Frankincense (乳香 Rǔ Xiāng; Boswellia Species): From the Selection of Traditional Applications to the Novel Phytotherapy for the Prevention and Treatment of Serious Diseases

Frankincense (乳香 Rǔ Xiāng; Boswellia Species), the resinous extract from the trees of the genus Boswellia, has been used for centuries in cultural ceremonies, as a cosmetic agent, and as a traditional medicine to treat a variety of ailments, especially inflammatory diseases including asthma, arthritis, cerebral edema, chronic pain syndrome, chronic bowel diseases, cancer, and some other illnesses. Boswellic acids are the active compounds of frankincense and AKBA (3-O-acetyl-11-keto-β-boswellic acid) is the most important and effective acid among them. Some studies have shown that the use of frankincense can also improve the learning and enhance the memory in animals and human beings. It seems that frankincense might have a potential ability to be used as an alternative natural medicine not only for chronic and inflammatory diseases but also for brain and memory disorders.

• Publication year

  2013

• Venue

  Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine

• Publication date

  2013-10-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.4103/2225-4110.119723PMID 24716181PMCID 3924999
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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