Medicinal Qualities of Frankincense and Myrrh

Turns out those three wise men were pretty wise afterall. It wasn’t an uninspired choice to include the two plant oils, frankincense and myrrh, with gold to bring to newborn Jesus. Gold, circa 5 BC, seems reasonable. But frankincense and myrrh? Why those two? Get your goggles on, we are going in for the deep dive…

Frankincense

Frankincense is one of the most famous Christmas gifts ever given. And, like many of the earth’s botanical treasures, many of us in the western world are losing touch with its healing powers. Frankincense is harvested from naturally occurring stands of Boswellia trees. They have a papery bark and flowers with white petals that grow without soil along the rocky shores of Somalia, India, Oman and Yemen. If you were to put a hand on the tree, you might come away with a bit of scented resin that has been softened by the hot sun: the scent is resinous but also lemony and soft and subtly appealing. These resins present themselves in a milky white ooze that hardens into a tear-shaped droplet with a translucent golden hue. It is from this that the oil of Frankincense is harvested.

But why was frankincense one of the three gifts chosen to give Jesus? Humans’ love affair with this oil began long ago. Ancient inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa recognized the sacred nature and healing powers of the frankincense tree and incorporated them into medicine, life, and ritual. It fueled the growth of empires, sparked battles, sealed truces and it was, at that time, as valuable as gold.

Since before Christ, people have used frankincense to cure several ailments. It has special compounds which are strongly anti-inflammatory and immune-enhancing. It also helps destroy dangerous bacteria and viruses and it has been shown to inhibit aggressiveness or even kill breast cancer cells, bladder cancer cells and skin cancer cells. It is also extremely helpful for gut related issues like leaky gut, colitis, crohn’s disease and irritable bowel.

The Egyptians used it for skin care and because the results were so drastic for anti-aging, improving complexion and skin tone, that they began also using it for embalming their mummies. It is quite literally a skin care ingredient of mythical proportions. Dr. Rita Linkner, a board-certified dermatologist, explains that it balances oil production while “tightening” the skin. She goes on to explain that its benefits include “the ability to strengthen skin and improve its tone, elasticity, and defense mechanisms against bacteria or blemishes” and it also has “tissue remodeling” properties. Move over hyaluronic acid, Cleopatra knew what she was doing all along.

Myrrh

Myrrh, like frankincense, comes from a tree resin and in fact it is most related to frankincense, botanically speaking. It comes from a tree called Commiphora myrrha and, also like frankincense, is found in Africa and the Middle East. The myrrh tree is distinctive due to its white flowers and knotted trunk. At times, the tree has very few leaves because of the dry desert conditions where it grows and can sometimes take on an odd and twisted shape due to the harsh weather and wind.

The oil of myrrh has been used for thousands of years in traditional healing therapies and in religious ceremonies. Historically, it has been used as an antiseptic to clean and treat wounds, prevent infections, as a paste to help stop bleeding, and for treating hay fever. It has strong antifungal, antiparasitic and antibacterial benefits and is still used in many cultures to this day as a medicine to treat fungal infections such as ringworm and athlete’s foot, against bacterial infections such as S. aureus (staph), and as a treatment for fascioliasis, a parasitic worm infection that infects humans worldwide.

Also like frankincense, myrrh can help to maintain healthy skin by soothing chapped or cracked patches. Ancient Egyptians used it to prevent aging and also added it to their embalming practices. Another common historical use was to burn the resin over hot coals. This would release a mysterious, spiritual quality into any room before a religious ceremony, producing a meditative quality for prayer, usually in combination with frankincense.

As I began digging deeper, I started to wonder if there was an additive effect from using both of the oils together. What did the wise men know that I didn’t? It seems like they knew that the combined strength of these two powerful oils had a greater chance of protecting the newborn baby than they did alone. What I found, among other things, was that the first record of their combined use was in 1500 BC. I then discovered an article written in the National Library for Medicine about their synergistic properties. It is titled, ‘Seeing the Unseen of the Combination of Two Natural Resins, Frankincense and Myrrh: Changes in Chemical Constituents and Pharmacological Activities’. It states,

“Their common pharmacological effects are anti-inflammatory and anticancer. More interestingly, in traditional Chinese medicine, frankincense and myrrh have been combined as drug pairs in the same prescription for thousands of years. Their combination has a better therapeutic effect on diseases than a single drug. After the combination of frankincense and myrrh forms a blend, a series of changes take place in their chemical composition, such as the increase or decrease of the main active ingredients, the disappearance of native chemical components, and the emergence of new chemical components. At the same time, the pharmacological effects of the combination seem magically powerful, such as synergistic anti-inflammation, synergistic anticancer, synergistic analgesic, synergistic antibacterial, and synergistic blood-activation.”

There is also a lab study recently published in Letters in Applied Microbiology that suggests the combination of frankincense oil and myrrh oil is particularly effective against pathogens. They explain that they have synergistic and additive properties when exposed to microorganisms like Cryptococcus neoformans, a fungus that can cause meningitis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an opportunistic pathogen that can cause a host of infections, including pneumonia. Research has also found that burning the two together can reduce harmful airborne bacteria by 68%.

The wise men were bringing Jesus medicine to protect him.  🙂