Frankincense is the dried, aromatic resin of Boswellia trees, which grow in Oman, Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia and India. Harvesters cut the bark, the milky sap hardens into "tears," and people have burned those tears as incense for at least 5,000 years in temples, churches and homes.
I keep a small jar of frankincense tears on my altar shelf. Some mornings I'll drop one on a hot coal before I pray, and the whole room changes. It goes from "house" to "quiet place" in about thirty seconds. So when people ask me "what's frankincense, really?" I get a little excited. It's one of those things almost everyone has heard of (thanks, Christmas pageants) but very few people have actually held.
Let's fix that.
Frankincense is hardened tree sap, specifically an oleo-gum-resin, collected from trees in the genus Boswellia and burned mostly as incense.
A few quick facts to anchor it:
You'll also see it called olibanum (the older Latin-rooted trade name) and luban in Arabic. Same stuff.
People ask this one a lot. It's a fair question, because a frankincense tear looks a bit like rock candy and a bit like a pebble. It's neither.
Frankincense is a mix of three things, which is where the clunky term "oleo-gum-resin" comes from:
Those percentages shift by species and by tree. That's why two bags of "frankincense" can smell totally different.
Harvesters make shallow cuts in the bark with a small scraping tool. The tree bleeds a milky white sap to seal the wound. Over a couple of weeks that sap dries in the sun and hardens into droplets, the "tears."
The first tapping of the season usually gives a lower grade. The tree gets cut again in the same spots every few weeks, and later harvests tend to be cleaner and more fragrant. A single tree may be tapped many times in a season, which matters a lot when we get to sustainability below.
It's a slow, hands-on process. I think about that sometimes when I'm scooping tears out of the jar. Somebody climbed a hot hillside for these. If you're curious how this compares with its sister resin, there's a nice breakdown of how resin trees are harvested on the myrrh side.
Short version: dry places that are hard to live in. The trees love poor soil, heat and limestone slopes. Some literally cling to rock with a bulb-shaped base.
Kew's Plants of the World Online lists a couple dozen Boswellia species, but only a handful matter for incense:
| Species | Main regions | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| B. sacra | Oman, Yemen | The classic "sacred" frankincense, home of Hojari |
| B. carterii | Somalia, Somaliland | Often treated as the same species as B. sacra |
| B. frereana | Somalia | Called Maydi; very lemony, low in boswellic acids |
| B. papyrifera | Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan | Common in church incense; heavier, more resinous smell |
| B. serrata | India | "Indian frankincense," used a lot in supplements |
People mix up the tree name and the resin name all the time. If you've wondered is boswellia the same as frankincense, that page untangles it. The quick answer: Boswellia is the tree, frankincense is what it bleeds.
Dhofar, the southern region of Oman, is the most famous frankincense country on earth. UNESCO lists the "Land of Frankincense" as a World Heritage site, covering the frankincense trees of Wadi Dawkah plus old trading towns and ports like Khor Rori and Al-Baleed.
For centuries camel caravans carried resin north along the Incense Route to Egypt, the Levant and Rome. Pliny the Elder wrote about the trade in Book 12 of his Natural History and grumbled about how much Roman money flowed out to pay for Arabian aromatics. Honestly, as a guy who sells incense, I find that a little funny. Some things never change.
Raw frankincense comes as irregular lumps, usually somewhere between a lentil and a grape in size. Fresh tears have a dusty, frosted coating from rubbing against each other in the bag. Hold one up to a window and the better grades glow from the inside.
Color runs a wide range:
Color isn't a perfect quality test, but in general clearer, paler and cleaner tears with less bark mean a higher grade. Hojari from the dry interior hills of Dhofar is the name most people chase.
Before you burn it, frankincense smells fresh: lemon peel, pine needles, a little turpentine edge. Crack a tear between your teeth (gross, I know, but people do it) and it's sharper still.
On a coal it turns into something else. Warm, balsamic, a bit spicy, a bit woody, with that churchy sweetness everybody recognizes. Good resin stays bright for the first few minutes, then deepens. Cheap resin or resin left on the coal too long goes acrid and burnt-smelling. That's not the resin's fault, that's heat management.
The species matter here too. B. frereana is almost pure lemon. B. papyrifera is darker and heavier, the classic cathedral smell. B. sacra sits in the middle and is the one I reach for most.
My wife says the house smells "like Mass" when I burn papyrifera. She means it nicely. Mostly.
Here's the overview. Each of these has more depth if you want it, and there's a whole page on what frankincense is good for across the board.
This is the big one. In Catholic and Orthodox churches frankincense is burned in a thurible, the swinging metal censer on a chain, and the smoke rising is a picture of prayer going up. The Psalms ask for prayer to be "set forth before thee as incense."
It goes way back. Exodus 30:34 lists "pure frankincense" as part of the holy incense for the tabernacle. Egyptian temples burned it. And of course Matthew 2:11 has the Magi offering "gold, and frankincense, and myrrh."
Plenty of people today, me included, burn it at home for prayer, meditation or just to settle a room. Its cousin palo santo wood gets used in a similar way for clearing a space. If you want the full list of rituals and everyday uses, here's what frankincense incense is used for. And for the deeper meaning people attach to it, I wrote about the spiritual benefits of frankincense, framed as tradition and personal practice, not promises.
This is my wheelhouse, so let me be practical. You can burn frankincense a few different ways:
For sticks, I like the Frankincense Incense Full Box from Satya. It's a masala-style stick, so it leans sweeter and softer than raw resin, but it's a nice everyday option when I don't want to mess with coals. If you want something a little more playful, Frankincense Wild Berry Incense gives you that resin warmth with a fruitier edge.
Newer to all this? Our page on types of incense explains the formats in more detail, and how to burn incense covers setup and ventilation.
Frankincense essential oil is usually made by steam distillation of the resin. That pulls out the volatile oils (the pinene and limonene crowd) but leaves the heavy resin and boswellic acids behind.
A CO₂ extract uses pressurized carbon dioxide instead of steam. It captures a fuller, rounder smell closer to the raw resin. Skincare brands like CO₂ extracts for that reason. Either way, it's a very different product from the tears you burn, so don't assume what's true for one is true for the other.
Frankincense, especially B. serrata in India, has a long history in traditional medicine systems like Ayurveda. Today Boswellia extracts are sold as supplements. According to Memorial Sloan Kettering, some studies on boswellic acids look interesting, but the research is limited and the products vary a lot, and supplements can interact with medications. I'm an incense guy, not a doctor. Treat this as history and talk to your own physician before taking anything.
If you're wondering about eating it, chewing it or burning it around kids and pets, I covered that in is frankincense safe or edible. And for what people say they get from burning it (calm, focus, a cleaner feeling space), check out frankincense incense benefits.
They come as a pair in the nativity story and in a lot of church incense blends, but they're pretty different once you have them in your hand.
| Frankincense | Myrrh | |
|---|---|---|
| Tree | Boswellia | Commiphora (same plant family) |
| Color | White, pale yellow, green, amber | Reddish brown to dark, often oily looking |
| Smell | Bright, citrusy, piney, balsamic | Bitter, earthy, warm, slightly medicinal |
| Main use | Incense, prayer, church liturgy | Incense blends, perfume base, historical embalming |
I like burning them together. Frankincense lifts, myrrh grounds. One tear of each on a coal is a good place to start. If you want a stick version, the Myrrh Incense Full Box from Satya pairs nicely with the frankincense box mentioned above. More on its background here: what myrrh is and how it's used.
This is the part most frankincense pages skip, and it bugs me.
A 2019 study in Nature Sustainability led by Peter Groenendijk looked at B. papyrifera across Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan. The researchers found that many populations had almost no young trees coming up. Grazing, fire, farming and over-tapping were all part of it. Their projection was that frankincense production from those forests could fall by half within about 20 years if nothing changes.
The Omani trees face pressure too, though Dhofar has more history of managed harvests.
A few things you can do as a buyer:
I won't pretend I've solved this for our shop. It's something I'm still learning about. But it's worth thinking about every time you light one.
What is frankincense made out of? Hardened sap from Boswellia trees. It's a natural blend of resin, gum and a small amount of fragrant essential oil.
Frankincense: tree or resin? Resin. The tree is Boswellia. People say "frankincense tree" casually, but frankincense itself is the dried sap.
Is Boswellia the same as frankincense? Not quite. Boswellia is the genus of trees, and frankincense is the resin they produce. Supplement labels often say "Boswellia" when they mean an extract of the resin.
What does frankincense smell like? Does it smell good? Raw, it's lemony and piney. Burning, it turns warm, sweet, balsamic and a little spicy. Most people love it, though papyrifera can read as "heavy church" to some noses.
What color is frankincense? Anywhere from milky white and silver to pale yellow, green, amber and brown. Paler, clearer tears with less bark usually mean a higher grade.
What is frankincense good for? Mostly incense, prayer and making a room smell peaceful. It's also distilled into essential oil and has a long history in traditional medicine, which researchers are still studying.
What are the spiritual or "magical" properties of frankincense? Across many traditions it's linked with prayer, purification, protection and connection to the divine. Those are cultural and religious beliefs, and how much they mean to you is personal.
What's the difference between frankincense and myrrh? Different trees (Boswellia vs Commiphora), different colors and different smells. Frankincense is bright and citrusy, myrrh is darker and more bitter.
So that's frankincense: tree sap from a tough little desert tree, tapped by hand, dried into tears and burned by people for thousands of years. It's simple and it's ancient, and I think that's why it still works so well.
If you've never smelled the real thing, get a few tears or a box of good sticks and give it a quiet evening. Sit with it until the coal goes grey. Pay attention to how the smell changes. And if a cat wanders over to investigate, crack a window and let it be part of the moment. Mine always do.
Another good day for gratitude.
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