January 21, 2025 • 55 mins
This episode will be looking at another traditional herb of the world: Boswellia serrata or Indian frankincense, an important Ayurvedic herb for treating inflammation and other conditions. As always, we will do our deep dive into this herb and look at its traditional uses, does it have any Chinese medical functions, and its preparation, interactions, and cautions. And, as usual, we will be adding something a little different…well actually maybe a lot different…as herbalists (and practitioners in general), we run businesses and writing a business plan is the most important thing to do to ensure or continue success...So we are going to look at business planning excuses. Each episode of the podcast will go into great depth about a single herb or formula. Besides covering the basics of herbology including category, and functions, we will explore the history, quality, science, pharmacology, evidence, and any potential interactions of each herb or formula. Please join us as we look at Boswellia serrata or Indian Frankincense. It is going to be another interesting sojourn into the depths of herbdom…please keep listening!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
That Angelica. Okay, well, thank you very much for joining
us for a seventy sixth episode of Sperbs Herbs. Today
we're doing a herb of the world, Indian frankincense, also
known as Boswelia serrata. I as always am your presenter,
(00:25):
Doctor Greg Sperber, And without further ado, let's figure out
what we're doing today. So today's episode we'll be looking
at another traditional herb of the world, Indian frankincense. As always,
we will do our deep dive into this herb and
look at its traditional uses, does it have any Chinese
medical functions, and its preparation interactions and cautions, And as
(00:50):
usual we will be adding something a little different, well
actually maybe a lot different. As herbalists and practitioners in general,
whatever we're practitioning, we run businesses, and writing a business
plan is the most important thing to do to ensure
or continue success. So we're going to look at business
(01:10):
planning excuses. It's going to be another interesting sojourn into
the depths of herbdom. Please keep listening. Before we get
into all that, I just wanted to let you know
I have you probably know this. I've been teaching for
quite a while now. It's going on man almost twenty
(01:30):
five thirty years on a wide variety of topics. If
you like this podcast and want to explore more of
my courses, they are available at www dot Integrative Medicinecouncil
dot org. That's Integrative Medicine Council coou Ncil dot org
and include a ton of different topics, including my drug
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rab series looking at drugs and how they interact with
herbs and vice versa, several ethics and safety courses, Chinese
medical research, several treatment of condition courses such as arthritia,
conditions courses such as arthritis, neck and back pain, COVID
and depression anxiety. Those are just examples. I have a
lot more of them than that. And one of my
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(02:34):
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that code. I hope to see you too. Thanks. So
let's talk about business planning excuses. This is from an
(02:58):
article I wrote for the California Journal of Oriental Medicine
now known as the Journal of Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine,
and it kind of goes in and assumes that we
understand to a certain extent why business planning is important.
Study after study has shown that if there's one thing
(03:18):
people who are building a business do to increase their
chances of success is to write a business by Now,
there's this informal number out there, and honestly I tried
to find it, so I could not find it. But
you hear about it everywhere. One out of five businesses
will go out of business. I've heard in the first year,
(03:40):
I've heard in the first five years, whatever it is,
but one out of five. That's a lot of failure.
And so what can you do to make it better?
Of course, business plan, But there's lots of excuses to
prevent from business plan to prevent yourself from business planning.
So let's talk about that. So business planning is one
of the most neglected aspects of running a business, and
yet study after study has shown that there is no
(04:02):
better predictor of success or failure. Those businesses with a
business plan have a much higher probability of success than
those without one. So why doesn't every new or existing acupuncturist,
or herbalist or practitioner have a business plan? And there
are many reasons for this. One of the biggest reasons
(04:23):
is time. There's never enough time to develop a business plan.
As a student, you have to spend your time writing
that paper or studying for that upcoming test. As a practitioner,
you have all that paperwork, and you need to spend
time with your current patients and getting new ones. And
let's not forget the demands of family and significant others.
But and this is a big butt nothing nothing has
(04:47):
been shown to have as big an impact on your business.
So can't you take a weekend or an hour here
and there, a few times a week and make writing
down a few parts of a plan the most important
priority actually for your future. A few weeks of steady
work can yield a passable business plan. Doesn't have to
(05:08):
be a work of art. It just has to be passable.
That reminds me. There's a there's an old joke and
we would say in medical school to our students. You
know when when I was a medical school, between the students,
we'd say, you know what do they call the person
who is dead lasting class? And the answer is doctor?
(05:28):
As long as they passed there doctors. So and believe me,
there are a few I wish weren't, but moving on.
So you know, the point is that a few weeks
of city work can yield a passable business plan. That's
the goal, not a perfect business plan. You're not going
out and hopefully he might be, but you're not going
out and trying to get a venture capital. It doesn't
have to be a top notched business plan, just needs
(05:49):
to be something that's guiding you. So other hurdles to
the development of a business plan are psychological hurdles. One
often positive by students is I'm not much of a planner.
I just us wing most things in my life and
they usually do okay with that, but they can do better.
This lament usually means means they are afraid to commit
(06:10):
to anything because they may fail. Fear of failure is
incredibly common isn't it ironic that the one thing they
can do to minimize the occurrence of failure is something
they are afraid of undertaking because it might highlight or
demonstrate their failure. The best antidote to this is to
think of a business plan as a rough outline. It
(06:31):
can be huge, it can be small. It can be
very formal or on the back of a napkin. It
can be anything as long as it is written down.
Make it a work of art, just includes some concrete information.
In other words, make it part of conquering your fear
of failure, not a concrete example of it. Another psychological
(06:54):
hurdle is the fear of money. I think this is
really common in all of our professions. We'd rather help
people than worry about the money aspects of things. But
that is the beauty of a business plan. It can
be about anything you would like. Is travel more important
than money? Great? Make it part of your plan. Is
your practice about being able to work part time at
(07:16):
a little income and be able to spend as much
time as possible with the kids, great, put it in
the plan. While money needs to be discussed in most
business plans, it doesn't need to be the main issue.
A small business's business plan is as much a life
plan for the owner as it is a business plan.
(07:36):
Sometimes practitioners who have been in business for a few
years or longer feel like they don't need a business
plan hogwash. Well they I just like the word hogwash,
so I through that. While they may be quite successful,
there are always way to streamline and make your business
more efficient, more profitable, and less time consuming. And these
(07:58):
ideas and goals often come from a good business plan.
Do you want to buy the building your practices in?
What about spend more time on vacation or on a
hobby plan for it. One of the best reasons quote
unquote for not doing a business plan is the I
don't have enough business knowledge excuse. So when are you
(08:20):
going to learn business when you have a lease in
overhead to worry about? When you can't sleep at night
because you don't have enough patience? I believe me. I've
consulted with a lot of with several of those ecupuncturists desperate.
I love one of them. He was desperate and he
he just he took me out for lunch, just wanted
to pick my brain. I was happy to help him.
He wasn't a student of mine. I taught this in school,
(08:42):
so you know a lot of them were students. This
was someone who came before I was teaching and just
wanted some advice, and I gave him some advice. I
don't know what he took. I don't know what he
didn't take. All I know is it's been a long
time later and he's very successful. So you know you
can be very successful in these things. The best way
(09:03):
to learn about business is to create a business plan.
A good business plan will take you through all the
necessary knowledge to run a good practice. Just a book.
Just get a good book on business planning. The question is,
would you rather learn about business when your money is
on the line and you are scrambling to get patients
and pay the bills, or before when you can take
(09:24):
your time and learn basic business concepts. The reality is
you're going to need to know these concepts if your
practice is going to be successful. You have little control
over that fact, but you do control how you learn
these concepts. And believe me, a lot of people learn
them by mistakes. So they do something wrong, they have
enough wherewithal to be able to correct. First of all,
(09:45):
they're open enough to the correction. Second, all they have
enough resources to weather the downside and then they can
learn from their mistakes. But that's a lot, and we
all are going to do that. If you're in business,
you're going to make mistakes, and things are and go wrong.
But when you have a business plan, those mistakes hopefully
don't go as wrong as as bad as it could be.
(10:09):
If you have a businessman can mitigate that. I have
a comment here from Magia says, thanks for reminding us.
We had a business plan writing class in acupuncture school
at a AI m C Berkeley. Me and my partner
are currently expanding on our acupuncture clinic in Oakland, and
it's hard to find time to write a new plan.
I'll write some works of art on a napkin in
between patient cu classes and taxes. Thank you again for
(10:33):
reminding us. You know one of the things that when
I used to teach this, You know, so I made
a business plan the center of how I taught practice management.
When I taught practice manager for many many years, and
I because of business plan, a lot of reading, a
lot of grading. So I always had an assistant in
that class. One of my assistants had an MBA which
I do as well. And she was wonderful. She was
(10:56):
very successful in her practices, and she would start a practice,
build it up, do really well, and then kind of
move and have to restart it. And she did well
in all of those. And one of the things she'd
always say to the students at the beginning of this
class is like, look, every time I am in this class,
I learned something new. And I think more than learn
something new, it's more like reminded of something old and
(11:17):
that you know, every time I teach this stuff, I'm
reminded of something I should be doing that I'm not doing,
or I should be doing better. Every time I teach.
Almost every time I teach a course, I do that.
It's not that I don't know it, it's that I
just need a reminder. So this is great, Thank you, Maja.
I appreciate that feedback. So. Other hurdles of starting to
(11:38):
write a business plan include the I am not a
good writer excuse. Well, that's okay. You can make it
so only you are going to see it, or make
this an excuse to get another's input on the plan.
That's great idea, by the way, is get other people
to give you some input on the plan. People. Hopefully
you know a little something about business, especially the business
you're going in, like herbs or acupuncture or whatever you
(12:00):
know doing medicine of some sort. Another fear that often
comes up is the fear of undertaking a huge project.
In this case, think of it as a small project.
Make it your goal to do a three or five
page business plan rather than a fifty page one. You
can always add to it if you want to, or
(12:20):
if your heart is set on a thorough business plan,
chunk it down into smaller parts. Do the company plan
a page or two, then do the technology plan another
page or two, then the marketing plan. Just chunk it down.
Before you know it, you will have a large and
thorough plan if that's what you want. One of the
best ways overall to motivate one into doing a plan
(12:43):
is to do it with someone else. If you have
a partner or partners, build it together. If you don't
have partners, do it with a classmate or colleague. You
don't have to share info if you don't want, but
getting together for a few hours a week or keeping
each other on a schedule is valuable. Find a business
coach that will help keep you motivated go to score.
(13:05):
This is in the US the Service Corp of Retired
Executives or organization like it, who have free services to help. Now,
there's lots of consultants that will help. Some of them,
I'm sure are very good. A lot of them they're
in the business of selling their services, not necessarily providing them,
so you got to be careful if you're gonna end.
(13:27):
They can be very expensive and much whether you win.
You can find better the Service Corp of Retired Executives.
These are people who know what they're doing and have
done it can really help you in your process, especially
if you're lacking some of the basic business information. That's
they're fantastic, and there's other free services out there to
help you as well, so look for the free before
you start paying the astronomical. The only caveat is that
(13:51):
you are really the only person who can write your
business plans. So that's the one thing I never recommend
is that you actually pay for someone else to write
your business plan, because someone else to write it means
that you will probably not understand it and won't implement it.
You've got to write it. That's the process that counts
as not the business plan. Now, if you're going for
a big venture capital and all that sort of stuff,
(14:13):
you want to make it nice and slick. Okay, maybe
pay someone to polish it. I wouldn't have them write
it still and to make it that way, But most
of us aren't going to be doing that. So don't
pay someone to write a business plan. It's expensive and
it's useless. It really is. I've never seen someone else
write a business plan and then have it actually implemented.
(14:35):
There are those practitioners who didn't have a business plan
and have wildly successful practices and who think planning is
completely unnecessary. There are always a few of these people around,
and this author salutes them. It's not easy to do that.
There are always exceptions to the rules and exceptions to
some of the statements in this article, But for the
(14:55):
vast majority of people, the concepts espoused here and the
necessity of the business plan are immutable. Think of the
successful non planners as the exceptions that prove the rule.
Don't don't put them up as role models. Just look
at them as the outliers that they actually are. So
(15:17):
this was about getting over those hurdles that may prevent
us from starting to write a business plan, So don't hesitate,
just do it. Don't make it a big deal. It
will know of the there's a big movement a few
years ago. There's a big movement of the one page
business plan. How nice is that one page business plan?
So it doesn't have to be super mega, massive, magnificent,
but it does get some stuff down on a piece
(15:38):
of paper and helps you do your business better. It
will help you become more successful in any endeavor. I'll
tell you what. Going through the business planning process, you
learn so much and you learn how things work. It
if you never implement that plan, I cannot tell you
how many business plans I've made and not actually implemented.
(15:58):
And I have learned so much from doing the business plants,
so I don't have any problems. I don't feel like
it's a waste of time or anything like that. It's fantastic.
So with that little or not so little, something different,
let's get into today's herb. So today's RB is Boswelia
serrata or Indian frunkinsense. If you watch Young Frankenstein. If
(16:24):
you haven't watched Young Frankenstein, Frankenstein, excuse me, you should
watch it. It's classic, so I want to start by
discussing this herb in relation to Chinese medicine. Boswelia serrata
is an important Indian hiervetic herb, and we will discuss
its role in that medical system a lot today. While
starting my research on this herb, it is often confused,
(16:46):
combined or even just substituted for the Chinese RB Rushiang
or Boswelia cardii bmn W, which is initials for the
botanist who who categorized it. These are not the same
herb or species. In fact, Boswelia serrata is not listed
as an alternative species for ruschiang at all, though sometimes
(17:08):
rushiang are technically Boswelia cardio carteria i have seen as
an alternative species or at least a substitute for Boswelia serrata.
So they're similar. Having said that, they do have similar
constituents and functions and probably could be used close to interchangeably,
at least from a modern medical perspective, not necessarily from
(17:29):
a traditional perspective, but from its functional modern medical functional perspective.
The bottom line is these are similar, but not the
same species. So let's dive into Boswelia serrata comes from
the family Burserasia, and the species is Boswelia serrata rocks
(17:53):
b x coal br so roxb period x col e
b r period. Now that rocksby x clober is culiber is.
Those are are like I said, those are abbreviations of
botanist names that actually categorize this. And you can find
(18:15):
a list of of what the acronym or what the
the shortened version is to the actual botanists. So those
are available. You can just put it into Google or
into the Google machine and and come up with that.
The medicinal part, generally, especially when we're talking frankincense, Uh,
the medicinal part we're looking at is called is the
(18:36):
resin under the bark. But the bark itself also has
medicinal properties, and we'll talk a little bit about that
as well. So other names for this is Boswela boswell
in boswell and Serrata resin. So as soon as you
say Boswela buzwellan, I'm a little bit worried about confusing
with Boswelia cardii, which is the other type of of
(18:58):
So this is Indian frank concense. The Boswelia cardi I
believe it's just frank and sense's regular franking sense, at
least from our perspective in the West. And so you know,
as soon as you say generally like Boswela boswell and
there can be some confusion. So Buzbila and the Serrata
residence sounds good. There's a lot of of Hindu and
Indian names. We have Gadja, BASCHIAI again, please forgive my pronunciation.
(19:25):
It's also sometimes just called incense tree or Indian a
libinum A libinum is is is basically a resin sort
of thing. It's also Sali Google Sali, Google ones with
an ale, ones with a u l, Salakai google Shalakai, Soushrava, Subaha, Surabi, Maharuna, Kundruki,
(19:50):
and Valakai are blaki. And again I don't know the
pronunciations of these. So let's talk a little bit about
the Bursarasier family. Broserace family is also known as the
Frankincense and Murr family, so those are often combined. And
you know, in the Bible, Franken sense and murror were
gifts given to the parents of Jesus, so Franken sense
(20:13):
of mr Family torturored family or incense tree families, so
lots of different names and includes shrubs and trees. They
contain seventeen to nineteen genera and around five hundred and
forty species. The reason why I always like to be
a little inexact with these genera and species is every
source they look at has slightly different numbers in this
(20:34):
and part of it is they may be one hundred
percent accurate when they wrote it, but this stuff changes,
I understand it's fairly commonly within a couple of years.
These things change all around, and different genera go into
different families. It can be very confusing. So that's why
I'm like containing seventeen to nineteen genera and around five
hundred and forty species, and are native to Africa, Asia, Australasia,
(21:00):
in the Americas, and they tend to be associated with
tropical areas. They have a question from Ralph is this
the most used, is the most the most famous? Frank
sense it is not that I believe that's through Chang.
That's the Frankancense Cardia cardii. There are other species too,
(21:20):
of of of Bosuelia so but this one in particular
is generally very commonly used. We're going to see it's
a very important iervetic herb, but it is not the
common frankincense. So back to the Verrier bursarasse family. Their
distinctive characteristics are there generally non allergenic resin they produce
(21:45):
virtually all plant tissue, and their distinctive smooth yet flaking
aromatic bark. History of this herb, so according to Sidiqui,
which was a good review article on this, on this
specific or Buzzwelia serrata was first mentioned in two of
the most ancient Iabtic texts, the Characa some Hita or
(22:07):
a Compendium of Characa and Soshruda some Hita Shrudo's compendium.
The Characa Samhita was said to be written somewhere between
the fourth century BCE and the second century. See, when
you see something that long six hundred years, what that
probably means is that someone it was. It may be
(22:30):
a compilation, it may be several authors over those centuries.
So it's a little bit hard to be exact. And
we see that a lot in Western literature too, is
it can take a while. Like you know, for example,
the hippocratic Orpus corpus. You know Hippocrates, you know, was
written over a long period of time, longer than Hippocrates
(22:51):
was alive, and was probably contributed to by a lot
of his students, So you know, we don't know exactly.
So that's the Taraka Samhita from the fourth century sea BC.
The second century c Sushruda Samhita was compiled somewhere between
the last couple of centuries BCE to the first couple CE,
so again ab up to four hundred years or so.
(23:12):
A cidiqui dates these two books to seven hundred and
six hundred BCE, respectively. That that seems to be a
little extreme in its dating, and it was not supported by
other sources. When I looked at other sources, I usually
got much more close to like first and second century CE,
with a couple of them saying a few hundred centuries before.
(23:33):
So nothing six hundred so hundred BCE way too long
traditional uses. So this is primarily an I are Vedic
herb and therefore what we'll be referring to some specific
properties we have discussed in previous episodes, specifically in episode
eight where we discussed off Ashwa Gandha and episode twenty
(23:55):
three when we looked at trifala, both of which of
course are or Indian herbs. We've done other Indian herbs
as well, but we kind of went into those those
basic properties in those two episodes. Basuelia Serrata's basic aabatic
properties include its rosser or taste is kashaya or estringen,
(24:17):
tikta or bitter, and madeir or sweet. Again please forgive
my pronunciations. Guna or qualities include lagu or light and
rugsha or dry. The viria or energy is ushna or hot.
The paka or post digestive effect is katu or pungent,
(24:39):
and the dasher constitution is that it balances both kafa
and pitta. And these are according to Sodi. That's I
have a few textbooks that I use for aavetic medicine.
Sodi is is it's aerbatic herbs is the name of
the book, and it's a little bit more modern, but
(25:03):
it seems to be a good source. The website www
dot Eazyireveda dot com says the resident of this herb
is used for juara or fever, sweda or excess sweating,
graha alakshmi for psychological disorders and mukuraga or oral disorders.
(25:27):
They continue to refer to several texts and their uses
of this herb and they use the traditional term Salakai here.
According to Traka se he don't remember that's one of
the books that this was first mentioned in. Salakai is
explained in part written by JD. D. Kind of drag Dalabala.
(25:52):
He has categorized it as shiro via chinia or cleansing
nasal therapy, which makes sense. It's a very it's used
as incense. It's a very aromatic herb, and also puri
shiva genia or detoxifying stool and restoring the natural color
(26:14):
of stools, so helpful for stools. According to Shushida Samhita.
Shashida has cited it as stambana i anti diarrheal is mentioned.
It's use in cough asthma, blood and stool pain in
the region of the bladder, et cetera. There are a
few other things they mentioned as well. According to ask
(26:37):
Taka rad Daya, which is also a very famous and
older medical book in Iabadic medicine, Sakai can be used
in rudu kind of smoke, so rudu actually refers to
smoke basically fumigation for shaman type of dumapana which is
(26:59):
in inhalation of smoke confumes and also in ulcers after souturing.
Sodella I said that salaki can be used in diabetes
and pain and rushana russhana v r a s h
a n a. I don't know what that refers to.
Baba mishra in Baba Prakash Gantu has mentioned uses therapeutically
(27:24):
and chronic indep wounds is ganda Mala granthi sen sandi
vata ash as this husham ath, this hosham ricketts and
in foul breath. According to Pria Negantu, Salakai is used
especially in yoni roga or vaginal design vagina disorders and
(27:49):
do peranatha do panartha or fumigation, so it's used in
fumication smoke. Again, incense makes sense, Sidiqui says. In addition
to its beneficial use for arthritis, this gummy resin is
also mentioned in traditional aerveatic and new non intexts as
an effective remedy for diarrhea, dysentery, ringworm boils, fevers, antiporetic
(28:15):
skin and blood diseases, cardiovascar diseases, mouth sores, bad throat, bronchitis, asthma, cough,
vaginal discharges, hair loss, jaundice, hemorrhoids, cephalitic diseases, irregular mensis,
and stimulation of liver. It is also diaphyretic, meaning it
causes sweating, astringent diuretic, causes urination, and acts both as
(28:41):
internal and external stimulant. It is stimulant as well. In
the Yoga of Herbs and Iarebetic Guide to Herbal Medicine
by Frauleian lad It says this is a resin related
to Google or frankincense. So Google frank consense is the
more traditional frank in sense that we know, and MR,
(29:03):
so it is reson related to Google and MR, both
of which are in the same family and used for
similar purposes of cleansing the blood, encountering arthritic pain. That's
what I hear over and over again, is that arthritic pain.
We're going to see that again in just a minute.
It also aids in the healing of soft tissue injuries.
It is It's cooling nature makes it particularly good for
(29:26):
inflamed and swollen joints. When there is some pitta involvement SODI. Again,
that's the Iravetic Herbs textbook, so SODI simply states Boswelia
serrata or salai is one of Ireveda's most potent anti
inflammatory herbs, used both externally and internally to treat rheumatoid arthritis,
(29:48):
back pain, fibrositis, and osteoarthritis. So really useful as an
anti inflammatory. While we have focused on the resin of
Buswuelia serrata, it's bark is also used medicinally. According to
that website www dot ezreveda dot com, the bark is
(30:12):
push decrute, improves nourishment and grahey, absorbent and useful in
diarrhea and IBS irritable bowel syndrome. It can be used
for the following atisara, diarrhea and dysentery rochtapida, bleeding disorders
such as nasal bleeding, heavy periods, et cetera, varana, ulcers
and wounds. Kushta known to cure skin diseases, Azra blood
(30:38):
disorders such as abscesses, skin disorders, bleeding disorders such as minerajia,
nasal bleeding, et cetera, Arsha for hemorrhoids, Rnado Shahara cleanses
wounds and shula for pain. That's pain dosage in preparation.
(31:02):
Www dot easyervated dot com states the dosage is fifteen
to one hundred millimeters of bark decoction and one to
three grams of the gum. Now, not a huge fan
of bark decoction as an explanation here, because it doesn't
tell us how to do the decoction. It doesn't tell
us the strength of the decoction. I don't know what
fifty to one hundred millimeters of bark decoction actually means.
(31:24):
I mean, normally a decoction is just boiling of the
herb in water and then drinking the strainia and drinking
the tea afterwards, the decoction afterwards. But in Chinese medicine
we're kind of specific exactly how decoctions are made, though
there's definitely some leeway and practitioners often have their own
(31:45):
ways to do it. But one hundred millimeters is not
much from a Chinese point of view, and Chinese we
often say, like, you know, take three cups, boil it
on until it's down to two cups, and then do
it again until it's down to one cup, so you
have three cups and then take one cup three times
a day or something along those lines. So one hundred
(32:06):
milli liters is a lot less than is a half
a cup, so that seems like a small amount, But
I don't know. We do formulas too, rather than just
having a single herb too, so maybe that's about right.
Sidiqui gives a less useful but more accurate summary of dosage.
Boswelia is generally taken as a capsule, tablet or it's
bark decoction, orally. The recommended dosage is based on historical
(32:30):
practice or available trials. Presently, it is not clear that
the optimal dose is to balance safety and efficacy. The
manufacturing of boswelia products varies from one product to the other,
and this makes it even more difficult for standardization to happen.
Continuing with dosage and preparation, health Line which is usually
(32:53):
a pretty good source. It's a little basic and scientific,
but it's still it's searched. So Helpline says general dosent
guidelines suggests taking three hundred to five hundred milligrams by
mouth two to three times a day. The dosage may
need to be higher for IBD, so that's inflammatory bowl
(33:13):
bal on disorders to disease falling in LAD. That's the
one of the iabetic texts say dosing is two hundred
and fifty milligrams to one gram of purified powder. So
he says two to three grams of gum resin one
to one point five millimeters of oil. So he talks
(33:33):
a little bit about the essential oil. And I love this.
Fifty six to one hundred and twelve milli liters of
bark decoction. There's got to be some sort of traditional
measurement that that refers to. Those are odd numbers, fifty six,
two hundred and twelve and three hundred milligrams three times
per day of a standardized extract of fifty percent bosolic acid.
(33:55):
We're going to find bosolic acids. There's actually several of them.
Are probably the active ingredient and the ingredients in this
In this particular herb quality wweasyirivida dot com website, discusses
the quality of Bosuelia serrata. According to modern system. Four
(34:19):
grades of gum resin are available. Super fine grade is translucent,
very light yellow in color, free from bark and other impurities.
Qualities one I think it means. First quality is brownish yellow,
less translucent and free from barking impurities qualities. Two is
brownish semi translucent, it may have some impurities and qualities.
(34:41):
Three is dark brown, opaque and with impurities. So Chinese
medical actions so, as mentioned initially, the Chinese are Ruschiang
is a different species, that's Boswelia cardii bmn W. However,
it appears they have similar actions, and I was unable
(35:02):
to find anything specific about Chinese properties at Barswelia serrata.
Rushiang is acrid and bitter and warm and enters the heart, liver,
and spleen. Its functions seem pretty similar to our herb today.
It invigorates the blood and promotes the movement of cheek.
Those are the sort of things we would do to
treat arthritis and inflammation and things like that, so it
makes sense that it would be similar. Relaxes the sinews,
(35:24):
invigorates the channels and alleviates pain and reduces swelling and
generates flesh. Again, very similar to a lot of these
traditional functions that we're actually discussing. So even if ruschiang,
you know, the functions, is not, Rushiang is a different herb.
It's pretty similar, I think in how this herb would
(35:45):
be viewed from a Chinese medical point of view. Comparisons
and combinations. There weren't any direct comparisons for the serb
in our literature searches. I just couldn't find anything that said, hey,
this herb is like this, or this herb is better
for this matter, but that is better for this doesn't.
I didn't find any of that stuff, and I usually do,
so it's a little surprising that I didn't. However, there
(36:06):
were several combinations discussed. Sodi says Boswelia's effects are enhanced
when it is combined with zingibar, a fishinale uh in
in in Indian or Hindi, it's shunti or ginger. This
is ginger. Now I don't know if it's fresh ginger
or dry ginger and Chinese medicine that makes a difference,
(36:28):
but just says combined with ginger, and generally I think
it's probably a power so it's probably dried, but there
you go. So it's the effects are enhancement is combined
with ginger, curcuma, langam or kurkuma, and in modern ira Veda,
bromelaine is also added in. He also commonly combines it
with with Thania somnifera, which is Ashwa Ganda, calling in
(36:51):
all of these herbs his basic boswelia protocol and he
does use it. It's an important protocol for him. Planet
are Vida, which is another website, emphasizes the combination of
Boswelia serrata and curcumen, especially for Rheuma twiter thrier, so
that kurkuma and boswelia combination seems to be a very
(37:13):
common combination. So Majia asked, have you tried super fine
grade powder of boswelia and can you recommend an herbal
brand that is high quality? I cannot. I got to say.
One of the reasons why I'm doing these herbs of
the world is because I don't use a lot of
the herbs of the world. I want to use more
(37:34):
at least understand themle because I get asked questions all
the time for my patients, like what do you think
of this? And what do you think of that? And
I just want to know. That's why I do these
is to kind of look at that. You know, I've
done several aboriginal herbs. I love that because I lived
in Australia for four years. That's where I went to
medical school. I lived and worked in Aboriginal communities, so
(37:55):
I wanted to know. I tried very hard and I
did learn a little bit while I was there. But
it's it's in four years, like you're you're not even
gonna be able to you know, You're you're not even
going to be trusted for you know, five ten years,
let alone four years and learn a lot of this stuff.
So to me, it's it's a lot about how I'm
learning these things. And so I don't know what's high quality.
(38:19):
I don't know, you know, Indian producers. I don't know
which ones are better than others. So unfortunately I just
don't have any any answer for you at this point.
So but it's but it's it's knowledge that I'm I'm
putting away and I have a store of so that
if I want to do it in the future, it's there.
So with all of these all right, let's move on
(38:40):
to the contents. So Sidoquy says the resonus part of
Boswelia serata contains monoturpines, specifically alpha fujiene dieturpines, macro cyclic
diterpenoids such as incensil in sensile oxide, iso in sensile oxide,
a diturping alcohol, seratol, tri terpenes such as alpha and
(39:03):
beta amorins, pentacyclic triterpinic acids. These are the boswelic acids
that we mentioned earlier, tetracyclic triterpinic acids, and this includes
tyracol eight twenty four die in twenty one oic acids.
(39:24):
That's a mouthful for you. So lots of different things
there and badal and delga delgatta. This is a textbook
that I have called Pharmacognity Fundamentals, Applications and Strategies. You
can say it's a big textbook if you're watching this.
It's a big textbook on pharmacognoy, which is basically understanding
(39:49):
the pharmacology of herbs. And so it's an interesting textbook.
And it's written, I think and published in India, so
it's got a lot of Indian herbs and it does
here too, And they say several constituents of Boswelia sorata
have anti inflammatory effects, though acetyl eleven kido beta boswelic
(40:10):
acid appears to be the most active, so as I
mentioned the bosoolic acids tend to be sort of the
active ingredients here. They're not the only ones, but the
main ones. So let's talk about the science sacidically, which
was the review article on Boswelia serrata summarizes several studies
(40:31):
and we'll break those down into what they do. Anti
inflammatory effects stem from several constituents and mechanisms. Bosolic Acids
were found to inhibit the synthesis of pro inflammatory enzyme
fivepoxap oxygenase or five, including five hydroxy echo ecosa tetrienoic
(40:52):
acid or five H E t E and leukotriyan be
four LTB four, which cause bronco construction, chemotaxis, and increased
vascular permeability. Those things are not going to be useful.
Remember we said it can be useful for asthma. This
would be the reason. If it can block that enzyme,
(41:13):
then it probably will help asthma and other inflammatory conditions.
Other antiflammatory plant constituents such as corecedin also block this enzyme,
but they do so in a more general fashion as
an antioxidant, whereas bozwolic acid seem to be a specific
inhibitor of five L without fivep oxygenase. A clinical trial
(41:36):
with an end of seventy so not a huge study,
but it is statistically valid conducted by Racha Dury and
coworkers in India, has shown that the extract of the
plant Boswelia serrata can reduce pain and considerably improve knee
joint functions, in some cases, providing relief even within seven days.
(42:00):
Ray Traduri and her colleagues describe their study as the
first to evaluate the efficacy of the extract enriched with
a form of bozwolic acid on osteoarthritis. Sodi discusses several
areas of pharmacological activity. He says this herb is anti arthritis.
(42:21):
He discusses several clinical trials with an end of seventy
five an end of one hundred and seventy five ninety
with positive results in treating arthritis with Boswelia serrata anti inflammatory.
Discusses animal studation in the herb's effects on five of
lopoxygenase cashrum intestinal effects. He discusses a small study an
equal six so not a very good study or a
(42:42):
pilot study, small study of juvenile Crohn's patients, and a
study without subject details treating chronic diarrhea. Talks about it
being anti asthmatic. He discusses the study of forty asthma
patients and a meta Analysisman analysis tend to be the
strongest is around immunomodulatory, so it helps the immune system.
(43:07):
Animal studies showed decrease hypersensitivity reactions, so animal studies doesn't
mean it happens in humans, but it points to the
possibility it can be anti tumor. So this goes to
Ralph asked earlier if it's used for cancer, So here
is an anti tumor function, it says. Some in vitro
(43:28):
studies show effects supporting anti tumor activity, while a German
stay with an end of forty four showed significant reduction
and brain swelling after radiotherapy. So radiation therapy and Boswellia supplementation.
So it may have some some anti cancer effects, but
it's not its main use at least in this in
(43:49):
iabetic systems and traditional uses. Neuronal it may help, neurodegenerative
disorders may okay, maybe dermat it's logical. Small study and
equals fifteen showed reduction of photoaging of facial skin when
a topical boswuelia cream was used, maybe analgesic. They were
(44:10):
in several animal studies showing analogesic activity. Maybe anti fungal.
The essential oil showed anti fungal activity on a plant fungus,
but human pathogens do not show any activity, so probably
not anti fungal, at least not in humans. So that's
good there. What about drug rib interactions. While there may
(44:33):
be some cichrome P four fifteen interactions with the boswolic acids,
these do not appear to be significant according to an
in vitro study, So just a little brief in vitro
versus in vivo. So in vitro means in glass in
test tubes, so not in the opposite of in vitro
(44:54):
is in vivo, which means in life, and that can
mean both animals or humans. So in vitro is a
step away from is a big step away from humans,
and then the humans. Then in vivo animal studies is
a step away from humans as well, So this is
a couple steps away from humans. So it doesn't appear.
(45:16):
And I can't tell you how many in vitro studies
on psytochroone poia for fifty I've seen, and then when
they go to actually do it in humans, it has
no bearing whatsoever. So I don't think this has any
setochrope pay for fifty interactions that we need to be
aware of in Drugger of Interactions rumor, that's one of
the main targets risk factors for drug of interaction, So
I don't think there's anything to be super worried about there,
(45:39):
but maybe keep an eye on it. Similarly, there appears
to be some peak glycoprotein inhibition, but does not appear
to be significant enough to cause issues with other drugs.
So while there is some especially in vitro, some inhibition
going on, but it's minor, it's a very small part
of the constituents and it had very minor activity, So
(46:00):
don't think it's going to be an actual issue in
humans at all. And the American Herbal Product Association's Botanical
Safety Handbook, which I love, is just a resource for safety.
It's a really good book. Puts this herb in interaction
Class A, which is their highest best interaction class and
(46:22):
it means herbs for which no clinically relevant interactions are expected.
So that's basically what I found when I did the research. Directly,
so are there concerns about this herb. So, according to Sody,
boswelia has been well tolerated in most studies. However, some
(46:42):
people experience stomach discomfort, including nausea, acid reflex, or heartburn,
a feeling of fullness, stomach pain or diarrhea. Irritation of
the skin has been reported from a multi herb product
containing boswelia. Take that with a grain of salt, because
there's lots of other herbs and ink any of the
other herbs causing it as well, and care should be
(47:03):
taken not to exceed the recommended dosage. And finally, Frauley
and Ladd, who did the the other book on aravedic
herbs that I use, says there are no noted precautions,
so nothing that you need to be particularly worried about.
Having said that, that website Easierveta dot Com says Shalakai
(47:28):
extract capsules cause gastric irritation. Hence people with sensitive stomach
or gas stritis find it difficult to take the capsule. However,
as per my experience, this is the the experience of
the of the author of the website. As per my experience,
when compared to Google capsule. So remember Google is Google,
(47:50):
which is frankincense. That is the more traditional frankincense uh
and in Chinese medicine that's the rouchiang. The gastric irritation
found with buzz is less and is better tolerated than
Google capsules. Such people can take it just five minutes
after food to lessen the gastric irritation. Shalakai capsule can
(48:11):
be taken during lactation and in children, and seek medical
guidance for its use during pregnancy. We're gonna see that's
an important part there. They continue. The frankincense oil or
the essential oil can be taken orally, but make sure
that the essential oil is genuine and not synthetically produced,
(48:32):
chemically scented or perfume material. While applying externally, just put
a drop on the forearm skin and rub and watch
for any adverse allergic reaction. If you find any, consult
your doctor immediately. The other website we've looked at, planet
higher Veta says it stimulates the flow of blood in
(48:54):
the uterus in pelvic regions, Hence, improper usage may adversely
affect menstrual cycle. It may also induce miscarriage. In expecting mothers,
and it can also cause nausea, vomiting, acid reflex in, diarrhea,
and skin rashes. So very similar to what we heard before,
(49:17):
health Lines, this is a more western medical sort of
approach to this. Health Line says boswelia may stimulate blood
flow in the uterus and pelvis, It can accelerate menstrual flow,
and may induce miscarriage and pregnant women. Other possible side
effects of boswelia include nausea, acid reflex, diarrhea, skin rashes.
(49:39):
Boswelia extract may also interact with medications, including ibuprofen, aspirin,
and other nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs. So you know, I'm
very keen on looking at drug rib interactions, as you know,
that's sort of my Bailey Wick. A lot of my
book is about that, and so I'm always looking for
(49:59):
the and I just I couldn't find any interactions of
Boswelia serrata in the literature. So I didn't see these
druggrib interactions actually in the literature. And often what happens
with these is somewhere someone who is quote unquote an
expert says, hey, there may be some issues here, and
(50:22):
if you look at Boswelia serrata as an anti inflammatory,
which is its main use in iobetic medicine. Then you
can also go kind of go, okay, well, maybe this
will also interact with other medicines that are doing similar things,
like the nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs, and it does. It has,
you know, some potential overlap in how those work, so
(50:44):
there can be some interactions, but that doesn't necessarily mean
there will be. Just because theoretically there are doesn't mean
there actually will be in humans. So I'd put that
under the rubric of what I call expert opinion, which
is the lowest level of evidence for Druggerb interactions or
just in general for any study cautious. I don't think
there's any concerns with the nsaides, but certainly you have
(51:07):
a little bit of a warning here on that web MD,
which is also a very medicalized resource for this for
herbs and supplements, says they say when taken by mouth,
Boswelias sorota is likely safe for most adults. Boswelia serrata
(51:27):
extract has been used safely in duses up to one
thousand milligrams daily for up to six months. It usually
doesn't cause major side effects. I think you can say
that about everything, but some people have reported stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea, headache, heartburn,
and itching pregnancy and breast feeding. Bosuelia sorata is likely
safe when used in amounts commonly found in foods. Don't
(51:50):
know if these are commonly found in foods, but there
isn't enough reliable information. Note Bosuelia sorota is safe to
use in larger amounts as medicine when pregnant or breastfeeding.
Stay on a safe side and avoid use. That's according
to WebMD. And finally, there is that American Urble Praduct
Association's Botanical Safety Handbook, which I just think is so
(52:12):
well done and well researched and balanced. It doesn't take
anything too far in an extreme. And they put this
herb in safety class to be and basically say this
is to Class two B means herbs not to be
used during pregnancy. So I think again we have the
reminder that this is probably not the best urb for
(52:32):
pregnancy to use during pregnancy. And that is it for today.
We started our discussion today by talking about the business
planning excuses, and from there we did our deep dive
into Barzelia serrata or Indian frankincense, an important aerbetic herb
for treating inflammation in other conditions. Well generally considered to
(52:54):
be safe, we should be careful when used during pregnancy
and overall other interesting herb. In our next episode, we
will be exploring an important it's a quite important and
interesting Chinese herb, the huang or y radix at riizoma
or rhubarb root or riizome. This herb is relatively commonly
(53:19):
used herb in the Chinese medical subcategory of purgatives under
the category of downward draining herbs and can't be used
in a wide variety of conditions. Some conditions you're just
like why is this being used here? And as usual
we will be exploring something a little different. So please
join us for this intriguing episode. See you in two weeks.
(53:42):
And I just like to say thank you very much.
If you like this podcast, please do us a huge
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(54:03):
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And if you use the code s H two zero
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(54:26):
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p e r B s h e r b s
dot com. And as usual, I have a pretty good bibliography.
Thank you very much, Spursers. The preceding was presented by
(54:50):
doctor Greg Spermer. We would like to thank Janell for
aller support and everybody else who contributed to this program.
Rockcamble
That Angelica. Okay, well, thank you very much for joining
us for a seventy sixth episode of Sperbs Herbs. Today
we're doing a herb of the world, Indian frankincense, also
known as Boswelia serrata. I as always am your presenter,
(00:25):
Doctor Greg Sperber, And without further ado, let's figure out
what we're doing today. So today's episode we'll be looking
at another traditional herb of the world, Indian frankincense. As always,
we will do our deep dive into this herb and
look at its traditional uses, does it have any Chinese
medical functions, and its preparation interactions and cautions, And as
(00:50):
usual we will be adding something a little different, well
actually maybe a lot different. As herbalists and practitioners in general,
whatever we're practitioning, we run businesses, and writing a business
plan is the most important thing to do to ensure
or continue success. So we're going to look at business
(01:10):
planning excuses. It's going to be another interesting sojourn into
the depths of herbdom. Please keep listening. Before we get
into all that, I just wanted to let you know
I have you probably know this. I've been teaching for
quite a while now. It's going on man almost twenty
(01:30):
five thirty years on a wide variety of topics. If
you like this podcast and want to explore more of
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dot org. That's Integrative Medicine Council coou Ncil dot org
and include a ton of different topics, including my drug
(01:51):
rab series looking at drugs and how they interact with
herbs and vice versa, several ethics and safety courses, Chinese
medical research, several treatment of condition courses such as arthritia,
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and depression anxiety. Those are just examples. I have a
lot more of them than that. And one of my
(02:13):
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a fascinating one. This is all stuff that you can
buy off the shelf and have around in your in
your house just in case something goes wrong. It's fantastic.
It's a great, great course, and they're all out of
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(02:34):
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so twenty off and you get twenty percent off with
that code. I hope to see you too. Thanks. So
let's talk about business planning excuses. This is from an
(02:58):
article I wrote for the California Journal of Oriental Medicine
now known as the Journal of Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine,
and it kind of goes in and assumes that we
understand to a certain extent why business planning is important.
Study after study has shown that if there's one thing
(03:18):
people who are building a business do to increase their
chances of success is to write a business by Now,
there's this informal number out there, and honestly I tried
to find it, so I could not find it. But
you hear about it everywhere. One out of five businesses
will go out of business. I've heard in the first year,
(03:40):
I've heard in the first five years, whatever it is,
but one out of five. That's a lot of failure.
And so what can you do to make it better?
Of course, business plan, But there's lots of excuses to
prevent from business plan to prevent yourself from business planning.
So let's talk about that. So business planning is one
of the most neglected aspects of running a business, and
yet study after study has shown that there is no
(04:02):
better predictor of success or failure. Those businesses with a
business plan have a much higher probability of success than
those without one. So why doesn't every new or existing acupuncturist,
or herbalist or practitioner have a business plan? And there
are many reasons for this. One of the biggest reasons
(04:23):
is time. There's never enough time to develop a business plan.
As a student, you have to spend your time writing
that paper or studying for that upcoming test. As a practitioner,
you have all that paperwork, and you need to spend
time with your current patients and getting new ones. And
let's not forget the demands of family and significant others.
But and this is a big butt nothing nothing has
(04:47):
been shown to have as big an impact on your business.
So can't you take a weekend or an hour here
and there, a few times a week and make writing
down a few parts of a plan the most important
priority actually for your future. A few weeks of steady
work can yield a passable business plan. Doesn't have to
(05:08):
be a work of art. It just has to be passable.
That reminds me. There's a there's an old joke and
we would say in medical school to our students. You
know when when I was a medical school, between the students,
we'd say, you know what do they call the person
who is dead lasting class? And the answer is doctor?
(05:28):
As long as they passed there doctors. So and believe me,
there are a few I wish weren't, but moving on.
So you know, the point is that a few weeks
of city work can yield a passable business plan. That's
the goal, not a perfect business plan. You're not going
out and hopefully he might be, but you're not going
out and trying to get a venture capital. It doesn't
have to be a top notched business plan, just needs
(05:49):
to be something that's guiding you. So other hurdles to
the development of a business plan are psychological hurdles. One
often positive by students is I'm not much of a planner.
I just us wing most things in my life and
they usually do okay with that, but they can do better.
This lament usually means means they are afraid to commit
(06:10):
to anything because they may fail. Fear of failure is
incredibly common isn't it ironic that the one thing they
can do to minimize the occurrence of failure is something
they are afraid of undertaking because it might highlight or
demonstrate their failure. The best antidote to this is to
think of a business plan as a rough outline. It
(06:31):
can be huge, it can be small. It can be
very formal or on the back of a napkin. It
can be anything as long as it is written down.
Make it a work of art, just includes some concrete information.
In other words, make it part of conquering your fear
of failure, not a concrete example of it. Another psychological
(06:54):
hurdle is the fear of money. I think this is
really common in all of our professions. We'd rather help
people than worry about the money aspects of things. But
that is the beauty of a business plan. It can
be about anything you would like. Is travel more important
than money? Great? Make it part of your plan. Is
your practice about being able to work part time at
(07:16):
a little income and be able to spend as much
time as possible with the kids, great, put it in
the plan. While money needs to be discussed in most
business plans, it doesn't need to be the main issue.
A small business's business plan is as much a life
plan for the owner as it is a business plan.
(07:36):
Sometimes practitioners who have been in business for a few
years or longer feel like they don't need a business
plan hogwash. Well they I just like the word hogwash,
so I through that. While they may be quite successful,
there are always way to streamline and make your business
more efficient, more profitable, and less time consuming. And these
(07:58):
ideas and goals often come from a good business plan.
Do you want to buy the building your practices in?
What about spend more time on vacation or on a
hobby plan for it. One of the best reasons quote
unquote for not doing a business plan is the I
don't have enough business knowledge excuse. So when are you
(08:20):
going to learn business when you have a lease in
overhead to worry about? When you can't sleep at night
because you don't have enough patience? I believe me. I've
consulted with a lot of with several of those ecupuncturists desperate.
I love one of them. He was desperate and he
he just he took me out for lunch, just wanted
to pick my brain. I was happy to help him.
He wasn't a student of mine. I taught this in school,
(08:42):
so you know a lot of them were students. This
was someone who came before I was teaching and just
wanted some advice, and I gave him some advice. I
don't know what he took. I don't know what he
didn't take. All I know is it's been a long
time later and he's very successful. So you know you
can be very successful in these things. The best way
(09:03):
to learn about business is to create a business plan.
A good business plan will take you through all the
necessary knowledge to run a good practice. Just a book.
Just get a good book on business planning. The question is,
would you rather learn about business when your money is
on the line and you are scrambling to get patients
and pay the bills, or before when you can take
(09:24):
your time and learn basic business concepts. The reality is
you're going to need to know these concepts if your
practice is going to be successful. You have little control
over that fact, but you do control how you learn
these concepts. And believe me, a lot of people learn
them by mistakes. So they do something wrong, they have
enough wherewithal to be able to correct. First of all,
(09:45):
they're open enough to the correction. Second, all they have
enough resources to weather the downside and then they can
learn from their mistakes. But that's a lot, and we
all are going to do that. If you're in business,
you're going to make mistakes, and things are and go wrong.
But when you have a business plan, those mistakes hopefully
don't go as wrong as as bad as it could be.
(10:09):
If you have a businessman can mitigate that. I have
a comment here from Magia says, thanks for reminding us.
We had a business plan writing class in acupuncture school
at a AI m C Berkeley. Me and my partner
are currently expanding on our acupuncture clinic in Oakland, and
it's hard to find time to write a new plan.
I'll write some works of art on a napkin in
between patient cu classes and taxes. Thank you again for
(10:33):
reminding us. You know one of the things that when
I used to teach this, You know, so I made
a business plan the center of how I taught practice management.
When I taught practice manager for many many years, and
I because of business plan, a lot of reading, a
lot of grading. So I always had an assistant in
that class. One of my assistants had an MBA which
I do as well. And she was wonderful. She was
(10:56):
very successful in her practices, and she would start a practice,
build it up, do really well, and then kind of
move and have to restart it. And she did well
in all of those. And one of the things she'd
always say to the students at the beginning of this
class is like, look, every time I am in this class,
I learned something new. And I think more than learn
something new, it's more like reminded of something old and
(11:17):
that you know, every time I teach this stuff, I'm
reminded of something I should be doing that I'm not doing,
or I should be doing better. Every time I teach.
Almost every time I teach a course, I do that.
It's not that I don't know it, it's that I
just need a reminder. So this is great, Thank you, Maja.
I appreciate that feedback. So. Other hurdles of starting to
(11:38):
write a business plan include the I am not a
good writer excuse. Well, that's okay. You can make it
so only you are going to see it, or make
this an excuse to get another's input on the plan.
That's great idea, by the way, is get other people
to give you some input on the plan. People. Hopefully
you know a little something about business, especially the business
you're going in, like herbs or acupuncture or whatever you
(12:00):
know doing medicine of some sort. Another fear that often
comes up is the fear of undertaking a huge project.
In this case, think of it as a small project.
Make it your goal to do a three or five
page business plan rather than a fifty page one. You
can always add to it if you want to, or
(12:20):
if your heart is set on a thorough business plan,
chunk it down into smaller parts. Do the company plan
a page or two, then do the technology plan another
page or two, then the marketing plan. Just chunk it down.
Before you know it, you will have a large and
thorough plan if that's what you want. One of the
best ways overall to motivate one into doing a plan
(12:43):
is to do it with someone else. If you have
a partner or partners, build it together. If you don't
have partners, do it with a classmate or colleague. You
don't have to share info if you don't want, but
getting together for a few hours a week or keeping
each other on a schedule is valuable. Find a business
coach that will help keep you motivated go to score.
(13:05):
This is in the US the Service Corp of Retired
Executives or organization like it, who have free services to help. Now,
there's lots of consultants that will help. Some of them,
I'm sure are very good. A lot of them they're
in the business of selling their services, not necessarily providing them,
so you got to be careful if you're gonna end.
(13:27):
They can be very expensive and much whether you win.
You can find better the Service Corp of Retired Executives.
These are people who know what they're doing and have
done it can really help you in your process, especially
if you're lacking some of the basic business information. That's
they're fantastic, and there's other free services out there to
help you as well, so look for the free before
you start paying the astronomical. The only caveat is that
(13:51):
you are really the only person who can write your
business plans. So that's the one thing I never recommend
is that you actually pay for someone else to write
your business plan, because someone else to write it means
that you will probably not understand it and won't implement it.
You've got to write it. That's the process that counts
as not the business plan. Now, if you're going for
a big venture capital and all that sort of stuff,
(14:13):
you want to make it nice and slick. Okay, maybe
pay someone to polish it. I wouldn't have them write
it still and to make it that way, But most
of us aren't going to be doing that. So don't
pay someone to write a business plan. It's expensive and
it's useless. It really is. I've never seen someone else
write a business plan and then have it actually implemented.
(14:35):
There are those practitioners who didn't have a business plan
and have wildly successful practices and who think planning is
completely unnecessary. There are always a few of these people around,
and this author salutes them. It's not easy to do that.
There are always exceptions to the rules and exceptions to
some of the statements in this article, But for the
(14:55):
vast majority of people, the concepts espoused here and the
necessity of the business plan are immutable. Think of the
successful non planners as the exceptions that prove the rule.
Don't don't put them up as role models. Just look
at them as the outliers that they actually are. So
(15:17):
this was about getting over those hurdles that may prevent
us from starting to write a business plan, So don't hesitate,
just do it. Don't make it a big deal. It
will know of the there's a big movement a few
years ago. There's a big movement of the one page
business plan. How nice is that one page business plan?
So it doesn't have to be super mega, massive, magnificent,
but it does get some stuff down on a piece
(15:38):
of paper and helps you do your business better. It
will help you become more successful in any endeavor. I'll
tell you what. Going through the business planning process, you
learn so much and you learn how things work. It
if you never implement that plan, I cannot tell you
how many business plans I've made and not actually implemented.
(15:58):
And I have learned so much from doing the business plants,
so I don't have any problems. I don't feel like
it's a waste of time or anything like that. It's fantastic.
So with that little or not so little, something different,
let's get into today's herb. So today's RB is Boswelia
serrata or Indian frunkinsense. If you watch Young Frankenstein. If
(16:24):
you haven't watched Young Frankenstein, Frankenstein, excuse me, you should
watch it. It's classic, so I want to start by
discussing this herb in relation to Chinese medicine. Boswelia serrata
is an important Indian hiervetic herb, and we will discuss
its role in that medical system a lot today. While
starting my research on this herb, it is often confused,
(16:46):
combined or even just substituted for the Chinese RB Rushiang
or Boswelia cardii bmn W, which is initials for the
botanist who who categorized it. These are not the same
herb or species. In fact, Boswelia serrata is not listed
as an alternative species for ruschiang at all, though sometimes
(17:08):
rushiang are technically Boswelia cardio carteria i have seen as
an alternative species or at least a substitute for Boswelia serrata.
So they're similar. Having said that, they do have similar
constituents and functions and probably could be used close to interchangeably,
at least from a modern medical perspective, not necessarily from
(17:29):
a traditional perspective, but from its functional modern medical functional perspective.
The bottom line is these are similar, but not the
same species. So let's dive into Boswelia serrata comes from
the family Burserasia, and the species is Boswelia serrata rocks
(17:53):
b x coal br so roxb period x col e
b r period. Now that rocksby x clober is culiber is.
Those are are like I said, those are abbreviations of
botanist names that actually categorize this. And you can find
(18:15):
a list of of what the acronym or what the
the shortened version is to the actual botanists. So those
are available. You can just put it into Google or
into the Google machine and and come up with that.
The medicinal part, generally, especially when we're talking frankincense, Uh,
the medicinal part we're looking at is called is the
(18:36):
resin under the bark. But the bark itself also has
medicinal properties, and we'll talk a little bit about that
as well. So other names for this is Boswela boswell
in boswell and Serrata resin. So as soon as you
say Boswela buzwellan, I'm a little bit worried about confusing
with Boswelia cardii, which is the other type of of
(18:58):
So this is Indian frank concense. The Boswelia cardi I
believe it's just frank and sense's regular franking sense, at
least from our perspective in the West. And so you know,
as soon as you say generally like Boswela boswell and
there can be some confusion. So Buzbila and the Serrata
residence sounds good. There's a lot of of Hindu and
Indian names. We have Gadja, BASCHIAI again, please forgive my pronunciation.
(19:25):
It's also sometimes just called incense tree or Indian a
libinum A libinum is is is basically a resin sort
of thing. It's also Sali Google Sali, Google ones with
an ale, ones with a u l, Salakai google Shalakai, Soushrava, Subaha, Surabi, Maharuna, Kundruki,
(19:50):
and Valakai are blaki. And again I don't know the
pronunciations of these. So let's talk a little bit about
the Bursarasier family. Broserace family is also known as the
Frankincense and Murr family, so those are often combined. And
you know, in the Bible, Franken sense and murror were
gifts given to the parents of Jesus, so Franken sense
(20:13):
of mr Family torturored family or incense tree families, so
lots of different names and includes shrubs and trees. They
contain seventeen to nineteen genera and around five hundred and
forty species. The reason why I always like to be
a little inexact with these genera and species is every
source they look at has slightly different numbers in this
(20:34):
and part of it is they may be one hundred
percent accurate when they wrote it, but this stuff changes,
I understand it's fairly commonly within a couple of years.
These things change all around, and different genera go into
different families. It can be very confusing. So that's why
I'm like containing seventeen to nineteen genera and around five
hundred and forty species, and are native to Africa, Asia, Australasia,
(21:00):
in the Americas, and they tend to be associated with
tropical areas. They have a question from Ralph is this
the most used, is the most the most famous? Frank
sense it is not that I believe that's through Chang.
That's the Frankancense Cardia cardii. There are other species too,
(21:20):
of of of Bosuelia so but this one in particular
is generally very commonly used. We're going to see it's
a very important iervetic herb, but it is not the
common frankincense. So back to the Verrier bursarasse family. Their
distinctive characteristics are there generally non allergenic resin they produce
(21:45):
virtually all plant tissue, and their distinctive smooth yet flaking
aromatic bark. History of this herb, so according to Sidiqui,
which was a good review article on this, on this
specific or Buzzwelia serrata was first mentioned in two of
the most ancient Iabtic texts, the Characa some Hita or
(22:07):
a Compendium of Characa and Soshruda some Hita Shrudo's compendium.
The Characa Samhita was said to be written somewhere between
the fourth century BCE and the second century. See, when
you see something that long six hundred years, what that
probably means is that someone it was. It may be
(22:30):
a compilation, it may be several authors over those centuries.
So it's a little bit hard to be exact. And
we see that a lot in Western literature too, is
it can take a while. Like you know, for example,
the hippocratic Orpus corpus. You know Hippocrates, you know, was
written over a long period of time, longer than Hippocrates
(22:51):
was alive, and was probably contributed to by a lot
of his students, So you know, we don't know exactly.
So that's the Taraka Samhita from the fourth century sea BC.
The second century c Sushruda Samhita was compiled somewhere between
the last couple of centuries BCE to the first couple CE,
so again ab up to four hundred years or so.
(23:12):
A cidiqui dates these two books to seven hundred and
six hundred BCE, respectively. That that seems to be a
little extreme in its dating, and it was not supported by
other sources. When I looked at other sources, I usually
got much more close to like first and second century CE,
with a couple of them saying a few hundred centuries before.
(23:33):
So nothing six hundred so hundred BCE way too long
traditional uses. So this is primarily an I are Vedic
herb and therefore what we'll be referring to some specific
properties we have discussed in previous episodes, specifically in episode
eight where we discussed off Ashwa Gandha and episode twenty
(23:55):
three when we looked at trifala, both of which of
course are or Indian herbs. We've done other Indian herbs
as well, but we kind of went into those those
basic properties in those two episodes. Basuelia Serrata's basic aabatic
properties include its rosser or taste is kashaya or estringen,
(24:17):
tikta or bitter, and madeir or sweet. Again please forgive
my pronunciations. Guna or qualities include lagu or light and
rugsha or dry. The viria or energy is ushna or hot.
The paka or post digestive effect is katu or pungent,
(24:39):
and the dasher constitution is that it balances both kafa
and pitta. And these are according to Sodi. That's I
have a few textbooks that I use for aavetic medicine.
Sodi is is it's aerbatic herbs is the name of
the book, and it's a little bit more modern, but
(25:03):
it seems to be a good source. The website www
dot Eazyireveda dot com says the resident of this herb
is used for juara or fever, sweda or excess sweating,
graha alakshmi for psychological disorders and mukuraga or oral disorders.
(25:27):
They continue to refer to several texts and their uses
of this herb and they use the traditional term Salakai here.
According to Traka se he don't remember that's one of
the books that this was first mentioned in. Salakai is
explained in part written by JD. D. Kind of drag Dalabala.
(25:52):
He has categorized it as shiro via chinia or cleansing
nasal therapy, which makes sense. It's a very it's used
as incense. It's a very aromatic herb, and also puri
shiva genia or detoxifying stool and restoring the natural color
(26:14):
of stools, so helpful for stools. According to Shushida Samhita.
Shashida has cited it as stambana i anti diarrheal is mentioned.
It's use in cough asthma, blood and stool pain in
the region of the bladder, et cetera. There are a
few other things they mentioned as well. According to ask
(26:37):
Taka rad Daya, which is also a very famous and
older medical book in Iabadic medicine, Sakai can be used
in rudu kind of smoke, so rudu actually refers to
smoke basically fumigation for shaman type of dumapana which is
(26:59):
in inhalation of smoke confumes and also in ulcers after souturing.
Sodella I said that salaki can be used in diabetes
and pain and rushana russhana v r a s h
a n a. I don't know what that refers to.
Baba mishra in Baba Prakash Gantu has mentioned uses therapeutically
(27:24):
and chronic indep wounds is ganda Mala granthi sen sandi
vata ash as this husham ath, this hosham ricketts and
in foul breath. According to Pria Negantu, Salakai is used
especially in yoni roga or vaginal design vagina disorders and
(27:49):
do peranatha do panartha or fumigation, so it's used in
fumication smoke. Again, incense makes sense, Sidiqui says. In addition
to its beneficial use for arthritis, this gummy resin is
also mentioned in traditional aerveatic and new non intexts as
an effective remedy for diarrhea, dysentery, ringworm boils, fevers, antiporetic
(28:15):
skin and blood diseases, cardiovascar diseases, mouth sores, bad throat, bronchitis, asthma, cough,
vaginal discharges, hair loss, jaundice, hemorrhoids, cephalitic diseases, irregular mensis,
and stimulation of liver. It is also diaphyretic, meaning it
causes sweating, astringent diuretic, causes urination, and acts both as
(28:41):
internal and external stimulant. It is stimulant as well. In
the Yoga of Herbs and Iarebetic Guide to Herbal Medicine
by Frauleian lad It says this is a resin related
to Google or frankincense. So Google frank consense is the
more traditional frank in sense that we know, and MR,
(29:03):
so it is reson related to Google and MR, both
of which are in the same family and used for
similar purposes of cleansing the blood, encountering arthritic pain. That's
what I hear over and over again, is that arthritic pain.
We're going to see that again in just a minute.
It also aids in the healing of soft tissue injuries.
It is It's cooling nature makes it particularly good for
(29:26):
inflamed and swollen joints. When there is some pitta involvement SODI. Again,
that's the Iravetic Herbs textbook, so SODI simply states Boswelia
serrata or salai is one of Ireveda's most potent anti
inflammatory herbs, used both externally and internally to treat rheumatoid arthritis,
(29:48):
back pain, fibrositis, and osteoarthritis. So really useful as an
anti inflammatory. While we have focused on the resin of
Buswuelia serrata, it's bark is also used medicinally. According to
that website www dot ezreveda dot com, the bark is
(30:12):
push decrute, improves nourishment and grahey, absorbent and useful in
diarrhea and IBS irritable bowel syndrome. It can be used
for the following atisara, diarrhea and dysentery rochtapida, bleeding disorders
such as nasal bleeding, heavy periods, et cetera, varana, ulcers
and wounds. Kushta known to cure skin diseases, Azra blood
(30:38):
disorders such as abscesses, skin disorders, bleeding disorders such as minerajia,
nasal bleeding, et cetera, Arsha for hemorrhoids, Rnado Shahara cleanses
wounds and shula for pain. That's pain dosage in preparation.
(31:02):
Www dot easyervated dot com states the dosage is fifteen
to one hundred millimeters of bark decoction and one to
three grams of the gum. Now, not a huge fan
of bark decoction as an explanation here, because it doesn't
tell us how to do the decoction. It doesn't tell
us the strength of the decoction. I don't know what
fifty to one hundred millimeters of bark decoction actually means.
(31:24):
I mean, normally a decoction is just boiling of the
herb in water and then drinking the strainia and drinking
the tea afterwards, the decoction afterwards. But in Chinese medicine
we're kind of specific exactly how decoctions are made, though
there's definitely some leeway and practitioners often have their own
(31:45):
ways to do it. But one hundred millimeters is not
much from a Chinese point of view, and Chinese we
often say, like, you know, take three cups, boil it
on until it's down to two cups, and then do
it again until it's down to one cup, so you
have three cups and then take one cup three times
a day or something along those lines. So one hundred
(32:06):
milli liters is a lot less than is a half
a cup, so that seems like a small amount, But
I don't know. We do formulas too, rather than just
having a single herb too, so maybe that's about right.
Sidiqui gives a less useful but more accurate summary of dosage.
Boswelia is generally taken as a capsule, tablet or it's
bark decoction, orally. The recommended dosage is based on historical
(32:30):
practice or available trials. Presently, it is not clear that
the optimal dose is to balance safety and efficacy. The
manufacturing of boswelia products varies from one product to the other,
and this makes it even more difficult for standardization to happen.
Continuing with dosage and preparation, health Line which is usually
(32:53):
a pretty good source. It's a little basic and scientific,
but it's still it's searched. So Helpline says general dosent
guidelines suggests taking three hundred to five hundred milligrams by
mouth two to three times a day. The dosage may
need to be higher for IBD, so that's inflammatory bowl
(33:13):
bal on disorders to disease falling in LAD. That's the
one of the iabetic texts say dosing is two hundred
and fifty milligrams to one gram of purified powder. So
he says two to three grams of gum resin one
to one point five millimeters of oil. So he talks
(33:33):
a little bit about the essential oil. And I love this.
Fifty six to one hundred and twelve milli liters of
bark decoction. There's got to be some sort of traditional
measurement that that refers to. Those are odd numbers, fifty six,
two hundred and twelve and three hundred milligrams three times
per day of a standardized extract of fifty percent bosolic acid.
(33:55):
We're going to find bosolic acids. There's actually several of them.
Are probably the active ingredient and the ingredients in this
In this particular herb quality wweasyirivida dot com website, discusses
the quality of Bosuelia serrata. According to modern system. Four
(34:19):
grades of gum resin are available. Super fine grade is translucent,
very light yellow in color, free from bark and other impurities.
Qualities one I think it means. First quality is brownish yellow,
less translucent and free from barking impurities qualities. Two is
brownish semi translucent, it may have some impurities and qualities.
(34:41):
Three is dark brown, opaque and with impurities. So Chinese
medical actions so, as mentioned initially, the Chinese are Ruschiang
is a different species, that's Boswelia cardii bmn W. However,
it appears they have similar actions, and I was unable
(35:02):
to find anything specific about Chinese properties at Barswelia serrata.
Rushiang is acrid and bitter and warm and enters the heart, liver,
and spleen. Its functions seem pretty similar to our herb today.
It invigorates the blood and promotes the movement of cheek.
Those are the sort of things we would do to
treat arthritis and inflammation and things like that, so it
makes sense that it would be similar. Relaxes the sinews,
(35:24):
invigorates the channels and alleviates pain and reduces swelling and
generates flesh. Again, very similar to a lot of these
traditional functions that we're actually discussing. So even if ruschiang,
you know, the functions, is not, Rushiang is a different herb.
It's pretty similar, I think in how this herb would
(35:45):
be viewed from a Chinese medical point of view. Comparisons
and combinations. There weren't any direct comparisons for the serb
in our literature searches. I just couldn't find anything that said, hey,
this herb is like this, or this herb is better
for this matter, but that is better for this doesn't.
I didn't find any of that stuff, and I usually do,
so it's a little surprising that I didn't. However, there
(36:06):
were several combinations discussed. Sodi says Boswelia's effects are enhanced
when it is combined with zingibar, a fishinale uh in
in in Indian or Hindi, it's shunti or ginger. This
is ginger. Now I don't know if it's fresh ginger
or dry ginger and Chinese medicine that makes a difference,
(36:28):
but just says combined with ginger, and generally I think
it's probably a power so it's probably dried, but there
you go. So it's the effects are enhancement is combined
with ginger, curcuma, langam or kurkuma, and in modern ira Veda,
bromelaine is also added in. He also commonly combines it
with with Thania somnifera, which is Ashwa Ganda, calling in
(36:51):
all of these herbs his basic boswelia protocol and he
does use it. It's an important protocol for him. Planet
are Vida, which is another website, emphasizes the combination of
Boswelia serrata and curcumen, especially for Rheuma twiter thrier, so
that kurkuma and boswelia combination seems to be a very
(37:13):
common combination. So Majia asked, have you tried super fine
grade powder of boswelia and can you recommend an herbal
brand that is high quality? I cannot. I got to say.
One of the reasons why I'm doing these herbs of
the world is because I don't use a lot of
the herbs of the world. I want to use more
(37:34):
at least understand themle because I get asked questions all
the time for my patients, like what do you think
of this? And what do you think of that? And
I just want to know. That's why I do these
is to kind of look at that. You know, I've
done several aboriginal herbs. I love that because I lived
in Australia for four years. That's where I went to
medical school. I lived and worked in Aboriginal communities, so
(37:55):
I wanted to know. I tried very hard and I
did learn a little bit while I was there. But
it's it's in four years, like you're you're not even
gonna be able to you know, You're you're not even
going to be trusted for you know, five ten years,
let alone four years and learn a lot of this stuff.
So to me, it's it's a lot about how I'm
learning these things. And so I don't know what's high quality.
(38:19):
I don't know, you know, Indian producers. I don't know
which ones are better than others. So unfortunately I just
don't have any any answer for you at this point.
So but it's but it's it's knowledge that I'm I'm
putting away and I have a store of so that
if I want to do it in the future, it's there.
So with all of these all right, let's move on
(38:40):
to the contents. So Sidoquy says the resonus part of
Boswelia serata contains monoturpines, specifically alpha fujiene dieturpines, macro cyclic
diterpenoids such as incensil in sensile oxide, iso in sensile oxide,
a diturping alcohol, seratol, tri terpenes such as alpha and
(39:03):
beta amorins, pentacyclic triterpinic acids. These are the boswelic acids
that we mentioned earlier, tetracyclic triterpinic acids, and this includes
tyracol eight twenty four die in twenty one oic acids.
(39:24):
That's a mouthful for you. So lots of different things
there and badal and delga delgatta. This is a textbook
that I have called Pharmacognity Fundamentals, Applications and Strategies. You
can say it's a big textbook if you're watching this.
It's a big textbook on pharmacognoy, which is basically understanding
(39:49):
the pharmacology of herbs. And so it's an interesting textbook.
And it's written, I think and published in India, so
it's got a lot of Indian herbs and it does
here too, And they say several constituents of Boswelia sorata
have anti inflammatory effects, though acetyl eleven kido beta boswelic
(40:10):
acid appears to be the most active, so as I
mentioned the bosoolic acids tend to be sort of the
active ingredients here. They're not the only ones, but the
main ones. So let's talk about the science sacidically, which
was the review article on Boswelia serrata summarizes several studies
(40:31):
and we'll break those down into what they do. Anti
inflammatory effects stem from several constituents and mechanisms. Bosolic Acids
were found to inhibit the synthesis of pro inflammatory enzyme
fivepoxap oxygenase or five, including five hydroxy echo ecosa tetrienoic
(40:52):
acid or five H E t E and leukotriyan be
four LTB four, which cause bronco construction, chemotaxis, and increased
vascular permeability. Those things are not going to be useful.
Remember we said it can be useful for asthma. This
would be the reason. If it can block that enzyme,
(41:13):
then it probably will help asthma and other inflammatory conditions.
Other antiflammatory plant constituents such as corecedin also block this enzyme,
but they do so in a more general fashion as
an antioxidant, whereas bozwolic acid seem to be a specific
inhibitor of five L without fivep oxygenase. A clinical trial
(41:36):
with an end of seventy so not a huge study,
but it is statistically valid conducted by Racha Dury and
coworkers in India, has shown that the extract of the
plant Boswelia serrata can reduce pain and considerably improve knee
joint functions, in some cases, providing relief even within seven days.
(42:00):
Ray Traduri and her colleagues describe their study as the
first to evaluate the efficacy of the extract enriched with
a form of bozwolic acid on osteoarthritis. Sodi discusses several
areas of pharmacological activity. He says this herb is anti arthritis.
(42:21):
He discusses several clinical trials with an end of seventy
five an end of one hundred and seventy five ninety
with positive results in treating arthritis with Boswelia serrata anti inflammatory.
Discusses animal studation in the herb's effects on five of
lopoxygenase cashrum intestinal effects. He discusses a small study an
equal six so not a very good study or a
(42:42):
pilot study, small study of juvenile Crohn's patients, and a
study without subject details treating chronic diarrhea. Talks about it
being anti asthmatic. He discusses the study of forty asthma
patients and a meta Analysisman analysis tend to be the
strongest is around immunomodulatory, so it helps the immune system.
(43:07):
Animal studies showed decrease hypersensitivity reactions, so animal studies doesn't
mean it happens in humans, but it points to the
possibility it can be anti tumor. So this goes to
Ralph asked earlier if it's used for cancer, So here
is an anti tumor function, it says. Some in vitro
(43:28):
studies show effects supporting anti tumor activity, while a German
stay with an end of forty four showed significant reduction
and brain swelling after radiotherapy. So radiation therapy and Boswellia supplementation.
So it may have some some anti cancer effects, but
it's not its main use at least in this in
(43:49):
iabetic systems and traditional uses. Neuronal it may help, neurodegenerative
disorders may okay, maybe dermat it's logical. Small study and
equals fifteen showed reduction of photoaging of facial skin when
a topical boswuelia cream was used, maybe analgesic. They were
(44:10):
in several animal studies showing analogesic activity. Maybe anti fungal.
The essential oil showed anti fungal activity on a plant fungus,
but human pathogens do not show any activity, so probably
not anti fungal, at least not in humans. So that's
good there. What about drug rib interactions. While there may
(44:33):
be some cichrome P four fifteen interactions with the boswolic acids,
these do not appear to be significant according to an
in vitro study, So just a little brief in vitro
versus in vivo. So in vitro means in glass in
test tubes, so not in the opposite of in vitro
(44:54):
is in vivo, which means in life, and that can
mean both animals or humans. So in vitro is a
step away from is a big step away from humans,
and then the humans. Then in vivo animal studies is
a step away from humans as well, So this is
a couple steps away from humans. So it doesn't appear.
(45:16):
And I can't tell you how many in vitro studies
on psytochroone poia for fifty I've seen, and then when
they go to actually do it in humans, it has
no bearing whatsoever. So I don't think this has any
setochrope pay for fifty interactions that we need to be
aware of in Drugger of Interactions rumor, that's one of
the main targets risk factors for drug of interaction, So
I don't think there's anything to be super worried about there,
(45:39):
but maybe keep an eye on it. Similarly, there appears
to be some peak glycoprotein inhibition, but does not appear
to be significant enough to cause issues with other drugs.
So while there is some especially in vitro, some inhibition
going on, but it's minor, it's a very small part
of the constituents and it had very minor activity, So
(46:00):
don't think it's going to be an actual issue in
humans at all. And the American Herbal Product Association's Botanical
Safety Handbook, which I love, is just a resource for safety.
It's a really good book. Puts this herb in interaction
Class A, which is their highest best interaction class and
(46:22):
it means herbs for which no clinically relevant interactions are expected.
So that's basically what I found when I did the research. Directly,
so are there concerns about this herb. So, according to Sody,
boswelia has been well tolerated in most studies. However, some
(46:42):
people experience stomach discomfort, including nausea, acid reflex, or heartburn,
a feeling of fullness, stomach pain or diarrhea. Irritation of
the skin has been reported from a multi herb product
containing boswelia. Take that with a grain of salt, because
there's lots of other herbs and ink any of the
other herbs causing it as well, and care should be
(47:03):
taken not to exceed the recommended dosage. And finally, Frauley
and Ladd, who did the the other book on aravedic
herbs that I use, says there are no noted precautions,
so nothing that you need to be particularly worried about.
Having said that, that website Easierveta dot Com says Shalakai
(47:28):
extract capsules cause gastric irritation. Hence people with sensitive stomach
or gas stritis find it difficult to take the capsule. However,
as per my experience, this is the the experience of
the of the author of the website. As per my experience,
when compared to Google capsule. So remember Google is Google,
(47:50):
which is frankincense. That is the more traditional frankincense uh
and in Chinese medicine that's the rouchiang. The gastric irritation
found with buzz is less and is better tolerated than
Google capsules. Such people can take it just five minutes
after food to lessen the gastric irritation. Shalakai capsule can
(48:11):
be taken during lactation and in children, and seek medical
guidance for its use during pregnancy. We're gonna see that's
an important part there. They continue. The frankincense oil or
the essential oil can be taken orally, but make sure
that the essential oil is genuine and not synthetically produced,
(48:32):
chemically scented or perfume material. While applying externally, just put
a drop on the forearm skin and rub and watch
for any adverse allergic reaction. If you find any, consult
your doctor immediately. The other website we've looked at, planet
higher Veta says it stimulates the flow of blood in
(48:54):
the uterus in pelvic regions, Hence, improper usage may adversely
affect menstrual cycle. It may also induce miscarriage. In expecting mothers,
and it can also cause nausea, vomiting, acid reflex in, diarrhea,
and skin rashes. So very similar to what we heard before,
(49:17):
health Lines, this is a more western medical sort of
approach to this. Health Line says boswelia may stimulate blood
flow in the uterus and pelvis, It can accelerate menstrual flow,
and may induce miscarriage and pregnant women. Other possible side
effects of boswelia include nausea, acid reflex, diarrhea, skin rashes.
(49:39):
Boswelia extract may also interact with medications, including ibuprofen, aspirin,
and other nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs. So you know, I'm
very keen on looking at drug rib interactions, as you know,
that's sort of my Bailey Wick. A lot of my
book is about that, and so I'm always looking for
(49:59):
the and I just I couldn't find any interactions of
Boswelia serrata in the literature. So I didn't see these
druggrib interactions actually in the literature. And often what happens
with these is somewhere someone who is quote unquote an
expert says, hey, there may be some issues here, and
(50:22):
if you look at Boswelia serrata as an anti inflammatory,
which is its main use in iobetic medicine. Then you
can also go kind of go, okay, well, maybe this
will also interact with other medicines that are doing similar things,
like the nonsteroidal anti inflammatory drugs, and it does. It has,
you know, some potential overlap in how those work, so
(50:44):
there can be some interactions, but that doesn't necessarily mean
there will be. Just because theoretically there are doesn't mean
there actually will be in humans. So I'd put that
under the rubric of what I call expert opinion, which
is the lowest level of evidence for Druggerb interactions or
just in general for any study cautious. I don't think
there's any concerns with the nsaides, but certainly you have
(51:07):
a little bit of a warning here on that web MD,
which is also a very medicalized resource for this for
herbs and supplements, says they say when taken by mouth,
Boswelias sorota is likely safe for most adults. Boswelia serrata
(51:27):
extract has been used safely in duses up to one
thousand milligrams daily for up to six months. It usually
doesn't cause major side effects. I think you can say
that about everything, but some people have reported stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea, headache, heartburn,
and itching pregnancy and breast feeding. Bosuelia sorata is likely
safe when used in amounts commonly found in foods. Don't
(51:50):
know if these are commonly found in foods, but there
isn't enough reliable information. Note Bosuelia sorota is safe to
use in larger amounts as medicine when pregnant or breastfeeding.
Stay on a safe side and avoid use. That's according
to WebMD. And finally, there is that American Urble Praduct
Association's Botanical Safety Handbook, which I just think is so
(52:12):
well done and well researched and balanced. It doesn't take
anything too far in an extreme. And they put this
herb in safety class to be and basically say this
is to Class two B means herbs not to be
used during pregnancy. So I think again we have the
reminder that this is probably not the best urb for
(52:32):
pregnancy to use during pregnancy. And that is it for today.
We started our discussion today by talking about the business
planning excuses, and from there we did our deep dive
into Barzelia serrata or Indian frankincense, an important aerbetic herb
for treating inflammation in other conditions. Well generally considered to
(52:54):
be safe, we should be careful when used during pregnancy
and overall other interesting herb. In our next episode, we
will be exploring an important it's a quite important and
interesting Chinese herb, the huang or y radix at riizoma
or rhubarb root or riizome. This herb is relatively commonly
(53:19):
used herb in the Chinese medical subcategory of purgatives under
the category of downward draining herbs and can't be used
in a wide variety of conditions. Some conditions you're just
like why is this being used here? And as usual
we will be exploring something a little different. So please
join us for this intriguing episode. See you in two weeks.
(53:42):
And I just like to say thank you very much.
If you like this podcast, please do us a huge
favor give us a five star rating in your favorite
podcast app. Thank you, and remember you can get CUS
in nccom PDAs that's continuing education units at National Certification
can be of acupunction on MS and professional development activities
(54:03):
at www dot Integrated Medicine Council dot org. That's Integrated
Medicine Council c O U n C i L dot org.
And if you use the code s H two zero
O F F so sperbs erbs s H twenty off,
you can get twenty percent off any number of those
CEU s and PDAs. You can always get in touch
(54:26):
with me at doctor Greg at sperbserbs dot com or
at our website www dot sperbserbs dot com. That's s
p e r B s h e r b s
dot com. And as usual, I have a pretty good bibliography.
Thank you very much, Spursers. The preceding was presented by
(54:50):
doctor Greg Spermer. We would like to thank Janell for
aller support and everybody else who contributed to this program.
Rockcamble
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