Let us first explain the physics of this matter clearly; only then will the history that follows hold up.
Frankincense and myrrh are tear-shaped resins from two kinds of trees in the Burseraceae family—one clear and crisp with a lemon note, the other bitter and thick with a medicinal feel—and since ancient times they have appeared as a pair.Frankincense comes from the genus Boswellia (Boswellia) and is mainly produced in Somalia, Dhofar in Oman, Yemen, and Ethiopia; in ancient China it was called “xunlu xiang” (薰陆香); myrrh comes from the genus Commiphora (Commiphora), which is in the same family as frankincense but a different genus, and is mainly produced in Somalia, Ethiopia, and the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. These two substances traveled along the “Incense Route” for three thousand years, from temples to apothecaries, and today they have come back to the incense seat.
Key Points
- Frankincense = resin of the genus Boswellia, anciently calledxunlu xiang (薰陆香), mainly produced in Dhofar in Oman, Somalia, and Yemen; myrrh = resin of the genus Commiphora, anciently calledmoyao (末药), in the same family as frankincense but a different genus.
- The “Land of Frankincense” in Dhofar, Oman, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000 and is a core node of the Incense Route.
- Volume 2 of the Xiang Cheng quotes the Bencao: frankincense “is also called xunlu, comes from the Arabs, and is warm in nature”—since the Tang and Song dynasties it has been a major commodity in the maritime spice trade.
- Aroma comparison: frankincenseclear and crisp, with lemon and pine notes, and when burned it gives a sense of purification; myrrhbitter-aromatic, earthy and medicinal, heavier and thicker than frankincense.
- In compound incense and medicinal formulas, “frankincense and myrrh require each other” and are often used as a pair—one clear, one bitter; one uplifting, one settling.
- Both are resinous incense materials; they soften when heated and are flammable, so when using an open flame, pay attention to ventilation and fire-source management.
Frankincense trees grow in the most barren places—the arid slopes at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, the limestone mountains of Somalia. Local incense harvesters cut shallow slits in the bark; to heal the wound, the tree secretes resin, which drips out drop by drop and hardens in the air intoteardrop-shapedgranules. This process must be repeated many times, and a single tree yields only a few kilograms a year.
Myrrh works the same way, except its resin is stickier, darker, and more bitter in scent.
What the two have in common is this:they are both the tree's wounds. This is in fact the same principle as agarwood—fragrance often comes from a plant's repair of its own damage. Middle Eastern frankincense and Southeast Asian agarwood, across the entire Indian Ocean, form their fragrance by remarkably similar mechanisms.
Grading after harvest is also quite simple: whole granules, light-colored and translucent, with few impurities, are top grade; fragments, dark chunks, and pieces mixed with bark are lower grade. This standard has barely changed from the days of ancient Rome to today's spice markets in Dubai.
In ancient times frankincense was shipped from the Arabian Peninsula via the Red Sea and the Mediterranean to Europe; this trade route is theFrankincense Road(Frankincense Road / Incense Route).
Its southern starting point is in Oman'sDhofar(Dhofar). TheBoswellia sacraproduced there is widely recognized as the world's finest frankincense. In 2000, UNESCO inscribed Dhofar's "Land of Frankincense" (Land of Frankincense) on the World Heritage List, including the frankincense groves of Wadi Dawkah, the ruins of the oasis trading post at Shisr / Ubar, and the two port sites of Khor Rori (ancient Sumhuram) and Al-Baleed—groves, trading post, and port: only when the three sites are pieced together do they form a complete industry chain。
From Dhofar, frankincense went two ways: by land, camel caravans headed north through Yemen and the Hejaz to Gaza and the eastern Mediterranean coast; by sea, it exited the Red Sea and entered the Indian Ocean. The profits along this route were astonishingly high, and it also gave rise to a group of city-states that prospered because of incense.
The ancients' fascination with frankincense knew no East or West: ancient Egypt used it to sacrifice to the gods and also to make mummies; the Roman Empire burned large quantities of frankincense every year for temples and funerals; in the Bible, the three gifts the Magi presented to the newborn Jesus weregold, frankincense, and myrrh—two of them are resins, showing that in the value hierarchy of the time they ranked alongside gold.
Frankincense entered China by sea, reaching its peak during the Tang and Song dynasties.
Volume 2 of Xiang Cheng, 'Incense Products II: Sandalwood and Frankincense,' quotes the Bencao: 'Frankincense, also called Xunlu, comes from Dashi, is warm in nature, and treats various malignant sores.''Dashi' was the Tang-Song name for the Arab Empire; this sentence records both the place of origin and the use—it came in as a medicinal material and only later turned into a spice. This passage inthe annotated translation of Volume 2 of Xiang Chenghas the original text alongside plain-language translation.
By the Song dynasty, frankincense was one of the major incense medicines taxed by the Maritime Trade Office, with imports measured in 'jin' and often amounting to tens of thousands of jin; the government even monopolized its trade for a time. In Zhao Rushi's Zhu Fan Zhi of the Song, frankincense is almost always listed among the products of the Dashi states. One detail illustrates its weight at the time:in the Song dynasty, frankincense could be used as currency—the court used frankincense as a discounted medium to pay military expenses and ransom warhorses.
Myrrh followed close behind, anciently called 'Moyao,' a transliterated name. Its reputation in China was not as loud as frankincense's, but it always held a place in medicinal formulas.
These two spices had a very particular experience in China:they came in as medicine and stayed as incense.The frankincense used on today's incense table is the same substance written about in Xiang Cheng.
Smell the two side by side, and the difference is much greater than imagined.
Frankincense: clear and cool, with a slight lemon and pinewood note, purifying when burned. On the heater, the top note is bright with a touch of spice, turning sweet at the base, clean and crisp. It is the incense best suited to 'clearing out a room'—light a little when the air is stuffy and the mood is murky, and it immediately becomes bright.
Myrrh: bitter, earthy, and medicinal, heavier and thicker than frankincense. It is not ingratiating; the top note is even a bit dull, but it withstands prolonged smelling, with a warm, thick woody bitterness in the base.
In traditional Chinese medicine and incense formulas, the two are often used together, called 'frankincense and myrrh mutually reinforcing'—one clear, one bitter; one uplifting, one settling—the main ingredients of the powder the ancients called 'Haifu San.' The same principle applies in blended incense: frankincense brightens, myrrh grounds, and neither can replace the other.
It should be noted that the records of medicinal properties and effects in ancient texts belong totraditional cognitive descriptions, not medical advice, for reference only, and do not constitute any basis for treating any disease.
Scenario one, single fumigation.Place frankincense granules directly into an electronic incense burner; the temperature is recommended to be controlled at 120–160℃—first use low heat for the top note, then raise the temperature for the base note. Because myrrh is sticky in texture, it is recommended to crush it before fumigation, with a slightly higher temperature of about 150–180℃. Direct burning with an open flame is not recommended—the resin softens and bubbles when heated, produces heavy and pungent smoke, and easily scorches.
Scenario two, use in blended incense.In blended incense, frankincense and myrrh mostly serve as “adjuvant and messenger,” so the proportion should be small, generally controlled at 5%–15% of the total powder amount. Paired with agarwood, it can enhance the smoky note; paired with sandalwood, it can suppress excessive sweetness. In ancient formulas “frankincense—myrrh” often appear in pairs, and this idea can be directly carried over.
Scenario three, making incense seals.Resin-type incense materials are highly sticky after crushing, and making seals alone easily breaks, so it is best to mix them with agarwood powder and sandalwood powder, with resin-type materials not exceeding 20% in proportion.
Safety tips: Frankincense and myrrh are both flammable resins. When fumigating with an open flame, be sure to keep away from curtains, paper, and other combustibles, maintain indoor ventilation, and extinguish the fire when leaving; when using an electronic incense burner, avoid leaving it unattended for long periods and avoid high-temperature dry burning; use with caution in spaces with people sensitive to the respiratory tract, pregnant women, infants and young children, and pets.
Look at appearance: For frankincense, the best is complete granules, light color (milky white to pale yellow), high transparency, and few impurities; those dark in color, with many fragments, or mixed with bark are inferior. For myrrh, the best is large pieces, oily and moist, with a dark reddish-brown fracture surface and a strong odor; dry, grayish-white pieces are inferior.
Smell the odor: Good frankincense is clear and not pungent; good myrrh is bitter-aromatic and not moldy. If it smells sour or rancid, it is old stock or has been damp.
Ask about origin: Omani Dhofar material (B. sacra) is recognized as the best and is also the most expensive; Somali and Ethiopian material is cost-effective; Indian material (B. serrata) has a weaker aroma and is mostly used for medicine. Myrrh is mainly from Somali and Ethiopian material.
Reference price range: Ordinary frankincense fragments cost about several dozen to over one hundred yuan per liang; high-quality Omani Dhofar frankincense costs about one to four hundred yuan per liang; myrrh is slightly lower than frankincense of the same grade.The above are publicly available market price ranges, subject to market fluctuations and for reference only, and in practice each item is priced individually.
The year before last, a woman who runs a yoga studio came to the shop and said the "top-grade Omani frankincense" she bought online produced very heavy smoke when lit and stung her eyes, so she suspected it was fake. The shopkeeper took a look: the granules were intact, yellowish and translucent, and the smell was right too—the problem was that she was burning it directly over an open flame.Resin incense materials are the most averse to open flames, and the correct method is low-temperature electric heating. After switching to a different burner and setting the temperature to 140°C, the same batch of material immediately changed completely: there was almost no visible smoke, and the fragrance emerged layer by layer. She later became a regular, and every time she came she brought a different friend.
Want to try how frankincense and myrrh are blended? You can smell and compare samples on-site at the shop; if it's inconvenient to go out, call400-809-1913, and the shopkeeper will give you a ratio recommendation based on how you use it.
Frankincense and myrrh are not expensive on the market, nor are they rare. But they have two things that cannot be bought elsewhere:
First,the depth of time. The grain of frankincense you put on the burner today comes from the same kind of tree, harvested the same way and with the same fragrance as the batch shipped to Roman temples two thousand years ago. Humanity's preference for "crisp clarity" has not changed in two thousand years.
Second,the wisdom of formulation. Behind the four words "frankincense and myrrh mutually reinforce" lies the ancients' deep understanding of "one rising, one sinking; one clear, one bitter." It applies not only to medicinal formulas but also to any blending of incense—a good formula is never about piling up good things, but about letting different things complete each other。
On compliance, we should also be honest: the genus frankincense (Boswellia) and the genus myrrh (Commiphora) are currentlynot listed in the CITES appendices, so they are not controlled endangered species, but some wild populations face pressure due to overharvesting. When purchasing, it is still advisable to use traceable formal channels and to check origin, batch and testing labels—this point is inthe Global Incense Compendium, where more background can be found.
No. Both belong to the same family, Burseraceae, but to different genera: frankincense comes from the genusBoswellia, mainly produced in Dhofar, Oman, Somalia, and Yemen; myrrh comes from the genusCommiphora, mainly produced in Somalia, Ethiopia, and the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. In terms of aroma, frankincense is clear and crisp with a lemony note, while myrrh is bitter and heavy with a medicinal feel. The two have often appeared as a pair since ancient times; in traditional Chinese medicine this is called "frankincense and myrrh mutually reinforcing," and they are also commonly used together in incense blending.
Not recommended. Frankincense and myrrh are both resinous incense materials; direct burning over an open flame will soften them, make them bubble, produce heavy and pungent smoke, and easily scorch them, completely ruining the aromatic layers. The correct method is low-temperature heating in an electric incense heater: frankincense at about 120–160°C, myrrh at about 150–180°C, starting at low temperature to release the top notes and then gradually increasing. When using an open flame, always keep away from combustibles, maintain ventilation, and extinguish the fire when leaving.
There are differences, but both fall within the same grade range.Boswellia sacraproduced in Dhofar, Oman, is recognized as the world's best, with a clearer, more transparent aroma and finer layers, and it is also the most expensive; the "Land of Frankincense" in Dhofar was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2000. Somali and Ethiopian frankincense are also high-quality frankincense, with a slightly heavier aroma and better value for money. IndianB. serratahas a milder aroma and is mostly used medicinally. For everyday incense, Somali material is sufficient; for the ultimate in layered aroma, go for Omani material.
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