{"id":5392,"date":"2023-01-12T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=5392"},"modified":"2022-12-11T17:24:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T17:24:55","slug":"frankincense-and-myrrh-have-been-revered-since-ancient-times-but-now-theyre-under-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/frankincense-and-myrrh-have-been-revered-since-ancient-times-but-now-theyre-under-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Frankincense and myrrh have been revered since ancient times \u2013 but now they\u2019re under threat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n \n
\n The Magi\u2019s latter two gifts to Jesus were natural resins that are becoming increasingly rare.\n David Jackmanson\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\nEoin Lettice<\/a>, University College Cork<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

Right now, Christmas nativity scenes across the world feature three kings \u2013 also known as the \u201cwise men<\/a>\u201d or Magi \u2013 bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the newborn baby Jesus in Bethlehem. In the Bible, Matthew\u2019s gospel tells us<\/a> that the wise men \u201csaw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

As a child, I remember thinking how gold seemed like an obvious choice, but that the other two gifts seemed a bit like last-minute purchases \u2013 the biblical equivalent of getting socks for Christmas. The mention of \u201ctreasures\u201d in Matthew\u2019s gospel is so important, however, because it gives us an indication of how all three of these items were viewed at the time. <\/p>\n\n

Frankincense and myrrh had been in use for thousands of years before they turned up in Bethlehem. Frankincense has long been mixed with various spices to form incense<\/a>, and myrrh was used by the ancient Egyptians<\/a> as an embalming agent. Both have been promoted as cures<\/a> for a variety of ailments, from digestive trouble to pain relief. At the time of Jesus, these gifts were worth the same as, if not more than, gold<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"A<\/a>\n
\n The Adoration of the Magi by Gerard David, showing the wise men gifting Jesus with gold, frankincense and myrrh.<\/span>\n Metropolitan Museum of Art\/Wikimedia<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Both substances are produced from the resin of trees in the Burseraceae<\/a>, or \u201cincense\u201d, family. A small incision is made in the trunk of the tree and the resin is slowly drained and allowed to dry. This resin is how the tree tries to seal up its open wound. Frankincense comes from Boswellia<\/em> trees, while myrrh comes from Commiphora<\/em> trees. <\/p>\n\n

Although these products are most famously associated with western Asia, the Burseraceae family has relatives all over the world \u2013 from South America to Africa and Australasia. Native to desert regions, these trees are often of crucial economic importance<\/a> to communities who can harvest resins during the dry season when other sources of income are scarce. <\/p>\n\n

An imminent threat<\/h2>\n\n

The frankincense-producing tree Boswellia sacra<\/em><\/a> is native to Oman, Yemen and Somalia, where it is listed as \u201cnear threatened\u201d on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list<\/a>. As the source of high-quality frankincense, it has been widely over-harvested, leading to greatly reduced population sizes.<\/p>\n\n

A 2011 study<\/a> of a closely related tree (and now the main commercial source of frankincense), Boswellia papyrifera<\/em><\/a> in northern Ethiopia, suggested that fire and over-grazing were preventing saplings reaching maturity. <\/p>\n\n

What\u2019s more, adult mortality was also high due to damage from fire and pests. The study predicted a 90% decline in population size within 50 years if nothing was done. Another study<\/a> has projected a 71% population decline within 25 years. <\/p>\n\n

\n \"A\n
\n Frankincense trees are listed as near threatened, making their future uncertain.<\/span>\n Rod Waddington\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-ND<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Intensive ecosystem management and sapling protection was recommended to prevent disaster. A number of these practices have been trialled<\/a>, including reducing resin extraction from trees and protecting them from grazing animals, but haven\u2019t yet been widely adopted. <\/p>\n\n

Myrrh is collected in a similar way from a number of Commiphora<\/em><\/a> tree species. Comiphora wightii<\/em>, native to parts of Pakistan and India, is critically endangered<\/a> due to over-harvesting of its resin for use in traditional medicine.<\/p>\n\n

Commiphora myrrha<\/em>, as the name suggests, is one of the species most associated with the production of myrrh. Although it hasn\u2019t been assessed for its conservation status, it\u2019s likely to face similar challenges to its distant relatives that give us frankincense.<\/p>\n\n

Unfortunately, the story of the exploitation of frankincense and myrrh is a familiar one. Many wild populations of plants are in jeopardy, contributing to ongoing global biodiversity<\/a> collapse. <\/p>\n\n

A report<\/a> on the state of the world\u2019s plants and fungi, which I co-authored in 2020, found that two in five plants are now threatened with extinction. Apart from the intrinsic loss of value that this represents, these species\u2019 disappearance would also mean a potentially enormous loss of plant-based<\/a> food and medicine for humans.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"A\n
\n Frankincense is widely used in incense for sacred rituals and worship.<\/span>\n Adriaan Bloem\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-NC-ND<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Faith in the future<\/h2>\n\n

At least one writer<\/a> has noted that, given their sacred significance, the continued unsustainable harvesting of these products poses a dilemma for many Christian churches<\/a>. As consumers of the resins, they have a responsibility to promote sustainable practices in the resin industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Indeed, faith groups in general are important \u2013 and often overlooked \u2013 allies in protecting biodiversity. As Pope Francis wrote<\/a> in 2015:<\/p>\n\n

\n

Each year sees the disappearance of thousands of plant and animal species which we will never know, which our children will never see, because they have been lost for ever. The great majority become extinct for reasons related to human activity. Because of us, thousands of species will no longer give glory to God by their very existence, nor convey their message to us. We have no such right.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

There are a number of examples<\/a>, from Ethiopia to Japan, of faith groups working to protect biodiversity and restore nature by reforesting logged land and practising ethical farming<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Thanks to their social and spiritual importance, raising awareness about plants such as those that give us frankincense and myrrh can help engage people of many different faiths in the vital work of protecting the natural world.\"The<\/p>\n\n

Eoin Lettice<\/a>, Lecturer in Plant Science, University College Cork<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Magi\u2019s latter two gifts to Jesus were natural resins that are becoming increasingly rare. David Jackmanson\/Flickr, CC…\n","protected":false},"author":337,"featured_media":5367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18,17],"tags":[120,193,670,664,669,474],"class_list":{"0":"post-5392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-earth","8":"category-history","9":"category-math-and-the-sciences","10":"tag-climate-change","11":"tag-conservation","12":"tag-frankincense","13":"tag-incense","14":"tag-myrrh","15":"tag-the-conversation","16":"cs-entry","17":"cs-video-wrap"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5393,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392\/revisions\/5393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}