Description

Boswellia sacra, the primary botanical source of sacred frankincense, is a small, resilient deciduous tree of the family Burseraceae, native to the rocky limestone hillsides of Dhofar (Oman), Socotra (Yemen), and the arid highlands of northern Somalia and Ethiopia. Frankincense resin is obtained by making deliberate cuts in the bark, causing the tree to exude a milky, aromatic oleoresin that hardens into characteristic tear-drop lumps upon air contact. One of the oldest traded aromatics on Earth, frankincense is documented in the ancient Egyptian Ebers Papyrus, in the Bible, and in the Vedic and Ayurvedic traditions as Kundur. In classical and contemporary Unani and Ayurvedic practice, it is incorporated into fumigation preparations and formulations associated with respiratory, neurological, and joint conditions.