# Frankincense **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 30, 2017, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankincense/795133 "2017-08-30T22:17:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankincense/795133/1 "2017-08-30T22:17:45Z")
So my wife loves frankincense oil and claims it has all sorts of healing properties. Since it has been used for so long I am curious if there has been any legitimate research as to the truthfulness of the claims. Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2017, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankincense/795133/2 "2017-08-30T22:27:58Z")
There’s some slight evidence that it can be useful in treating some cancers. Other than that, the few people I know who use it do so to get high. ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankincense/795133/3 "2017-08-31T01:18:05Z")
Listen to your wife. Isn’t she always right about everything? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankincense/795133/4 "2017-08-31T01:47:19Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > There’s some slight evidence that it can be useful in treating some cancers. Other than that, the few people I know who use it do so to get high. Damn, is that frankincense? I thought it was Frankenberry. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankincense/795133/5 "2017-08-31T01:51:05Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Damn, is that frankincense? I thought it was Frankenberry. :smack: The Frankenberry is for after… ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankincense/795133/6 "2017-08-31T10:13:38Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Damn, is that frankincense? I thought it was Frankenberry. :smack: Just don’t use the Booberry–that stuff’ll kill you. (Truth in advertising.) And yes, before you ask, Count Chocula will turn you into a vampire. (As for a real answer to that OP, typically the more things substance _x_ is claimed to cure, the more likely it doesn’t. Cure-alls are cure-nones.) ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frankincense/795133/7 "2017-08-31T10:52:07Z")
Well, the ancient land of frankincense growing is Dhofar in South Arabia. It doesn’t produce much now, since the armed insurgency in the 1960s–70s, and now Somalia is where most of the _Boswellia_ is grown. But the tribe anciently living in the frankincense lands of Dhofar used frankincense as a universal panacea. They lived in arid hills inland and really didn’t have much else, as it was hardscrabble country aside from being good for frankincense cultivation. So they used what they had. For Eastern Woodland Indians up and inland on the Allegheny Plateau, salt was hard to come by, obtainable only as expensive overland imports from the coast or from the occasional lick (once you get the mud and animal waste out of it). However, in that environment sugar maples were plentiful. So they seasoned their cuisine with sugar, mostly, instead of salt. Likewise with frankincense country, they used what they had. It does not mean that, all other things being equal, that sugar can just replace salt in cooking.