northstar
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7911
posted
(Note: the introductory sentence inappropriately generalizes frankincense to all incenses. The study only refers to frankincense)
Public release date: 20-May-2008
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Incense is psychoactive: Scientists identify the biology behind the ceremony
New study in the FASEB Journal shows how and why molecules released from burning incense in religious ceremonies alleviate anxiety and depression
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.
###
The FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org) is published by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and is consistently ranked among the top three biology journals worldwide by the Institute for Scientific Information.
FASEB comprises 21 nonprofit societies with more than 80,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States.
FASEB advances biological science through collaborative advocacy for research policies that promote scientific progress and education and lead to improvements in human health.
Article details: Incensole acetate, an incense component, elicits psychoactivity by activating TRPV3 channels in the brain.
Arieh Moussaieff, Neta Rimmerman, Tatiana Bregman, Alex Straiker, Christian C. Felder, Shai Shoham, Yoel Kashman, Susan M. Huang, Hyosang Lee, Esther Shohami, Ken Mackie, Michael J. Caterina, J. Michael Walker, Ester Fride, and Raphael Mechoulam.
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic