Dubstepforum.com

test recordings wrote:I used it to quit smoking: to replicate the smoky atmosphere but replace it with a purifying and relaxing smell I burnt Tibetan sandalwood...

Worked as well

fractal wrote:anyone use palo santo? i got a big piece from a buddy as a wedding gift and have been using it non stop since then!

test recordings wrote:

fractal wrote:anyone use palo santo? i got a big piece from a buddy as a wedding gift and have been using it non stop since then!

What is it? It looks like san pedro cactus...

Burning Incense Is Psychoactive: New Class Of Antidepressants Might Be Right Under Our Noses

ScienceDaily — Religious leaders have contended for millennia that burning incense is good for the soul. Now, biologists have learned that it is good for our brains too. An international team of scientists, including researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describe how burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain to alleviate anxiety or depression. This suggests that an entirely new class of depression and anxiety drugs might be right under our noses.


"In spite of information stemming from ancient texts, constituents of Bosweilla had not been investigated for psychoactivity," said Raphael Mechoulam, one of the research study's co-authors. "We found that incensole acetate, a Boswellia resin constituent, when tested in mice lowers anxiety and causes antidepressive-like behavior. Apparently, most present day worshipers assume that incense burning has only a symbolic meaning."

To determine incense's psychoactive effects, the researchers administered incensole acetate to mice. They found that the compound significantly affected areas in brain areas known to be involved in emotions as well as in nerve circuits that are affected by current anxiety and depression drugs. Specifically, incensole acetate activated a protein called TRPV3, which is present in mammalian brains and also known to play a role in the perception of warmth of the skin. When mice bred without this protein were exposed to incensole acetate, the compound had no effect on their brains.

"Perhaps Marx wasn't too wrong when he called religion the opium of the people: morphine comes from poppies, cannabinoids from marijuana, and LSD from mushrooms; each of these has been used in one or another religious ceremony." said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "Studies of how those psychoactive drugs work have helped us understand modern neurobiology. The discovery of how incensole acetate, purified from frankincense, works on specific targets in the brain should also help us understand diseases of the nervous system. This study also provides a biological explanation for millennia-old spiritual practices that have persisted across time, distance, culture, language, and religion--burning incense really does make you feel warm and tingly all over!"

According to the National Institutes of Health, major depressive disorder is the leading cause of disability in the United States for people ages 15--44, affecting approximately 14.8 million American adults. A less severe form of depression, dysthymic disorder, affects approximately 3.3 million American adults. Anxiety disorders affect 40 million American adults, and frequently co-occur with depressive disorders.

Frankincense trees under threat in Ethiopia

Source: Press Association

23 December 2011 | EN


Boswellia trees could see a dramatic drop in numbers



The production of frankincense may be halved in the next 15 years because of a massive reduction in the number of trees that produce it, according to Dutch and Ethiopian researchers.

The aromatic resin — which is used in incense and perfume, and is one of the gifts that features in the Christmas story of the Nativity — is produced by tapping Boswellia trees, which grow in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula.

But a study of 12 Boswellia populations in Ethiopia — published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology this week (20 December) — found that their numbers could drop by 90 per cent over the next 50 years if the trees are not protected from fire, grazing and insect attacks.

Adult trees are dying as a result of fire and attack by the long-horn beetle, which lays its eggs under the bark of the tree, while seedlings are hit by fire and grazing.

"Current management of Boswellia populations is clearly unsustainable," Frans Bongers, a researcher at Wageningen University in the Netherlands told the Press Association. "Our models show that within 50 years, populations of Boswellia will be decimated, and the declining populations mean frankincense production is doomed."

mks wrote:

Frankincense trees under threat in Ethiopia

Source: Press Association

23 December 2011 | EN


Boswellia trees could see a dramatic drop in numbers



The production of frankincense may be halved in the next 15 years because of a massive reduction in the number of trees that produce it, according to Dutch and Ethiopian researchers.

The aromatic resin — which is used in incense and perfume, and is one of the gifts that features in the Christmas story of the Nativity — is produced by tapping Boswellia trees, which grow in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula.

But a study of 12 Boswellia populations in Ethiopia — published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology this week (20 December) — found that their numbers could drop by 90 per cent over the next 50 years if the trees are not protected from fire, grazing and insect attacks.

Adult trees are dying as a result of fire and attack by the long-horn beetle, which lays its eggs under the bark of the tree, while seedlings are hit by fire and grazing.

"Current management of Boswellia populations is clearly unsustainable," Frans Bongers, a researcher at Wageningen University in the Netherlands told the Press Association. "Our models show that within 50 years, populations of Boswellia will be decimated, and the declining populations mean frankincense production is doomed."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16270759
http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-an ... iopia.html