The topic of this article is not something that appeared only recently, on the contrary – it has been present on the scene for quite some time. Ancient Egyptians used is as an ingredient of cosmetics, and so did Anglo-Saxons, while in the Middle East it was believed that it was one of Jesus’ three gifts.
Nowadays the Boswellia Carteri tree fragrant resin is used to get essential oil called frankincense that is popular among practitioners of natural health and aroma therapists. It has anti-inflammatory properties, it fights infections and premature aging. It can be an immunity booster that improves the digestive tract health as well as mental and oral health.
Better yet, this is not all! It has proved to be an amazing cancer fighter, and some studies suggest that it may be even more powerful than chemotherapy due to the fact it doesn’t have side-effects like destroying healthy cells AND it can kill cancer cells that are resistant to chemo.
Further explanation:
Leicester University scientists discovered that this resin has one compound whose acronym is AKBA that has high potential at killing cancerous cells with a realistic concentration. According to these scientists, it can be quite successful in treatments of colon, breast, ovarian and prostate cancer. This compound is specifically effective in the treatment of the last stage of ovarian cancer that is otherwise extremely difficult to deal with.
One of the Ph. D students at Leicester’s Department of Cancer Studies and Molecular Medicine, whose name is Kamla Al-Salmani said that “After a year of studying the AKBA compound with ovarian cancer cell lines in vitro, we have been able to show it is effective at killing cancer cells. Frankincense is taken by many people with no known side effects. This finding has enormous potential to be taken to a clinical trial in the future and developed into an additional treatment for ovarian cancer”
As mentioned, they also discovered for the frankincense to be efficient in battling cancerous cells that are chemo resistant. Even though there is additional research needed, the use of frankincense oil for the purpose of cancer treatment seems quite promising.
Kamla’s mentor says that it was most surprising to discover that chemo resistant cancer cells are more sensitive to AKBA, which may impose a further belief that frankincense may be able to overcome resistance to drugs, and therefore lead to higher survival rate of patients that have the last stage of ovarian cancer.
Use of frankincense essential oil
The frankincense essential oil can be diluted in a carrier oil like for example coconut oil or jojoba oil. It can be also added to 100% natural lotions or creams for external application, or if added to a vaporizer or a diffuser to promote relaxing feelings, mental peace or help with respiratory problems.
Even though there are still no side effects discovered, this essential oil should not be used at time of pregnancy because it has emmenagogue, which promotes monthly cycles and astringent properties.
