What Is the Difference Between Boswellia and Frankincense?

Boswellia is the tree; frankincense is its resin. The genus Boswellia includes roughly 24 species of scraggly, drought-tolerant trees native to parts of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and India, and frankincense is the aromatic oleogum resin that oozes from their bark when it is cut or wounded.¹ In everyday language the two words often get swapped around, especially in supplement marketing and aromatherapy, and the confusion is understandable. But the distinction matters once you start comparing products, because what you actually get from “frankincense” versus a “Boswellia extract” can be chemically very different.

The Tree Versus the Product

Think of Boswellia the way you might think of the genus Citrus. Just as “citrus” refers to a group of trees and “orange juice” is one product from one species in that group, “Boswellia” refers to the biological genus while “frankincense” is one category of product harvested from it. The resin has been traded for thousands of years across Arabia, India, China, and East Africa, burned in religious ceremonies and used in traditional medicine long before anyone characterized its chemistry.¹

Where it gets confusing is that supplement labels frequently say “Boswellia” when they mean an extract of the frankincense resin, and essential oil labels say “frankincense oil” when they mean the steam-distilled volatile fraction of that same resin. Both start with the tree, but they end up as quite different substances. A Boswellia supplement capsule typically contains a concentrated extract standardized to boswellic acids, which are heavy, non-volatile triterpene compounds. A bottle of frankincense essential oil contains the lighter aromatic molecules driven off by steam and carries almost none of those boswellic acids. Same tree, same resin, but very different chemistry depending on the processing.

Not All Frankincense Is the Same

Because two dozen Boswellia species exist, the frankincense they produce varies enormously. The species you will encounter most often in commerce are Boswellia sacra (also called B. carteri by some botanists, from Somalia and the Arabian Peninsula), B. serrata (from India, the source of most supplement research), B. papyrifera (from Ethiopia and Eritrea), and B. frereana (prized for chewing in Somaliland). Researchers have identified more than 340 different volatile compounds across the genus, with the makeup shifting dramatically from one species to the next.²

This diversity means that a frankincense essential oil sourced from B. carteri can look completely different under chemical analysis from one sourced from B. serrata. An analysis of 20 commercial frankincense oils found that a single component, alpha-pinene, ranged from 2% to nearly 65% depending on the sample, while alpha-thujene ranged from less than 1% to over 52%.³ If you buy two bottles labeled “frankincense essential oil” from different suppliers, you might essentially be getting two different products. Species, geographic origin, harvest timing, and distillation method all play a role.

Frankincense Essential Oil Versus Boswellia Resin Extract

This is probably the most practically important distinction for anyone shopping for frankincense products. The essential oil and the resin extract are not interchangeable, despite both being sold under the frankincense umbrella.

Frankincense essential oil is produced by steam distillation. That process captures the lightweight, aromatic monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes, compounds like alpha-pinene, limonene, myrcene, and beta-caryophyllene.³ These molecules give frankincense its signature warm, resinous scent and are the reason people use the oil in diffusers and perfumery. One component found in frankincense resin, incensole acetate, has drawn research interest because it activates a specific channel in the brain linked to mood regulation. In mice, it produced anxiety-reducing and antidepressant-like effects, though translating rodent mood studies to humans is always a stretch.⁴

Boswellia resin extracts used in supplements, on the other hand, are typically solvent-extracted to concentrate the boswellic acids. These are pentacyclic triterpenes, far too heavy to evaporate during steam distillation, so they stay behind in the spent resin. Boswellic acids are the compounds behind most of the clinical research on anti-inflammatory effects. When a study reports that “Boswellia” reduced joint pain or calmed intestinal inflammation, it is almost always referring to an extract rich in these acids, not the essential oil. If someone is buying frankincense essential oil hoping to get the joint-health benefits seen in clinical trials, they are buying the wrong product.

How Boswellic Acids Work Against Inflammation

The most studied boswellic acid is a mouthful usually abbreviated AKBA. It works by directly blocking an enzyme involved in producing inflammatory molecules called leukotrienes. Importantly, it does this through a mechanism that is distinct from the way common anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen work. AKBA binds to its target enzyme at a site reserved for its particular molecular shape, not at the same site where the enzyme grabs its usual substrate.⁵ The inhibition is non-competitive, meaning the enzyme cannot simply overcome it by having more of its normal substrate around.⁶

Beyond that single enzyme, boswellic acids also appear to dial down inflammation through broader pathways. They can suppress the activation of a major inflammatory signaling hub that controls the production of numerous pro-inflammatory proteins.⁷ A recent review mapped out several overlapping pathways that boswellic acids influence, including ones tied to immune cell behavior and oxidative stress.⁸ In a trial involving patients with moderate COVID-19, a Boswellia-based supplement significantly lowered several inflammatory markers in the blood compared to placebo, with measurable decreases in the activity of that same inflammatory signaling pathway.⁹

Joint Pain and Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis is where the clinical evidence for Boswellia extract is strongest. A meta-analysis pooling data from multiple randomized trials found that Boswellia and its extracts reduced pain and stiffness and improved joint function compared to control groups.¹⁰ Individual trials have fleshed out those results. A pilot trial found that Boswellia serrata extract reduced pain and stiffness in knee osteoarthritis, improved physical function, and even showed improvements on X-ray, with reduced bone spurs and improved joint space. It also lowered a blood marker of inflammation.¹¹

A more recent multi-center trial tested two different doses and reported improvements in pain scores within five days of starting the supplement. By 90 days, the lower-dose group saw pain drop by about 45% and the higher-dose group by roughly 62%, with both groups also walking farther in a six-minute test. Blood markers of inflammation fell in both supplement groups, and no significant adverse events were recorded.¹² The speed of the response, within days rather than weeks, is unusual for a botanical supplement and has drawn interest from researchers looking at the underlying mechanism.

Gut and Airway Conditions

Boswellia has a long traditional history of use for inflammatory bowel conditions and respiratory complaints, but the modern evidence here is more mixed than for joint pain.

For Crohn’s disease, one clinical trial found that a Boswellia serrata extract performed comparably to a standard pharmaceutical treatment, with a slightly larger average improvement in disease activity scores and a favorable safety profile.¹³ But lab studies using mouse models of colitis painted a less rosy picture: Boswellia did not improve chemically induced colitis in those models, and at higher doses it showed signs of liver toxicity.¹⁴ A separate laboratory study found that Boswellia extract protected intestinal lining cells from inflammatory damage, suggesting the picture is not entirely negative.¹⁵ The takeaway for gut conditions is that the evidence is genuinely conflicting, not settled enough to make strong claims either way.

For asthma, a small double-blind trial found that about 70% of patients taking Boswellia resin showed improvement in symptoms and lung function over six weeks, compared to about 27% in the placebo group.¹⁶ Animal studies have supported the idea that boswellic acids reduce allergic airway inflammation, with one showing they suppressed the immune pathways driving allergic response in a dose-dependent way.¹⁷ Another mouse study found that oral Boswellia serrata reduced lung inflammation and even shifted the gut microbiome in ways associated with lower allergic responses.¹⁸ The asthma findings are encouraging but still rest on small human trials and animal work; this is an area that needs more robust clinical data.

The Bioavailability Problem

One reason Boswellia supplement results can seem inconsistent is that boswellic acids are poorly absorbed by the body on their own. They are fat-soluble compounds that do not dissolve well in the watery environment of the gut, so a large fraction of a standard dose passes through without ever reaching the bloodstream. This is a well-known challenge in the field, and supplement manufacturers have tried various approaches to get around it.

One formulation that has been studied pairs the Boswellia extract with a phospholipid carrier. In a head-to-head comparison, this delivery system produced blood levels of key boswellic acids up to seven times higher than the same dose of unformulated extract. Even more striking, brain concentrations of two important boswellic acids rose about 35-fold, and levels in the eyes, which have limited blood supply, rose about 17-fold.¹⁹ These are dramatic differences, and they underscore that two Boswellia supplements with identical amounts of boswellic acids on the label can perform very differently in your body depending on how they are formulated. If you are taking Boswellia for a specific health purpose, the formulation technology matters at least as much as the dose printed on the bottle.

Skin Applications

Boswellic acids have also been tested topically, and they appear to work through the skin without necessarily needing to reach the bloodstream. One study found that topical boswellic acids were as effective at reducing inflammation as the oral route, suggesting direct local absorption.²⁰ That finding has spawned interest in cosmetic applications. A trial on sun-damaged skin found that a topical cream containing boswellic acids improved elasticity, reduced fine lines and roughness, and was well tolerated with no adverse effects.²¹

Wound healing is another emerging area. In animal models, one boswellic acid form significantly sped up wound closure compared to controls, apparently by tamping down excessive inflammation in the wound bed and boosting growth factors involved in tissue repair. It also suppressed the overgrowth of scar-forming cells, which could have implications for reducing the kind of raised, thickened scars some people develop.²² These skin studies help explain why frankincense-derived ingredients keep showing up in high-end skincare lines, though the evidence base is still small enough that claims should be taken with a grain of resin.

Conservation and Overtapping

The global demand for frankincense, both as a raw resin and as ingredient for supplements and oils, puts real pressure on wild Boswellia populations. Some species are already in trouble. Boswellia ogadensis, found only in a small area of southern Ethiopia, was listed as critically endangered in 2018. Field surveys since then have found more trees than expected, but the species still faces threats from grazing, firewood harvesting, and insect attacks.²³

Overtapping is a particular concern. Frankincense is harvested by cutting into the bark and letting the resin bleed out, and when trees are tapped continuously without rest periods, they become significantly more vulnerable to longhorn beetle damage. One study found that trees tapped for a decade or more without rest suffered beetle damage rates as high as 80 to 90%, while trees given at least ten years of rest had markedly less damage.²⁴ For consumers who care about sustainability, this means that the cheapest frankincense on the market may come at a real ecological cost. Some suppliers have started marketing sustainably harvested resin, though third-party verification is still patchy.

Adulteration and Quality Control

Given the variation among species and the rising demand, frankincense products are ripe for adulteration and mislabeling. A comparative chemical analysis of 21 commercial frankincense essential oils alongside lab-distilled reference samples found that commercial products varied widely, raising questions about species authenticity and processing consistency.²⁵ A label saying “Boswellia carteri” does not guarantee that the oil inside came exclusively, or even primarily, from that species. Blending with cheaper resins or synthetic fragrance compounds is not uncommon in the essential oil market.

For supplement buyers, the concern is different but equally real. The boswellic acid content of raw frankincense resin varies by species, by harvest season, and by the age of the resin after collection. A supplement standardized to a specific percentage of boswellic acids gives you a more predictable product than a capsule of ground raw resin. If you see a product labeled simply “frankincense” without specifying which Boswellia species and without standardization to boswellic acid content, you have very little idea what you are actually getting. Look for products that name the species (usually B. serrata for clinical applications) and state a specific percentage of boswellic acids or AKBA.