Frankincense and Myrrh: Useful Spices for Women After Giving Birth

Why would someone, presumably quite wise, feel the need to bring the tree resins frankincense and myrrh to a woman who had recently given birth? If the time is about two millennia ago and the location is in the Middle East, these two spices were likely quite welcomed and entirely expected. Why?

Our ancestors were intimately aware of the beneficial effects of plant extracts for the treatment of pain and discomfort associated with giving birth.

Myrrh

Myrrh—isolated from the dried resin in the bark of either Commiphora myrrha or C. gileadensis, shrubs found in Somalia and throughout the Middle East—was historically used in liniments, including in Chinese medicine (Mo Yao), to treat the symptoms of arthritis and as an antiseptic ointment. The Egyptians used it to embalm mummies.

The small tree is quite aromatic. Commiphora species are shrubs three meters high with rounded tops, thick trunks, dark brown bark, and large, sharply pointed thorns on the stem. The resin contains myrcene, camphorene, and a series of guggulsterols as well as many other essential oils that are chemically similar to catnip. Together, these compounds produce an analgesia, or pain reduction, that is slightly more potent than morphine and may act via the brain’s endogenous opiate receptors. The resin also has an anti-inflammatory action similar to aspirin. The resin is quite safe to consume.

Myrrh may also have another valuable action that would greatly benefit any women who had just given birth; it enhances blood clotting and would reduce post-partum bleeding.

Finally, the wise men are almost always depicted as traveling via camel at night following a celestial beacon. There’s another good reason they might have traveled in the dark—the contents of the resin are unstable in sunlight!

Frankincense

Frankincense can be extracted from the Boswellia sacra tree that also grows in Somalia and Saudi Arabia. The resin is edible and contains a pair of boswellic acids and terpenes that have superior anti-inflammatory actions according to recent studies. Unsurprisingly, extracts of the resin were popular as a treatment for arthritis in ancient Egypt. In addition, recent publications suggest that one component of this resin, incensole acetate, also exhibits anti-anxiety and anti-depressive properties similar to those produced by Valium and Prozac, respectively.

Thus, in ancient times, frankincense and myrrh were commonly used together to relieve post-partum pain and anxiety, lessen the probability of post-partum depression and reduce bleeding after delivery. Whatever was left over was usually burned as incense and as immortalized in the Christmas story of the three wise men, was highly valued as a gift. Now you can understand why.