Smoking francisense resin

[Mycotheologist]

3 weeks after quitting xanax, I made the mistake of taking phenibut for 2 days, I thought only taking it for 2 days would be fine but now I have depression and anxiety. Before that, I felt fine every day. I have some incense in my drawer and got the spontaneous urge to start smoking it. I know that frankincense contains an anxiolytic and antidepressant compound. I'm wondering if its safe to smoke francinense resin though. Safe as in, it won't cause damage to my lungs. Has anyone here tried this?

It tastes good and not too harsh on the throat but I reckon I'd need to smoke a lot of it to get the effects. Then again, if just breathing the smoke in a room causes a relaxing effect, its should be pretty potent. Sitting in a room with someone smoking a joint of cannabis doesn't cause any noticible effects but taking a single bong hit will cause very noticible effects.

Smoking frankicense definitely alters my state. It kinda dulled my senses and emotions. I'll have to keep experimenting with it before I draw any conclusions though.

 

[Hiltoniano]

Doesn't sound safe, considering what else could be in it. And the "relaxing" state that burning incense in a room can generate is not necessarily due to psychoactivity... But perhaps frankincense can get you a buzz I honestly don't know.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

OP what is your source for that information?

 

[NeighborhoodThreat]

I've never heard of that compound being psychoactive before...so yeah, what he said ^

 

[sekio]

Inhaling smoke is generally not a smart idea, for self evident reasons. The damage is likely to be rather mild though as nothing in incense is particularly vasoconstricting or full of nitrosamines. (unlike tobacco)

That said frankincense has been used for thousands of years as a compnent of incenses. The active component is incensole acetate, which is a known anxiolytic in mice.

Frankincense is definitely psychoactive, and likely rather nontoxic if used moderately.

While we're on the topic of resisns used in the Bible, myrrh contains terpenoids that are thought to act as opioid receptor modulators and have mild painkiller effects. It's another gum worth looking into that smells nice as incense and is mildly psychoactive. Both these gums have been used for 100s of years in various traditional medicines.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

interesting

I don't mean to hijack the thread but are their any anecdotal or otherwise evidence of effects such as a noticeable "high" produced or is the subjective effect thought to be hardly threshold beyond the scent? As in how strongly is the compound a modulator.

 

[Psychedelic Jay]

How about you vaporize it... I think it will be way more effective.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

So is this pure frankincense resin? Or a commercial incense blend? Because I think that would make a difference in the safety and efficacy. Plus not all incense sold as frankincense even contains the real thing, so I'd make sure I had a reliable supply.

Frankincense is used for all sorts of things, from religious rituals to treating cancer. As for the psychoactive effects, here's a quote from an article in Science Daily:

To determine the 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.

There are also something like 30 other compounds in frankincense so the incensole may be just the tip of the iceberg. On a psycho-emotional level, frankincense is said by many to to ease depression and mental anxiety, have a warming, soothing effect on the mind, release tensions and nervousness and allow for a deeper more calming breath to enter the lungs.

I also read one article from an Arab University that said that when burned frankincense produces another psychoactive chemical called trahydrocannabinole which "expands consciousness", but I couldn't find any info about this anywhere else (other than less reliable sources making this same statement - some sites attribute it to a supposed study in 1981 by the Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, Germany. "Trahydrocannabinole" sounds a lot like tetrahydrocannabinol aka THC. I have also read that frankincense binds to cannabinoid receptors but again, I haven't been able to find a reliable scientific source for this claim.

As far as the risks from smoking frankincense, I assume it would be about the same as inhaling a lot of smoke from the air while burning it as an incense - which to my knowledge is not much of a risk, although there have been some concerns that it might perhaps be somewhat addictive. I'm not sure how pleasant smoking it would be, I've heard people who tried smoking it said it was fine and surprisingly smooth, but some people might be more sensitive to the smoke than others. You could always try vaporizing it or eating it. You can eat pure frankincense resin or consume the essential oil.