How is incense made?

Frankincense is called the most mystical incense in the world. Frankincense tree resin has been used for smudging in various religious rituals for thousands of years. How is incense made from aromatic viscous juice? Why was it considered “tears of the gods”? And how dependent they become on it. church mice? About this in the REN TV Research Institute program with Sergei Dolya and Alexey Korzin.

Total addiction

“Opium for mice” is how scientists from the American Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem jokingly nicknamed church incense. And for good reason. It turned out that the smell of this incense is addictive in rodents. “You know, the expressions “poor as a church mouse”, “thin as a church mouse” or “hungry as a church mouse” did not appear by chance. The mice living in the church are always very thin and even emaciated. Because this is not a place where they have anything to profit from. But they still don’t leave the building. And all because of incense. When rodents are completely hungry, they can make a foray into neighboring houses. They’ll steal something there and quickly go back,” says aromatherapist Evan Siljaasen. Mice and rats become addicted to the smell of incense, like a drug. How does this fragrance affect people? Maybe those who inhale it in temples also become addicted? Photo: © Video screenshot

Sacred medicine

It turned out that for humans the so-called biblical incense is a medicine. Its vapors work as immunomodulators. Today such drugs are sold in pharmacies. The most amazing thing is that the composition of this miracle incense was invented when people had no idea about aerosols and their properties. “Aerosols and fumes with particles sized microns or smaller can hang in the air for a long time without settling. If such a mixture is sprayed once in a room, it can hang in the air for a day. Church incense works on the same principle if you fumigate a room with it. And if there is no hood and all the windows are closed, then a person will inhale useful particles for hours. It’s the same as administering medicine intravenously through a drip.”, explains aromatherapist Evan Siljaasen. But incense is a mysterious and multifaceted substance. After all, this name hides hundreds of recipes and combinations of oils and resins. Photo: © Video screenshot

Solar deity

And its story began thousands of years ago, when, according to legend, the sun god Helios fell in love with the beautiful girl Levkota. She was mortal. And one day Helios found his betrothed dead. He couldn’t revive her. Helios began to cry out of grief, and darkness fell on the Earth. But, falling to the ground, the tears of the radiant god turned into trees, through the capillaries of which blessed golden resin flowed. There are not many places in the world where the incense tree, boswellia, grows. Plantations of the most famous species are located in Southwestern Arabia – in Oman and Yemen, on the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean and on the dry slopes of the mountains in northern Somalia. By the way, the smell of the fragrant resin from there differs from the Socotri resins. Experts even believe that even the harvest of different years from the same tree differs in smell. It’s like with wine – the aroma depends on the weather, soil, and age of the plant.

“Tears of the Gods”

Since ancient times, incense has been highly valued. It is no coincidence that he was among the gifts that the Magi presented to the newborn Christ. This fragrant resin was first mentioned in scrolls that are more than five and a half thousand years old. The ancient Phoenicians wrote about the miracle substance. They called incense “tears of the gods.” And mere mortals believed that magical incense was collected in sacred forests in the morning. Allegedly, drops of aromatic liquid appear with the first rays of the sun on the leaves of trees and herbs. To get incense, Egyptian priests sent caravans to distant lands. Back then it was considered a spice. Photo: © Video screenshot “Spices have long been used for religious purposes, and even now our prayers rise upward with the smoke of incense. And incense is a plant element, and it turns out that it is also a spice. Well, it’s just tasteless, we don’t eat it”, says Spice Museum tour guide Maria Madisson.

Family business

Foreign traders made fabulous money selling mystical incense. Frankincense is still collected today in the same way as hundreds of years ago. But drops of dew and gods have nothing to do with it. The family of Soqotrian Naqib al-Rass has been collecting and making incense for several generations. Everyone, without exception, participates: sons, their wives, children and grandchildren. “The best resin comes from plants high in the mountains. The younger the branches, the more resin. My sons and grandsons make cuts in the tree from which it flows out. The sap will harden within a few weeks, after which we collect it. This is incense,” – says incense collector Naqib ar-Rassi. The women then clean the dried resin. Everything is done by hand, no conveyors or factories. No more than four hundred grams are collected from one tree and only once every three years. If you take the juices more often, the plant will die. More than thirty percent of the incense trees in northern Somalia have already been destroyed in this way. Out of greed, the pickers milked the trunks every year. And as a result, all the plants were almost destroyed. Photo: © Video screenshot “Frankincense is divided into ordinary and selected. The resin, which was collected from the tree and from the leaves, is disassembled into pieces according to its purity. Light yellow drops become white powder when rubbed. It’s the most expensive. Not so clean, large and dark, the pieces are ordinary incense. Its price is ten times lower.”, explains Naqib ar-Rassi.

Expensive scent

In Socotra, collectors earn from $350 per kilogram of pure incense. In Europe and Israel, resellers fetch ten times more for the same weight of incense. But this powder is not yet the same church incense that is used to fumigate churches and use it in making candles. The so-called biblical incense is prepared according to a special recipe. Aromatic oils and resins are added to the powder. But which ones and in what proportion? The priests keep it a secret. Although they do not deny that different parishes may have different recipes. That’s why the smells in temples are different everywhere. They have one thing in common: each mixture is based on solar tree resin. Even more incredible interesting stories, amazing discoveries and unique filming are in the REN TV Research Institute program with Sergei Dolya and Alexey Korzin. Watch new episodes on REN TV. Incense from time immemorial they burned incense in church when turning to God. But if in Old Testament times it was used only in the Holy of Holies of the Temple, then in New Testament times incense can accompany prayer, performed not only in the temple, but also wherever people turn to the Lord. The Old Testament mentions the components of incense: stakti, onykh, fragrant halvan and pure Lebanon. Nowadays, in churches, cells and for home incense they use pure Lebanon – a natural resin “Gum Olibanum“, benzoin gum “Gum Benzoin“and various varieties Athonite incense made of natural resin with the addition of aromatic oils. Boswellia Carteri resin
Gum Benzoin Resin «Gum Olibanum is a natural resin from the Boswellia Carteri tree., growing in the deserts of Arabia and East Africa, round or oblong droplets of yellow-amber resin. There are several grades of resin depending on where it grows, purity and particle size. «Gum Benzoin” is a natural resin from the Styrax Benzoin tree., growing in Southeast Asia. It is also called benzoin gum, or dew incense. This is a brownish mass with a balsam aroma. According to legend, the first Athonite incense was made on the holy Mount Athos in the monastery of St. Paul in the 1453th century. There in 1000, after the fall of Constantinople, the daughter of the Turkish Sultan Mohammed II, the Serbian princess Maria, who converted to Christianity, transferred the Gifts of the Magi – gold, incense and myrrh, which were one of the main shrines of Byzantium for XNUMX years. In order to preserve the divine aroma of myrrh for centuries, frankincense was crushed, mixed with myrrh (fragrance oil) and rolled into balls that retain their aroma to this day. Thus, the Gifts of the Magi, touched by the hand of the Savior, were preserved on Athos. Incense has been made on Athos based on this model for hundreds of years. Frankincense of Athos In the 90s, with the opening of borders, a stream of so-called “Athos church incense” poured into Russia. Its quality varied greatly, and only a few varieties were made on Mount Athos and made from quality materials. 15 years ago, the varieties of supplied incense were streamlined, and available varieties appeared in Russia fragrant church incense: Cell and Altar, the highest grades of church incense – Bishop’s and Patriarch’s, and the best varieties of monastic incense handmade, made on Athos – incense from the Great Skete of St. Anna, Vatopedi Monastery, Burazeri cell.
For many years, ecclesiastical incense experts have studied various types of incense produced in dozens of Greek monasteries and church workshops. The best producers and varieties of incense were selected, and aromas were chosen that most closely correspond to Orthodox traditions. For Greek incense, colors are selected, each of which corresponds to its own aroma. As a result, various varieties of Greek incense began to be supplied from Greece, which have now become familiar to every Orthodox person in Russia. Varieties of Greek scented incense differ from each other in the use of different varieties of natural Boswellia resin, the quantity and quality of incense oils added to the ground resin, the presence of special natural additives for the durability of the aroma, shape and color. The price of incense depends on this. The recipe and technology for making incense is very simple: for 1 kg. Add about 100 ml of ground natural Boswellia censing resin. aromatic oils, mix until a “dough” is obtained, roll out and cut into pieces.
But each monastery has its own secret of making church incense. This is either its own aromatic composition, prepared from well-known aromas, or special additives that improve the quality of incense. Incense is made with prayer, for example, in the Burazeri monastery of the Hilandar monastery (formerly the Russian monastery of Belozerka), all the brethren do incense during Compline.