A new scientific study has found that the smell of burning incense alters our brain chemistry, helping to alleviate anxiety and depression:
Biologists from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have discovered that burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain…
Reporting their findings in The FASEB Journal, the researchers said that the active compound – incensole acetate – significantly affected areas in the brain known to be involved in emotions as well as in nerve circuits that are affected by currently prescribed anxiety and depression drugs.
“In spite of information stemming from ancient texts, constituents of Boswellia had not been investigated for psychoactivity,” said researcher Raphael Mechoulam. “We found that incensole acetate, a Boswellia resin constituent, when tested in mice lowers anxiety and causes antidepressive-like behavior. Apparently, most present day worshipers assume that incense burning has only a symbolic meaning.”
Chalk another one up for the ‘wisdom of the ancients’. I’ve actually wondered in the past whether there was some connection between incense and even more powerful altered states, with the ancient Egyptian word for incense, snTr, being a possible composite of the words ‘sn’ (“kiss”, or if ideogrammatic “arrow”) and ‘nTr’ (“gods”) – literally, “kiss of the gods”. I’m far from an expert on Egyptian hieroglyphics or etymology though, so beware the truthiness of my amateur speculations!
For those interested in the ancients’ use of psychoactives, you’ll really enjoy a book coming up in a month or two from Daily Grail Publishing. More soon.
