Frankincense Essential Oil

Both frankincense—also known as olibanum—and myrrh have been traded in the Middle East and North Africa for upwards of 5,000 years. It is believed that the Babylonians and Assyrians burned them during religious ceremonies. The ancient Egyptians bought entire boatloads of the resins from the Phoenicians, using them in incense, insect repellent, perfume , nd salves for wounds and sores; they were also key ingredients in the embalming process. Myrrh oil served as a rejuvenating facial treatment, while frankincense was charred and ground into a power to make the heavy kohl eyeliner Egyptian women famously wore. Sacks of frankincense and potted saplings of myrrh-producing trees appear in murals decorating the walls of a temple dedicated to Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt for roughly two decades until her death around 480 B.C.

According to the Hebrew Bible, frankincense and myrrh were components of the holy incense ritually burned in Jerusalem’s sacred temples during ancient times. The ancient Greeks and Romans also imported massive amounts of the resins, which they burned as incense, used during cremations and also  used as a natural remedy for a  wide variety of ailments. By this time, medical practitioners had recognized and documented the substances’ antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties, prescribing them for everything from indigestion and chronic coughs to hemorrhoids and halitosis. According to Touwaide, myrrh appears with more frequency than any other plant substance in the writings of the Greek physician Hippocrates, who revolutionized the field of medicine in the fourth and third centuries B.C. The Roman historian and botanist Pliny the Elder, who recommended frankincense as an antidote to hemlock poisoning, wrote in the first century A.D. that the pricey dried sap had made the southern Arabians the richest people on earth. (History.com)

Can Frankincense be Used to Treat Cancer?

There seems to be a lot of buzz lately in the oil world about the uses of Frankincense to treat cancer.  I am interested in the research, but I am not a doctor and do not claim to treat cure or prevent any disease with oils.  This short paragraph is just for educational purposes only, and I encourage you to do your own research and talk to you doctor.  Several research groups have found promising anti-tumor effects when tested in lab studies, however ,no studies have actually been done on humans–at least no study that I can find.  Results out of china found that cancer cells showed increase sensitivity to combinations of Myrrh and Frankincense essential oils.  A 2012 study found that AKBA (a compound found in frankincense) was successful in killing cancer cells that had become resistant to chemotherapy.  I don’t know what this means for the cancer patient, or the future of cancer, but I certainly hope that more research is being done to determine if Frankincense might be a potential natural treatment for cancer.  Wouldn’t that be amazing!?!