To be or not to be...incensed?

[S.A.M.]

First, the good news:

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.

Apparently, the frankincense from the Boswellia plant "activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression" and may be a hitherto unexplored source of anti-anxiety medications. The biology is known:

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.

And now for the bad news:

Burning incense exposes people to dangerous levels of smoke laden with cancer-causing chemicals.

Lin's team collected air samples from inside and outside a temple in Tainan City and compared them to samples at a traffic intersection. Inside the temple, they found very high concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a large group of highly carcinogenic chemicals that are released when certain substances are burnt.

Lin now hopes to work with public health experts to see how much of the carcinogens reach the lungs of people in the temples. He plans to study the relationship between PAH concentrations in the air and PAH metabolites in temple keepers' urine

​

Sources:
1. Incensole acetate, an incense component, elicits psychoactivity by activating TRPV3 channels in the brain FASEB, May 20,2008 link
2. Incense burning releases cancer-causing chemicals. New Scientist. 01 August 2001 link

 

[spidergoat]

The solution is to extract the essential oils and vaporize them instead of burning it.

 

[draqon]

extract chemical and inject it?