This is long post. If you don't have time to read my musings about frankincense, but just want some recommendations on where to buy it, skip to the end. You're busy, I get it. But if you have time to read some of what I have learned about frankincense over the years, please enjoy this post and read it all! It might make you think more about who you buy from and how much you buy.
Where does Frankincense Come From?
- Boswellia trees have a wound defense mechanism that produces a sap that turns into resin. This resin is Frankincense, and is further turned into other prized products.
Where do Boswellia Trees Grow?
- Over a dozen Boswellia tree species grow naturally along these third-world areas (see Figure 1, image D for a super cool map) of Africa and Asia. In Africa, these trees are family-owned, family-operated, and family-harvested. As a result of some things going wrong (see below), some people believe that many of the Boswellia species are in danger.
- Did you know that a few Boswellia trees are growing successfully in Arizona and Florida by individuals who love the species and are trying to preserve them?
- Perhaps they could also be grown in the deserts of California, Texas, Mexico, Brazil, Corsica, and South America!
How is Frankincense harvested?
- Hardworking, third-world persons face the harsh elements (including hiking and climbing long distances) to travel to the places where the Boswellia trees grow, and then strategically cut the trees to trigger the Boswellia trees to send their sap to fix their wounds.
- Then they wait (often camping nearby) for the frankincense resin to be hard enough to collect.
- Then the collection begins.
- With their precious resin collected, these persons sell it individually or combine their harvest with others sell it as a community, co-op, ect. to big suppliers (or sometimes direct buyers).
- Then the resins often go through many sorting and trading hands before they end up on your doorstep.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
- Fair trade practices are ignored or implemented improperly.
- Exploitation of women sorters.
- Tree mismanagement (either improper tree care or overharvesting)
- Thieves (harms both people and trees)
- Drought
- Animal foraging and trampling
- Pest infestation (burrowing beetles)
- Deforestation
- War
- Can you think of anything else that might go wrong? Comment below.
doTERRA; An Example of Fair Trade Gone Wrong!
So, doTERRA is a mega-producer of essential oils. They do try to care about fair-trade and sustainability. But frankincense is one oil that they just plain messed up in, and they messed up so bad, for so many years, that I predict they will forever rue the day they partnered with a crook. I'm not going to go into all the details (maybe I will in later post). You can read more about it here.
Basically, doTERRA handed over a huge sum of money to Asli Maydi company with the charge to fairly pay all those involved in the harvest and sorting of the frankincense resins of Somaliland, build and maintain a hospital, and some schools. Then they posted all sorts of claims about fairness and sustainability and traceability on their website.
What really happened is that the Asli Maydi owner (Barkhad Hassan) was actually a crook who mishandled the money, the trees, the people, and the charity builds.
And while the sadder-but-wiser doTERRA is trying rectify the situation, how can you fix YEARS worth of mismanagement, poor trade, and exploitation of people and trees? doTERRA is in over their heads and not truly repairing or back-paying any of the harvesters or sorters. Why? Because surprise, surprise, that information wasn't properly documented in the first place because they put their trust in corrupt people to do it for them!
Trade Smaller and Better
While I wish I could say that this doTERRA fiasco is the exception rather than the norm, how are we to really know. The most important parts (harvesting and sorting) of the trade are basically untraceable and unregulatable IF your are buying mass quantities of resin. Truly, the only way to trace better is to trade on a smaller, more personal scale. And that drives up the price. But if the price isn't driven up, then who is really paying for the true price of frankincense? It's the caretakers, harvesters, and sorters who truly pay the most! They truly have earned a fair wage. It is time to start paying it.
So as we forward into my recommendations of where to buy frankincense, I plead with you to:
- Buy with awareness of the trade and the species and a purpose.
- Use your purchase of frankincense sparingly.
Now getting back to what brought you here is the first place, buying frankincense.
The Best Frankincense Resin Sellers of 2024:
Boswellness: My number one recommendation to buy the frankincense resins of Carterii and Frereana is Boswellness. Boswellness is actually making a difference in Somaliland, and has been even before doTerra dominated the Somaliland market. That is something that Somaliland desperately needs after doTerra's corrupt EX-supplier Barkhad Hassan massively ripped off any tribe of Somaliland that he traded with, and then fled the country.
Apothecary’s Garden: Dan Riegler is a thousand times more knowledgeable and in love with frankincense than I will ever be! He sells 17 different types of frankincense resins. If your looking to expand your resin collection past the typical Carterii, Frereana, and Sacra, then Dan's the man! He also is one that freely shares his knowledge of how to use these resins.
Mountain Rose Herbs: For frankincense resins of Sacra.
The Best Frankincense Essential Oils of 2024:
I need to preface this by letting you know that if you are buying frankincense for any illness related to inflammation, you would be better served to utitlize the whole resin, as the essential oil does not retain any boswellic acids.
The only companies I am including in this showdown are Plant Therapy, Revive, and Edens Garden (they offer free shipping and can compete with Amazon). These calculations are based on the gc/ms reports of what they currently have in stock. For a time, I was wary of Revive, but they are now being tested by Robert Pappas once again, so are back on my good side. Other companies that I would trust include Nature's Gift, Eden Botanicals, Kokokahn, Desrosiers International, and Rocky Mountain Oils.
Frankincense Serrata Winner: Tie between Edens Garden and the organic version Plant Therapy.
Frankincense Carterii Winner: Tie between Revive (not the certified one) and Edens Garden.
Frankincense Sacra Winner: Revive
Frankincense C02 is another realm entirely, and I don't know how to effectively judge those. But the one from Edens Garden had 20.38% Serratol, which is jaw-dropping and almost scary medically.
