Description

Frankincense Black Hojari Essential Oil

Frankincense: Boswellia sacra (Syn: Boswellia carterii Birdw.) It grows as a small, strongly branched tree with thick branches, which reaches growth heights of about 4 to 5 m. in the dry season. These tree species grow in dry areas around the Horn of Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan), in Arabia (Dhofar in the south of Oman- (where the incense Black Hojari Etheric Öel comes from) Hadramaut in Yemen) and in India. The habitat of these woods reaches in barren landscape between rocks and cliffs up to a height of 1,200 m above sea level Nn. The resin-giving tree is 1.50 to 8.00 m tall, has a paper-like peeling bark and produces flower grapes up to 25 cm long.

The genus Boswellia belongs to the family of the Balsambaum Family (Burseraceae) and includes the following species:

Boswellia sacra – Arabic incense, also Somali incense (Syn.: Boswellia carterii Birdw.)
Boswellia fereana – Elemi incense
Boswellia dalzielii – Dalziel’s Incense, West Africa
Boswellia papyrifera – Ethiopian incense (synonym Amyris papyrifera)
Boswellia serrata – Indian incense (Syn.: Boswellia glabra Roxb.)

Incense harvest:

Between the end of March and the beginning of April, incense production begins, which lasts for several months. Cuts on trunks and branches are added to the trees. The first harvesting process results in only a very inferior resin, which was thrown away in the past, but is now marketed. Only three weeks later an acceptable quality is harvested, which becomes better and cleaner with the next weeks. The resin yield per tree depends on the age, size and condition of the tree and is between 3 and 10 kg of resin. After several annual harvests, the tree is rested for several years.

Religion:

Historically, the use of incense in Christianity is often attributed to the cult of the Israelites, whose temples often burned incense. Originally from the Canaanancult, the incense in ancient Israel was initially rejected as an “innovation”. Only later did he find an entrance to the temple service. At the latest in the post-exile second temple of Jerusalem (from about 540 BC) was the smoke offering altar in front of the curtain of the Blessed Sacrament, on which a smoke offering was offered in the morning and in the evening.

The requirement, which had been in force since at least 1570, to use incense in the high office (celebratory mass) but otherwise not to use it, made incense an attribute of festivity. Since 1970, incense can be used again – as has always been the case in the Eastern Churches – in all divine services. As a result, his symbolic references are once again more evident.

In the Orthodox liturgy, for example, in the Byzantine rite and in the oriental liturgy, incense is used as the fragrance of heaven. According to the old oriental conception, an encounter with God is connected with a scentexperience. In the Slavic Orthodox churches, however, the incense mixture often contains mainly benzoonand and little or no actual incense.

History

In the different epochs of the Egyptian pharaohs incense was used in many cult acts and in mummification. Thus the ancient Egyptians called the resin beads of incense the “sweat of the gods”. Many other ancient religions and the oriental and Roman cult knew the incense. During the republican period, the burning of incense replaced the old, prescribed sacrifices of the Romans. During prayers of prayer and thanksgiving, the incense grains were burned in specially designed vessels, acerra, in the fire. Emperors and governors were promoted when entering a city of incense – as a sign of homage, but also for the displacement of the Kloakengestank. The Roman emperors were veneered as “Dominus et Deus” (“Lord and God”) and demanded smoke sacrifices in front of their image. The early Christians rejected this divine worship of the emperor and had to endure persecutions for it. For this reason, incense was initially frowned upon in the Christian liturgy; the Fathers of the Church explicitly opposed it. At funerals, however, the incense was also used by the early Christians. Only with a time interval to the persecution of Christians and with the transfer of elements of the pagan-Roman imperial cult into the Christian worship was the incense accepted.

Weirauch in medicine:

Traditional oriental medicine:

In traditional oriental medicine, for example in the canon of medicine, the “Qanun al-Tibbvom” of the Persian “Hakim” Avicenna, which is known in the region today under the name “Abu Ali Senna”, the internal application of incense resin beads (Boswellia serrata, Boswellia sacra) is recommended for “strengthening the mind and mind”. The results of a study suggesting an effect previously unknown outside the Orient in the form of an increase in learning and memory performance in animal experiments have been presented at a congress, have generated media echoes and are being sought to market incense preparations, but have not yet been published in a scientific publication outside Iran.

Classical European Naturopathy

In classical European naturopathy, incense was mainly used to relieve rheumatic diseases. Thus incense was still to be found in 1850 for internal and external use and in 1870 only for external use in pharmacological books. After 1875, the incense, like so many other experiential medicines, was forgotten by chemically defined drugs.

Modern medicine

Standardised preparations of Indian incense are currently being investigated as alternative remedies for chronic inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis or polyarthritis. Initial clinical study results suggest the efficacy of incense preparations in Crohn’s disease. For therapy trials for ulcerative colitis, bronchial asthma and rheumatoid arthritis, only case-by-case reports and pilot studies have been available so far, from which no sufficiently reliable evidence of efficacy can be derived. Similarly, the long-term effects and side effects of ingestion have not yet been studied. In addition, antiproliferative effects on various tumor cell lines (e.g. melanomas, glioblastomas, liver carcinomas) based on an induction of apoptosis have been shown for boswellic acids in vitro. A positive effect of incense preparations on the concomitant edema of brain tumors has been described in smaller clinical studies; however, the results are controversial due to methodological shortcomings. The main active substance is considered to be the boswellic acids contained in Indian incense.