This article explores the historical and medicinal uses of frankincense and myrrh, highlighting their significance during Christmas and their potential pain-relieving properties.
The resins from frankincense and myrrh produce analgesia via the brain’s endogenous opiate receptors. Myrrh resins enhance blood clotting and reduce postpartum bleeding. Christmas brings nativity plays by children that often focus on the events described in the gospels of Luke and Matthew. It is a given that the gospels were principally written as theological documents rather than chronological timelines and most Biblical scholars do not claim that the stories are historically factual.
Still, some aspects of the story do ring true to the behaviors of people who lived about two millennia ago in the Middle East. For example, the men brought two valuable gifts, tree resins from frankincense and myrrh; these plant extracts were likely both welcomed and expected by the young woman who had just given birth.Our ancestors were intimately aware of the beneficial effects of plant extracts for the treatment of pain and discomfort associated with giving birth. If the time is about two millennia ago and the location is in the Middle East, these two locally available spices were likely welcomed and entirely expected.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 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 receptor
FRANKINCENSE MYRRH MEDICINAL PLANTS PAIN RELIEF ANCIENT MEDICINE
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