incensole acetate

[nabraxas]

Religious leaders have contended for millennia that burning incense is good for the soul. Now, biologists have learned that it is good for our brains too. In a new study appearing online in The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), an international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression. This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses.

"In spite of information stemming from ancient texts, constituents of Bosweilla had not been investigated for psychoactivity," said Raphael Mechoulam, one of the research study's co-authors. "We found that incensole acetate, a Boswellia resin constituent, when tested in mice lowers anxiety and causes antidepressive-like behavior. Apparently, most present day worshipers assume that incense burning has only a symbolic meaning."

To determine incense's psychoactive effects, the researchers administered incensole acetate to mice. They found that the compound significantly affected areas in brain areas known to be involved in emotions as well as in nerve circuits that are affected by current anxiety and depression drugs. Specifically, incensole acetate activated a protein called TRPV3, which is present in mammalian brains and also known to play a role in the perception of warmth of the skin. When mice bred without this protein were exposed to incensole acetate, the compound had no effect on their brains.

"Perhaps Marx wasn't too wrong when he called religion the opium of the people: morphine comes from poppies, cannabinoids from marijuana, and LSD from mushrooms; each of these has been used in one or another religious ceremony." said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "Studies of how those psychoactive drugs work have helped us understand modern neurobiology. The discovery of how incensole acetate, purified from frankincense, works on specific targets in the brain should also help us understand diseases of the nervous system. This study also provides a biological explanation for millennia-old spiritual practices that have persisted across time, distance, culture, language, and religion--burning incense really does make you feel warm and tingly all over!"

According to the National Institutes of Health, major depressive disorder is the leading cause of disability in the United States for people ages 15-44, affecting approximately 14.8 million American adults. A less severe form of depression, dysthymic disorder, affects approximately 3.3 million American adults. Anxiety disorders affect 40 million American adults, and frequently co-occur with depressive disorders.

http://scienceblogs.com/twominds/2008/05/h...something_g.php

[Fenris]

Better stock up on some frankincense now, in 6 months it will most likely be scheduled in Australia. By 2010 it will be prescription only medication.

Edited May 22, 2008 by Fenris

[devance]

Hats off to you Nax for the timely tip.

You beat me by hours.

Looks like good old frankincense be good. for prostrate problems also[and horseradish maybe].

'Thus 5-LOX is a potential molecular target for prostate cancer treatment. We have found that prostate cancer cells are sensitive to boswellic acid (a pure 5-LOX inhibitor isolated from Boswellia carterri and serrata) -induced cell growth inhibition and apoptosis. Boswellin, a crude methanol extract containing 20% boswellic acids, is currently used as a complementary anti-arthritic and anti-inflammatory pharmacological agent in the US. We hypothesize that prostate cancer will be highly sensitive to Boswellin-induced growth inhibition via apoptosis.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15576374

http://crisp.cit.nih.gov/crisp/CRISP_LIB.g...amp;p_keywords=

[Torsten]

"LSD comes from mushrooms". It's hard to take such scientists seriously. Although, Mechoulam is a pretty interesting guy [especially if you like pot].

[nabraxas]

Mechoulam is a pretty interesting guy [especially if you like pot].

ie:

Dr. Mechoulam, along with pharmacologist Dr. Habib Edery and colleagues, went on to isolate and elucidate the structures of most members of the cannabinoid group of compounds in the cannabis plant. Twenty-eight years after discovering THC, in 1992, Dr. Mechoulam, along with Dr. William Devane and Dr. Lumir Hanus, identified the brain's first endogenous cannabinoid (or endocannabinoid)—the brain's natural version of THC—which they called "anandamide," from the Sanskrit word "ananda," which means "eternal bliss" or "supreme joy."

It turns out that the brain actually has a whole family of cannabinoid neurotransmitters and receptors.

http://www.smart-publications.com/articles/MOM-mechoulam.php

Edited May 22, 2008 by nabraxas

[devance]

http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/programs/forensic...408/mg0408.html

So Nax you will get out of the Narc war?

[Conan Troutman]

does it counteract the carcinogenic effects of the incense I wonder