Anyone who has ever attended a primary school nativity will know of the Three Wise Men. Here, we trace their gifts of frankincense and myrrh back to their origins – and their now uncertain future.
HOW Christmas is celebrated in the Western world varies from one country or community to the next. And trees often play a prominent part in the festivities.
In the British Isles, the festive season is traditionally associated with holly or Christmas trees, not forgetting greenery like ivy and mistletoe.
And in the run up to Christmas, articles and advice on choosing the best conifer for your living room and how to provide it with TLC to keep it fresh and green until Twelfth Night abound.
So here’s an article that is slightly different and looks at two valuable thorn trees that may look like ugly sisters but take centre stage early in the New Year.
THE THREE WISE MEN
In Christian tradition, the Magi, Three Wise Men, or the Three Kings, are a trio of distinguished foreigners who visited Jesus soon after his birth, bearing gifts. That was chronicled as being on what is now Twelfth Night or January 5. The religious festival of Epiphany is on the morrow.
The Gospel according to Matthew is actually the only one of the four main gospels in the New Testament to mention the Magi, and he explains they came from the east to worship Christ, born King of the Jews.
In the Western Christian church, these Three Kings from the Orient are identified as Melchior from Persia, Caspar from India and Balthazar from Arabia. These scholastic gentlemen are regular figures in nativity celebrations and as the English carol says, they came bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
AND WHY THESE THREE PARTICULAR GIFTS?
The significance of gold is self-explanatory.
The Judaic, Christian and Islamic faiths have all favoured frankincense mixed with oils to anoint newly born babies.
As an essential oil, myrrh has been used since antiquity to inspire prayer and meditation, and to fortify and revitalise the spirit. It was a component in the holy oil of the Jews and was used in embalming and medicine too.
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Now gold and money may not grow on trees but both frankincense and myrrh certainly do. Both these tree resins are highly-valued and widely-traded non-timber forest products (NTFP). The trees producing them are related botanically and belong to the same plant family, the Burseraceae.
So, what of these two trees whose products are so valued both in history and through to modern day? What, how, when, why and where are they obtained, what are their prized properties and where are the trees found? Let’s take a look.
FRANKINCENSE
The English name derives from the two old French words “franc encens” or high-quality incense that is used in incense and perfumes.
True frankincense is an aromatic resin obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia, particularly B. sacra, but also B. carteri, B. thurifera, B. frereana and B. bhaw-dajiana. It is also called olibanum which roughly translated from Arabic means “that which results from milking”.
Native to Ethiopia, northern Somalia, south-western Oman and southern Yemen, B. sacra is most widespread in northern Somalia, and in the woodlands of the escarpment mountains of the southern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. During the summer months, these coastal mountains are blanketed in thick sea fog, which condenses allowing dense woodlands to grow in this otherwise desertic region.
Raw frankincense is tapped or milked from the small, drought-hardy Boswellia trees by slashing or stripping the bark. The pearly white resin bleeds out and hardens on the trunk into semi-opaque drops, beads or “tears”. These are scraped off by local villagers every so often, bulked up and sold to traders.
The trees do not belong to anyone but to the local community.
Each species and variety of frankincense tree produces a slightly different type and grade of resin. The resin from each species comes in various grades that depend on factors such as the season of harvesting. Differences in soil and climate create even more diversity in the quality of the resin, even within the same species.
The freshly harvested gum resin is sorted by hand into four principal varieties of frankincense, according to its shade, and is sold in local souks or markets as well as traded internationally. Generally speaking, the opaque resins are the best quality.
Boswellia sacra trees are remarkable for their ability to grow in environments so unforgiving that they sometimes grow out of almost solid rock, anchored by a bulbous disk-like swelling of the base of the trunk. This adaptation is less pronounced or even absent in trees growing in rocky soil or gravel. The tears from plants growing on rock are considered superior for their more fragrant aroma.
Trees can start yielding resin commercially when eight to 10 years old. Tapping is done two to three times a year with the final cuts producing the best tears. Each year, up to about three kg of resin can be extracted from each tree. After about five years of tapping, best management techniques suggest that the tree should be rested for a similar period to maximise future yields.
MYRRH
Like frankincense, myrrh is also an aromatic gum or oleo resin bled from small, thorny trees but from the genus Commiphora. The generic name or epithet is derived from Greek ‘kommis’ for gum and ‘phora’ for bearer.
Common or gum myrrh (C. myrrha) is one of the primary trees harvested for the production of myrrh, made from the dried resin. This species is native to the Arabian Peninsula (Oman, Yemen) and to the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia and NE Kenya).
Armed with vicious thorns, it grows up to about four metres tall, at sites between about 250 to 1,300 m above sea level with a yearly mean rainfall of only 23 to 30 cm. It does best in thin soil, especially in limestone-rich places and is a component of dry Acacia scrubland where it plays a vital role in preventing wind-borne soil erosion.
When a wound penetrates the bark and enters the sapwood, the tree exudes the resin.
So when local people harvest myrrh, they slash or cut the trunk repeatedly to milk them of the waxy, sweet-smelling gum that coagulates quickly into walnut-sized lumps and becomes hard and glossy. This is yellowish, and may be either clear or opaque. It darkens deeply as it ages, and white streaks may form in top quality samples.
The oleo gum resins of a number of other Commiphora species are used as poorer perfumes, medicines (such as aromatic wound dressings) and incense ingredients.
Several other species yield “bdellium” and “Indian myrrh” comes from C. serratum which is native to thorn forests there.
A lesser quality myrrh is sourced from C. gileadensis, native to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Arabian Peninsula. Once dubbed the biblical “Balm of Gilead” or “Balsam of Mecca”, this product is now known as “opobalsamum”, a name it shares with the gum resin bled from a species of parsnip, Opopanax opopanax.
EARLY PLANT HUNTERS
The earliest recorded African plant collection expedition, with obvious economic and domestication intentions, was organised by Queen Hatshepshut of Egypt in 1495 to the Land of Punt (now Somalia) to collect living specimens of the trees whose fragrant resin yielded the precious frankincense. The expedition by boat down the Nile, across by canal to the Gulf of Suez and then down the length of the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, brought back 31 trees carefully packed in wicker baskets slung on poles and carried between two or sometimes three pairs of slaves. The trees were planted in the temple garden at Thebes.
HISTORICAL USAGE
Although still common today, in ancient times using frankincense and myrrh was even more widespread.
Myrrh has been a valuable commodity for centuries, mainly as a primary ingredient in cosmetics and incenses, in the holy oil of the Jews and the Kyphi of the Egyptians for embalming mummies and fumigations. According to legend, Greek soldiers took myrrh into battle to treat their wounds.
The earliest archaeological evidence for incense comes from ancient Egypt, where long-handled, spoon-shaped incense burners, dating back thousands of years, have been discovered.
The fragrance was thought to please the gods and drive off evil spirits and the smoke was believed to waft prayers up to divine ears.
Frankincense has been collected, graded and traded on the Arabian Peninsula and in North Africa for at least 5,000 years.
MEDICINAL PROPERTIES
Myrrh is Arabic for bitter – and this astringent property confers curative qualities.
Administered in one form or another, myrrh is credited with amazing medicinal powers and seems to be able to cure just about every known human ailment from head to toe.
Myrrh plays an important part in both traditional and modern medicine, including herbal, Chinese and aromatherapy, together with veterinary cures. Since antiquity, myrrh oil has been used to inspire prayer and meditation, and to fortify and revitalise the spirit.
Frankincense resin is edible and is used in traditional medicines in Asia for digestion and healthy skin. It is often chewed like gum, but it is stickier.
In Ayurvedic medicine, Indian frankincense or “dhoop,” from the local, native Boswellia serrata, has been used for centuries for treating arthritis, healing wounds, strengthening the female hormone system and purifying the air. In Indian culture, burning frankincense daily in the house brings good health.
Burning fragrant substances such as sweet gums and spices is still common in many religious traditions and cultures today.
CENSING AND THURIBLES
Censers are any type of vessels made especially for burning incense.
In many cultures, burning incense has spiritual and religious connotations, and this influences the design and decoration of the censer.
Myrrh is mixed with frankincense and sometimes other scents to prepare the sacramental chrism used in almost every service or rite of the Orthodox, traditional Roman Catholic and Anglican/Episcopal Churches and also pagan cults.
In most churches, an ornate thurible is used to spread the incense smoke. This is a metal censer suspended from chains, which can be swung during services as the incense is burned.
A DOOMED SPECIES?
Like one in ten of planet Earth’s 80,000 tree species, frankincense woodlands are in a bad way and face an uncertain future.
Overall, the genus Boswellia is classified internationally as ‘Vulnerable’ as a result of habitat fragmentation and poor levels of rejuvenation. And the conservation status of B. sacra is currently dire, listed as ‘Near Threatened’ in the IUCN Red List for Oman, Somalia and Yemen.
Scientific studies have confirmed that native frankincense tree populations are in sharp decline. But this is not really down to overzealous harvesting, although heavily harvested trees produce seeds that germinate at only 16 per cent while those of untouched ones sprout at over 80 per cent.
On top of the common cocktail of burning, grazing, and clearing frankincense woodlands for agriculture, it is reported that attacks by a longhorn beetle are hitting the tree stocks hardest.
Dutch scientists who modelled the trends in the wild Boswellia stocks predicted that, within 50 years, the tree populations will be decimated – so frankincense production is doomed if things continue as they are.
This is a rather alarming message for the incense industry, the users and conservation organisations alike and a further troubling example of the destructive power of exotic pests and diseases on commercial tree crops.
And as supplies dwindle but demand still exists, the price soars and the pressures on surviving wild frankincense woodlands mount.
A light on the horizon is that organisations such as the Bristol-based Tree Aid (aka The Foresters Charity) through the Forest Future project are encouraging self-help projects by local people in the Metema Forest in northern Ethiopia to adopt a more sustainable use of Boswellia trees for sustainable production of this valuable commodity.
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