What are the main effects and actions of frankincense?
Frankincense, also known as rufangxiang, tianzexiang, etc., is the resin exuded from the bark of the frankincense tree and plants of the same genus in the Burseraceae family, genus Boswellia. When used as medicine, it has the effects of invigorating blood, promoting the flow of qi, relieving pain, reducing swelling, and promoting tissue regeneration. It has therapeutic effects on chest impediment and heart pain, stomach duct pain, dysmenorrhea and amenorrhea, postpartum blood stasis, abdominal pain from abdominal masses, wind-damp impediment pain, contracture and spasm of the sinews and vessels, and traumatic injuries. Now let us take a look at the effects and actions of frankincense.
The medicinal value of frankincense
[Nature and flavor] Pungent and bitter in flavor, warm in nature.
[Meridian entry] Heart, liver, and spleen meridians.
[Effects] Invigorates blood, promotes the flow of qi, relieves pain, reduces swelling, and promotes tissue regeneration. It mainly treats chest impediment and heart pain, stomach duct pain, dysmenorrhea and amenorrhea, postpartum blood stasis, abdominal pain from abdominal masses, wind-damp impediment pain, contracture and spasm of the sinews and vessels, traumatic injuries, and carbuncles, swellings, sores, and ulcers.
The medicinal effects of frankincense
1. Invigorating blood and relieving pain: Frankincense is pungent, bitter, and warm, with a fragrant aroma. Pungency can disperse, bitterness can break down, warmth can unblock, and its fragrance moves and courses. It enters the heart, liver, and spleen meridians, and therefore enters the blood aspect, so it can invigorate blood and relieve pain. The Compendium of Materia Medica says, "Frankincense is fragrant and coursing, enters the heart meridian, invigorates blood, and stabilizes pain, and is therefore an essential medicine for carbuncles, sores, and ulcers, and for heart and abdominal pain." It is commonly used to treat dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, wind-damp impediment pain, heart and abdominal pain, traumatic pain, and carbuncles, sores, and ulcers.
2. Resolving toxin and reducing swelling: Frankincense is pungent, bitter, and warm, and enters the heart, liver, and spleen meridians. The spleen governs the muscles, while painful and itchy sores and ulcers all belong to heart fire. This medicine enters precisely these two meridians, and its pungent fragrance can disperse all accumulated bindings. The Compendium of Materia Medica says frankincense "disperses carbuncles and clears toxin." Therefore this product is commonly used to treat sores, ulcers, carbuncles, and the like.
3. Promoting tissue regeneration and relieving itching: Frankincense is pungent, bitter, and warm, and enters the spleen and heart meridians. The spleen governs the muscles, so it can promote tissue regeneration, and bitterness can dry dampness and relieve itching. The Record of Famous Physicians says frankincense "treats wind-induced hidden sores and itching toxin," and the Records of Medicine with Reference to Chinese and Western Medicine says frankincense has the function of "promoting tissue regeneration." Therefore, from ancient times to the present, this product has been commonly used to treat ulcerated sores that have long failed to close, as well as hidden rashes and itching toxin. It may be taken internally or applied externally.
Related discussions on frankincense
1. Miscellaneous Records: Treats wind-damp toxic swelling and removes foul qi. Treats wind-induced hidden rashes and itching toxin.
2. Supplements to the Materia Medica: Treats deafness, lockjaw from wind stroke, and women's blood qi. It can promote the effects of alcohol, regulate wind-cold, stop large intestine diarrhea, and treat all sores so that they dissolve internally.
3. Ri Hua Zi's Materia Medica: Stops cholera and heart and abdominal pain. Decocted into a paste, it relieves pain and grows flesh.
4. Compendium: Disperses carbuncles and all toxins, supports the interior and protects the heart, invigorates blood and stabilizes pain, extends the sinews, and treats difficult labor in women and fractures.
5. Essential Medicines by Category: For red and white dysentery with unending abdominal pain, adding frankincense is invariably effective.
Medicinal formulas containing frankincense
1. To treat heart qi pain that is unbearable: Frankincense 3 liang, true tea 4 liang. Grind into powder, combine with deer blood from the twelfth lunar month to form pills the size of a pellet. Each time, dissolve one pill in warm vinegar and take it.
2. To treat acute heart pain: Black pepper 49 grains, frankincense 1 qian. Grind into powder. Men take it with ginger decoction; women take it with danggui decoction.
3. To treat qi and blood stagnation, abdominal masses and accumulations, heart and abdominal pain, sore legs and arms, internal and external sores and ulcers, all accumulations in the viscera, and obstruction and stasis in the meridians and collaterals: Danggui 5 qian, danshen 5 qian, raw refined frankincense 5 qian, raw refined myrrh 5 qian. The above four ingredients are decocted as a soup. If made into a powder, one dose is divided into four servings and taken with warm wine.
4. To treat postpartum blood stasis that is not cleared, with piercing pain in the heart and abdomen: Frankincense and myrrh (both baked on a tile until oil appears) 3 qian each, wulingzhi, yanhusuo, moutan bark, and cassia twig 5 qian each (all stir-fried until yellow), black beans 1 liang (stir-fried into smoking charcoal). Grind together into powder. Take 3 qian each time, mixed with ginger-soaked decoction.
5. To treat traumatic fractures of the sinews and bones: Frankincense and true myrrh 1 qian 5 fen each, danggui tail, safflower, and peach kernel 3 qian each. Decoct in water and take.
6. To treat back carbuncle and head carbuncle, and all malignant sores that have internally ulcerated, as well as all severe toxins rushing to the heart with vomiting and pain: Frankincense 1 liang (the translucent kind, soaked externally in water and ground fine in a mortar), true mung bean powder (ground) 1 liang. Grind the above two ingredients together extremely fine. Take 1 qian-bi each time, mixed with fresh water. Do not use too much water; the medicine must remain in the chest and diaphragm.
7. To treat unbearable pain from sores and ulcers: Frankincense and myrrh 2 qian each, calcite (calcined) and talc 4 qian each, borneol 1 fen. Grind into fine powder and apply to the affected area.
8. To treat fish-belly carbuncle and everted anus-like lesions, long ulcerated beyond tolerance, reduce swelling and relieve pain: Frankincense and myrrh (each with oil removed) 1 liang each, musk 1 qian 5 fen, xiongjing 5 qian (each ground extremely fine), yellow rice 2 liang. Pound into a paste and form pills the size of radish seeds. Avoid roasting over fire; dry in the sun. Take 3 qian each time with aged wine, cover up and induce sweating while drunk.
9. To treat suppurative felon and acute mastitis: Frankincense 5 qian, white alum and Sichuan pepper 2 qian each, several scallion whites. Decoct in water for external washing, several times a day.
10. To treat yin-cold hiccups that will not stop: Frankincense, sulfur, and mugwort 2 qian each. Grind into fine powder, decoct with one cup of good wine for several boils, and while hot have the patient sniff the vapor. Externally, pound ginger and rub it on the chest.
11. To treat nocturnal emission in dreams: One piece of frankincense, thumb-sized. Chew it when lying down, hold it in the mouth until the third watch, then swallow. Take for 3 to 5 doses.
12. To treat deviation of the mouth and eyes: Burn frankincense and fumigate with the smoke to smooth the blood vessels.
13. To treat bone stuck in the throat: Frankincense 1 qian, grind with water and take.
14. To treat unbearable toothache from tooth worms: Chew mastic and swallow its juice.