Frankincense Oil: Benefits, Uses, Dosage & Side Effects

Warm a piece of frankincense resin, or open a bottle of the oil distilled from it, and the room fills with a clean, woody, faintly citrus scent. It's the same scent that has drifted through temples and churches since ancient times,1 and healers in India, China and Arabia have used the resin as medicine for ages.10

I diffuse frankincense during my morning prayer and Bible reading time, and sometimes I combine it with cedarwood and peppermint for focus.7

Did you know?

• The King James Bible uses the word "frankincense" 17 times, in 17 verses across eight books, from Exodus to Revelation.11

• Inside a closed 17th-century church, vapor from frankincense oil cut airborne bacteria by up to 68%, and burning frankincense incense cut them by up to 91%.1

• In 2002, the European Union granted orphan-drug designation, a status for medicines being studied for rare conditions, to a Boswellia serrata resin extract for swelling around brain tumors, a designation its sponsor withdrew in 2006.1213

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What is frankincense?

Several species supply it, including Boswellia sacra, harvested in southern Oman,15 and Boswellia serrata, known as Indian frankincense.12 The oil and the extract carry different parts of the same resin. The oil holds the light, fragrant compounds you smell, and the species changes the blend: in one Boswellia carterii oil, piney alpha-pinene made up 38%,1 while in a Boswellia serrata oil, fruity octyl acetate made up 41%.16

Boswellic acids, the heavier compounds behind the joint research, come mainly with the resin extract. Distillation carries over a small and variable amount: lab analyses of Boswellia sacra oil found under 1 mg of boswellic acids per milliliter in early fractions and 19.6 to 30.1 mg in fractions distilled for 11 to 12 hours.1718 Oil labels don't state that amount, while the joint trials used extracts standardized for boswellic acids.

A short history of frankincense

When the wise men found the young child, "they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh" (Matthew 2:11). Frankincense was a form of wealth, listed among the goods the merchants traded in Revelation 18:13, and it was holy. God told Moses to blend "sweet spices with pure frankincense" into the tabernacle incense (Exodus 30:34), and priests burned it with the meat offering of fine flour (Leviticus 2:1–2), the King James name for a grain offering.11

Its medical record is just as old. Frankincense has been used since 2800 BCE for skin sores, wounds, teeth and inflammation.1 Jordan Rubin and I trace that history in The Biblio Diet: long before aspirin and ibuprofen existed, ancient civilizations, including Egypt, used boswellia extracts for arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease.7 Those are the same conditions modern trials have tested.

Frankincense in traditional medicine

Three of the world's great healing traditions have leaned on this resin, and they still do.

• Chinese medicine calls frankincense ru xiang and uses it to improve blood circulation and relieve pain.59
• Ayurvedic medicine, India's traditional system, knows the Indian resin as salai guggal and has used it to calm inflammation, ease arthritis and relieve pain, as well as for asthma and skin conditions.215937
• Arabian medicine still keeps it in the home. In Oman, where Boswellia sacra is harvested,15 frankincense is called luban. In a survey of 280 people in northern Oman, published in 2026, 96.5% burned it as incense for healing, 65.7% drank water in which the resin had soaked overnight, and 91.5% considered it helpful for asthma and breathing problems, followed by skin, digestion and the mouth and gums.60

Modern researchers have since tested frankincense on much the same list: joints, the gut, breathing, gums and skin.520212422

What is frankincense good for?

How frankincense works in your body

Researchers have traced three routes so far, and the first is the best studied.

• Boswellic acids target inflammatory enzymes (proposed in people). In lab studies, AKBA, the best-known boswellic acid, blocked 5-lipoxygenase, an enzyme that makes inflammatory leukotrienes, by locking onto a site away from the enzyme's working center.2930

• Several compounds share the work. Beta-boswellic acid reaches far higher levels in human blood than AKBA and, in lab tests, blocks two other inflammatory enzymes, so researchers now credit a group of compounds rather than one.12

• Scent compounds may reach the nervous system (proposed). In lab tests, serratol, a compound from the resin, switched on TRPV3, a warmth-sensing receptor that is one proposed route to frankincense's calming reputation; no mood outcome was measured.31

Frankincense benefits, ranked by evidence

Ranked by evidence, frankincense does the most for joint pain and for calm and comfort, with encouraging results for the gut, breathing, mouth, skin and brain.

Can frankincense oil ease stress and pain?

In the labor trial, 126 first-time mothers in the hospital wore a gauze pad on the collar, dampened with diluted Boswellia carterii oil or with plain saline and refreshed every 30 minutes. On a 0-to-10 pain scale, the frankincense group scored 4.98 versus 6.68 at 3 to 4 cm of dilation, 5.79 versus 7.23 at 5 to 7 cm, and 6.35 versus 7.71 at 8 to 10 cm, and the babies' Apgar scores were no different, though with an unscented saline pad the mothers likely knew their group.3

In the biopsy trial, 120 men breathed in frankincense, lavender or a placebo from a nebulizer during the procedure, a simple form of aromatherapy. Anxiety scores fell 8.54 points with frankincense and 7.39 with lavender, against 0.82 with placebo, and men in both oil groups had less pain than they had expected; no side effects were reported, though the published results compare each group with its own starting point rather than with the other groups.4

Blends that include frankincense have helped too. Massage with frankincense and myrrh oils twice a week eased chronic low back pain and disability more than plain jojoba massage or no massage in 91 adults,33 and an inhaled blend of thyme, orange, clove bud and frankincense lowered fatigue more than a placebo inhalation in 40 women still worn out months after COVID-19.34 In a separate trial, frankincense oil used on its own, rubbed on the soles of the feet, didn't change fatigue in 70 adults receiving chemotherapy.35

Those findings fit what Jordan Rubin and I wrote in The Biblio Diet: during prayer and meditation, frankincense oil may help bring a feeling of peace and relaxation.7 You'll find diffuser amounts in the how-to section below, and more calming oils in essential oils for anxiety.

Does frankincense help joint pain?

Put another way, for every two people who took the extract, one more got meaningful pain relief than would have on placebo, and physical function improved by 8 points. In another trial of the same enriched extract, with 96 people, there were fewer side effects on the extract than on placebo, 18 events against 30.5

Other placebo-controlled trials in knee pain from osteoarthritis, many of them run or funded by the companies that make the extracts, point the same way, and the longest one saw more cartilage on MRI.

A review of 11 knee osteoarthritis trials of curcumin and boswellia, with 1,009 people, found boswellia beat placebo for pain and function.38 A 2024 analysis of 13 studies found lower scores in its placebo-controlled trials, though its overall result, which also counted trials against active treatments, wasn't statistically significant.39

If you'd rather apply it to the skin, a topical oily solution of boswellia extract enriched in boswellic acids, rubbed on three times a day for 4 weeks, lowered pain and stiffness scores more than a placebo solution in 70 adults with knee osteoarthritis.40 That solution was made from the extract, so its results don't carry over to the essential oil.

Boswellia ranks right behind turmeric on my list of supplements for inflammation,41 and for joints I like combining turmeric, boswellia and ginger, taken two to three times a day.42 One trial backs the pairing: in 201 adults with osteoarthritis, curcumin plus boswellic acid beat placebo on both pain scores and physical-performance tests over 12 weeks, while curcumin alone beat placebo only on the performance tests.43

Still, I use herbs like these as part of a plan. Unless you remove what's driving the inflammation, you'll stay inflamed,44 and the food you eat every day lowers inflammation far more than any supplement can.45 Start with anti-inflammatory foods, then let boswellia support that work.

Frankincense and cancer support

For anyone facing cancer, I put diet, exercise, prayer, vitamin D, high-dose vitamin C and hyperthermia first, and frankincense is a supportive piece of that plan.

Frankincense has drawn real interest in cancer care, mostly for easing swelling during treatment. In 44 people receiving radiation for brain tumors, 4,200 mg a day of boswellia extract reduced brain swelling by more than 75% in 60% of patients, compared with 26% on placebo; 6 people on boswellia had mild stomach upset.28 The benefit was for the swelling, and the tumors themselves didn't shrink.2

In 94 people with radiation damage in the brain after radiosurgery, 4,050 to 4,500 mg a day for at least two months brought a response in 59.6%, in a review of their records without a comparison group.46 In a small early-phase trial of 20 women with breast cancer, 2,400 mg a day of boswellia extract before surgery (a median of 11 days) lowered Ki-67, a marker of how fast tumor cells divide, by 13.8%, while it rose 54.6% in an earlier untreated comparison group, with no serious side effects.47 In lab and mouse studies, frankincense oil killed bladder and pancreatic cancer cells, and the bladder cancer cells were more sensitive to it than normal cells.4818

My mom's cancer recovery came through nutrition and lifestyle alongside her medical care, and she used frankincense oil every day along the way.6 Separately, my Cancer Support Protocol lists boswellia extract, the capsule form, at 300 to 500 mg twice a day with food.49 The trial doses above were given under medical care. If you're in chemotherapy, tell your oncology team you take boswellia: in cell studies its boswellic acids affected transporters that move some drugs through the body, and many chemotherapy drugs have a narrow safe range.56

How to use frankincense oil

Keep the oil away from your eyes and the inside of your nose, and wash your hands after applying it. Essential oil safety covers storage and dilution for other oils too.

Can you take it internally? In Ancient Remedies I wrote that frankincense works best when you inhale the scent or apply it to your skin, though you can take small amounts internally, and The Biblio Diet gives 2 to 3 drops.67 If you do, choose a pure, single-ingredient oil with the species on the label, and mix the 2 to 3 drops into a spoonful of raw honey or a teaspoon of carrier oil rather than water, since essential oils don't dissolve in water and undiluted drops can irritate your mouth and throat. Keep it occasional and short-term, adults only, and stop at any mouth or stomach irritation, dizziness or nausea. Skip internal use during pregnancy and while nursing. No trial has tested swallowing frankincense oil.

How much boswellia should you take a day?

Joint relief started within 5 days in one trial and 7 days in another,5019 and the reviewed trials judged their results at 90 days, so give it about three months.5 The gut trials used higher amounts, 1,200 to 3,600 mg a day, in people under medical care. Each trial tested a specific preparation, so choose an extract that states its boswellic-acid or AKBA content.

How to buy frankincense oil and boswellia

Frankincense is still harvested from wild trees, and several Boswellia species are declining,15 so buy from sellers who can tell you where and how their resin was gathered.

• The species on the label, such as Boswellia sacra, Boswellia carterii or Boswellia serrata, since their oils differ in their main compounds116

• 100% pure and single-ingredient, certified organic when you can find it, with nothing added

• A batch test report from the seller showing what's in the oil

• A dark glass bottle, kept cool and tightly capped

• For the extract, a stated boswellic-acid or AKBA content, the measure the joint trials used1936

Frankincense side effects & who should be careful

Boswellia extract has a good safety record: doses up to 1,000 mg a day have been used safely in several trials lasting up to six months.2 In Crohn's disease, 2,400 mg a day for up to a year was as well tolerated as placebo.23

The extract's Moderate interaction rating comes from lab tests, in which boswellia extracts changed how human platelets clump and slowed blood clotting in plasma.5455 If you take warfarin, have your INR checked after you start or change the extract. With another blood thinner or an antiplatelet drug, tell your prescriber and watch for easy bruising, and tell your surgeon you take it before any operation. In cell studies the extract also affected drug transporters, so if you take a medicine with a narrow safe range, review the extract with your pharmacist.56

The bottom line

Frankincense: frequently asked questions

References

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