also reasonably be ingested with the guide of a natural health professional.

The traditional “aromatherapy” uses of the essential oil focus on its antidepressant and grounding nature. Battaglia in “The Complete Guide to Aromatherapy” notes that it “has the ability to deepen the breath — that is, to slow down the rate of breathing, and increase the amplitude of breathing…an ideal choice for someone with an asthmatic condition associated with nervousness”. This is a very interesting feature considering, that some esoteric physicians believe the lifespan is governed by a total number of breaths, not heartbeats as is more commonly believed.

With the incredible history Frankincense has as a natural healer, we are especially fortunate at this time to have it readily available to us in many forms. The new CO2 extracts make it especially easy to utilize for every one of is therapeutic actions. This form is a wonderful way to add a little of this highly revered medicine to your life, to the potential benefit of your mind, body and soul.

Beyond their use in skin care, essential oils truly have medicinal effects. Aromatherapy oil practitioners even prescribe means of using essential oils for the prevention of swine flu.