Frankincense and myrrh are tree resins that served as medicine, embalming agents, religious offerings, perfumes, and currency across the ancient world. Most people encounter them in the Christmas nativity story, but their uses stretch back thousands of years before that and continue today in traditional medicine systems across Asia and Africa.
Embalming and Egyptian Funerary Rites
Ancient Egyptians placed resin in graves even before the practice of mummification developed, likely to burn as incense during burial rites. Once mummification became standard, the process included anointing the body with fragrant gum-resins, primarily myrrh, along with cedar oil, ox fat, and various ointments. This anointing happened as a religious ceremony between the end of the embalming process and the beginning of wrapping the body in linen. The resins served a dual purpose: they helped preserve tissue and they carried spiritual significance, preparing the dead for the afterlife.
Religious Incense and Sacred Offerings
Burning frankincense and myrrh as incense was central to worship across multiple religions. In ancient Israelite tradition, frankincense was a required component of the sacred incense burned in the Temple. The Book of Isaiah describes nations bringing “gold and frankincense” to proclaim praise. Myrrh, meanwhile, served as an anointing oil for people and sacred objects.
The gifts of the Magi in the Gospel of Matthew carry layered symbolism that scholars have traced to each substance’s cultural role: gold represented kingship, frankincense symbolized a priestly role (since it was the resin burned by priests), and myrrh prefigured death and burial, given its long association with embalming. That interpretation became widely known through the Christmas carol “We Three Kings.” Beyond Christianity, Jews, Christians, and Muslims all used these resins in oil to anoint newborn infants, linking the substances to the very beginning and end of life.
A Trade Network Worth Empires
The trees that produce frankincense and myrrh grow only in limited regions: parts of eastern Africa, the southern Arabian Peninsula, and India. That restricted geography made the resins rare and valuable, fueling trade routes that shaped the economies of entire kingdoms. The ancient incense trade, centered in what is now Yemen, connected Arabian producers to markets in Egypt, Rome, Mesopotamia, and beyond. Caravans carried the resins across thousands of miles of desert, and the wealth generated by this trade built cities and funded armies. For much of antiquity, these aromatic resins were valued alongside precious metals and spices.
Pain Relief and Traditional Medicine
While Western cultures primarily burned frankincense and myrrh as incense, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic medicine developed them into treatments for chronic disease. In TCM, the two resins are classified as remedies for improving blood circulation and reducing blood stasis. Practitioners frequently prescribe them together as a “drug pair,” a combination believed to produce stronger effects than either resin alone. The primary targets: inflammation, swelling, pain, and conditions linked to poor circulation, including arthritis.
Modern research has started to explain why these traditional uses may work. Frankincense contains compounds that block a specific enzyme involved in the body’s inflammatory cascade. By interfering with this enzyme, frankincense can reduce the chemical signals that cause tissue swelling and pain. The active compounds depend on a particular molecular structure, a ring-shaped backbone with specific chemical groups attached, to bind effectively and suppress inflammation.
Myrrh’s pain-relieving properties operate through a completely different mechanism. Two of its active compounds interact with the body’s opioid receptors, the same receptors targeted by morphine and other painkillers. Researchers confirmed this by administering an opioid-blocking drug, which reversed myrrh’s analgesic effect entirely. This means myrrh provides pain relief through the same biological pathway as pharmaceutical opioids, though at a much lower intensity.
Oral Health and Wound Healing
Myrrh has a long folk history as a remedy for mouth sores and gum problems, and modern studies are beginning to test those claims. In one clinical trial, participants who used a 1% myrrh mouthwash for 14 days showed significant reduction in dental plaque compared to their baseline measurements. The myrrh group also showed the highest reduction in gum inflammation scores among all groups tested, including a standard saline rinse. While the study was small (12 participants), it points toward myrrh’s potential as a therapeutic agent for gingivitis.
Applied to skin, myrrh has also shown wound-healing benefits. Topical application promoted complete regrowth of the outer skin layer in research settings, performing comparably to conventional wound treatments, with no signs of delayed inflammation.
Why They Were Used Together
The pairing of frankincense and myrrh is not just a biblical coincidence. In TCM, combining the two resins into a single prescription is standard practice, with centuries of clinical observation suggesting the combination outperforms either resin used alone. Several well-known Chinese formulations rely on the pair. One, used to treat breast conditions, combines them for their combined anti-swelling properties. Another formula targets arthritis and other chronic inflammatory diseases. The most famous, a traditional anticancer prescription, includes both resins and has been used in Chinese clinical practice against breast, gastric, and liver cancers.
The logic behind the pairing may come down to complementary chemistry. Frankincense primarily reduces inflammation by blocking enzyme activity, while myrrh activates opioid receptors to dull pain directly. Together, they address both the underlying inflammation and the pain it causes.
Safety Profile Today
Myrrh has been on the FDA’s “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) list since 1992, approved as a food additive. The Council of Europe also includes it on its approved plant list. Toxicity screening of myrrh’s individual bioactive compounds shows that most are predicted to be inactive for liver toxicity, carcinogenicity, and mutagenicity. A few compounds flagged as potentially immunogenic or carcinogenic in computational models, but these are minor constituents of the whole resin. Frankincense similarly has a long safety record in traditional use, though concentrated extracts and supplements vary widely in quality and dosage, making standardization an ongoing challenge.