K'toret

Last year I wrote you extensively about the S.flu /flu and what one can do to treat it and especially about the little known herb/vegetable Portulaca 

[ The real rare life dangerous complication from flu is lung edema - not just in older  sick people- and it seems to me that Portulaca may save lives if a flu get complicated.

I wrote you the back ground information about all this, how I came to choose this herb/vegetable.

Now I only want to inform you that both the French pharmacy in Gilo and Oplatka on reh Jafo 110 have in stock what I wrote about with a ready printed out sheet how to use precisely these formulas if one wish to do so.

If you want to read all about this you can go to:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/bdmesqgroup/

Today a few medical words about one of the ingredients of the K'toret which we will read about -b"h- in the parasha of another 2 weeks[ki tisa]

Frankincense [Levona] : See Exodus 30;34

Frankincense is translated as Oliban by the Septuagint- Levonah in Hebrew.[Rav Kaplan ZT"L] This is a gum -resin from trees/shrubs belonging to the genus boswellia, which has many species like Boswellia carterii and Boswellia frereana from "Arabia", and Boswellia serratae from India.

Incision are made in the bark of the shrub and a milky juice is  excreted  this way that hardens into "tears" in a few weeks.

Boswelia was part of our k'toret [levonah] and has been used in many "religions" for incense [k'toret]

The Egyptians also used Boswelia it for embalming.

The use of these tears/this gum as a medicine is found back in many cultures/countries.According to James Duke {USDA} Boswellia was imported by caravans from "Arabia" and East Africa to Israel.

Duke [see below] writes that is extremely difficult to differentiate between the various gum -releasing  shrubs, which also includes Myrrh [MOR in Hebrew]

It may be that the resins of as many as 24 species of Boswellia are used in the production of frankincense, but B. sacra is the main source in some countries.

Two millennia ago, frankincense was as valuable as gold.

The oil [olibanum oil] is/has been used in high-grade perfumes.

Now a days a special compound found in  Boswellia [5-Loxin]-widely available in health food shops- is used as an anti-inflammatory medicine with an high profile of safety!

Also Boswelia capsules as such and a tincture can be bought.

I will sum up now traditional uses of Boswellia and then describe some modern research.

Traditional uses:[most mentioned by J.Duke]

diuretic, rheumatism, relieve menstrual disorders, problems of the nervous system [anxiety, nervous tension], memory improvement, urogenital diseases, leprosy, boils, diarrhoea, wrinkles, bilharzia (schistosomiasis), mosquito repellent

Modern research:

A double blind, randomized, placebo controlled study of the efficacy and safety of 5-Loxin® for treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee. Arthritis Res Ther. 2008;10(4): R85.

It was shown that   that 5-Loxin had a better effect at 250 mg/day than with 100 mg/day for knee arthritis and is safe for long-term human consumption.

In colitis and Crohn’s disease Boswellia was compared to standard treatment with sulfasalazine [salazopyrin]  and mesalamine [pentasa,asalacol] and it was found to be not inferior to these drugs.

Bronchial asthma was reduced in 70% of 40 patients treated with gum resin at 300 mg thrice daily for 6 weeks in a double-blind trial .

An exciting modern finding is that Frankincense oil [Boswellia oil] appears to distinguish cancerous from normal bladder cells and suppress cancer cell .

There seems to be multiple pathways that can be activated by frankincensae oil to induce bladder cancer cell death.

So Frankincense oil might represent an alternative intravesical [=in the bladder] agent for bladder cancer.

Clinical trials using boswellic acids have demonstrated activity in patients with  and malignant gliomas !! [kind of very serious braintumor]

Also has been shown/ suggested that Boswellia may reduce peritumoral edema derived from brain tumors.......... not a small thing!

And may be there is also some “p’shat" [gashmi] in the following p’sukim??

[being that Bore Olam uses His "own created weapons" to stop an epidemic, evenso if this was meant spiritually as Kapara?]