Frankincense honey
Frankincense honey, also known as olibanum honey or boswellia honey, is one of the rarest honeys on earth.
Incense honey can be made by simply adding pure essential oil of incense to honey and then consuming it as a medicine.
But there is actually incense honey made by bees! Not by our usual honey bees, Apis mellifera, but by its little relative, Apis Florea.
Boswellia sacra has tiny yellowish-white flowers, gathered in tight auxiliary clusters of five cream-coloured petals, ten stamens and a disc of nectar surrounding the ovary. The nectar is sweet enough to attract local dwarf bees and other visitors. The fruit is a capsule that releases its seeds through 3 to 5 valves.
In Oman, the flowers bloom once a year, in April-May. The flowers of Boswellia sacra (Burseraceae) have a conspicuous nectary disc that changes colour from yellow to orange and red as the flower develops.
Their honey is collected from the mountain wadis of southern Oman. A wadi is a valley formed by drainage streams, but differs from river valleys, or gullies, in that a wadi is generally dry all year round, except after a rainfall.
The quantities of boswellic acids present in this honey are not high. And although the essential oil is used successfully in alternative medicine, even to treat some forms of cancer, including brain cancer, it cannot be cured by eating frankincense honey. However, it is an extraordinary food that will keep your body healthy and prevent potential diseases. Small amounts of a remedy will act on the principle of homeopathy and keep your body on guard.
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