With Christmas only a few days away I started to think of the Christmas story. Whatever your beliefs, you are probably at least familiar with this story. One of a family traveling from one city to another to take part in the census only to find that they had no accommodations in which to give birth to their first child. In thinking of this I realized that there were some aspects of the Christmas story that I didn’t understand. I realized that I had very little idea what Frankincense and Myrrh were, what they were used for and why they were brought as gifts to this family. To begin my investigation I went to the Natural Standard database within HUBNET and found that Myrrh is a resin from a shrub found in Arabia and Eastern Africa and that it was used in ancient Egyptian medicine both as a pain killer and for embalming. (Ah ha! The pharmacy connection!) Performing a drug search in EMBASE netted me 53 articles on the pharmacological properties and uses of Myrrh. I discovered that it is used in traditional Chinese medicine for osteoarthritis and apparently both substances, myrrh and frankincense had a value greater than gold in ancient times.

Frankincense is also a resin that comes from the genus of tree common in Somalia known as Boswellia . Frankincense apparently has many pharmacological uses. When researching Frankincense I found a study published in May 2008 in The FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. In this study researchers in the United States and Israel determined that the burning of this resin activates ion channels in the brain that can alleviate depression and anxiety. The press release for this article can be read here. The full text can be found in the FASEB journal. A drug search in EMBASE produced an additional 20 articles where Frankincense was the main focus.

This was an interesting Christmas investigation for me. Whatever your beliefs this holiday season, my wish for you all is one of joy and peace and rest. I hope you come back from this time off renewed and ready to begin a new year. Take care all and have a wonderful holiday.
Deborah

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!