At Christmas, wafts of incense and the glow of candles tantalise the senses and warm the hearts of the faithful. But the white, balsamic scent that emanates from the incense burners is also capable of clouding our view of reality. Udo Pollmer analyses the chemistry of the festivities and shows how the clergy, with the help of willing pharmacists, make fools of their sheep.
by Udo Pollmer Dec 2023, Update of Bon appetit, Dec 18, 2011 by Udo Pollmer
Smoking is finally allowed again: At Christmas, the rustic smokers from the Erzgebirge let their fumes drift through the parlours. Smoking bans have so far only applied to real people but not yet to the small wooden incense figurines. Catholic churches are also exempt. There, the ancient...
...pagan custom of burning incense to invoke the spirit world is practised with devotion. In the past, priests even walked through houses and stables with smouldering incense and juniper to keep witches and druids away.41
Incense burners, incense cones and candles release a lot of fine dust and polycyclic substances such as benzpyrene, just like cigarettes or open fires. Experts are now warning against pious incense burning and festive candlelight.30,38 To leave the church in town. A Christmas mass is nowhere near as worrying for the faithful as it is for the lab rats used as key witnesses: Rodents have no evolution with fire and therefore also not with smoke. As the crowning glory of many generations of fire-loving ancestors, churchgoers should therefore be able to tolerate the smoke from candles and incense cones better than a poor church mouse.
Devout Catholics even enjoy health benefits. The high proportion of phenols emitted from the incense burners disinfects the air we breathe.17 In well-attended church services, this is certainly more sensible than wearing masks. Popular incense resins, such as myrrh or styrax, have an antibiotic effect and their vapours are also used to treat respiratory diseases.13,25,55,56
Practically all peoples value incense as a therapeutic and ritual act. It is used to conjure up demons, heal the possessed and to favour the heavens. A state of devotion and trance is sought through inhalation, which creates a connection to the gods and their paradises. Ethnopharmacologists have long claimed that it was not religion that paved the way to trance, but that the psychoactive plants helped to consolidate religions.
Incense mixtures owe their esteem not only to their ability to attract benevolent spirits, but also to chase away six- to eight-legged pests.2,7,31,52 In view of the epidemiological importance of bugs, lice and ticks, fumigation promoted health and quality of life in every household. During and after plague epidemics, buildings were disinfected with smoke.14,54 In many cultures, it was also customary to regularly treat clothing - according to the prevailing opinion, this was to spread a pleasant odour, but in reality it was probably mainly for clothes lice and other small animals.
Biological plant protection "rethought"
Incense was not only burnt indoors, but also in the open air. According to Herodotus, the Egyptians used smouldering styrax resin to drive the snakes out of the incense trees.22 However, purely biological methods already existed in ancient times. The most important key witness is the Roman author Pliny the Elder with his Historia naturalis. His recipe for success in the fight against pests is as follows: when menstruating ladies walk around the fields stark naked, then "caterpillars, worms, beetles and other pests fall off the plants".42 There they are now. Without any neonicotinoids.
Metrodorus of Scepsis from Cappadocia can only agree with Pliny. He had experience with a plant pest called the Spanish fly: In the fight against the irritating insect, women should "walk through the fields during menstruation with their dresses cut down to their loins" and the Spanish fly would then make its escape. But beware, the method also has undesirable effects if used carelessly: "Care must be taken not to do this when the sun is rising, otherwise the seeds will wither." In contrast, the side effects of our plant protection products are probably negligible.42
Necessity is the mother of invention
In the Erzgebirge, incense cones were only used to combat vermin to a limited extent. The cones were made by apothecaries, who also moulded these candelae fumales alongside church incense mixtures. They helped against evil spirits, plague, asthma, toothache and sorcery. The candles were based on highly flammable coal powder, saltpetre and beech flour. A paste was mixed with water and binding agents such as potato flour or tragacanth and mixed with resins such as styrax or Peru balsam.48 Those who could afford it added frankincense and myrrh.
Not forgetting opium, which can also be found in older recipes.12 Opium was, if you like, a by-product of Silesian and Saxon poppy seed cultivation for the popular poppy seed rolls and poppy seed stollen. We can assume that on high holidays, an extra dose of morphine in the incense burner noticeably lifted the mood in the church, even in bad times.
Even the poorer people got their money's worth - because some cones contained a much cheaper drug. The deep green colouring, which was common in the past, provides a clue. This was not due to fir trees, as the packaging indicates today. According to a handbook for pharmacists from 1897, it was "necessary to take the best datura leaf powder" to make the "candles look pretty green". Doctors prescribed this for the treatment of asthma. To prevent the beautiful green colour of the leaves from turning brown, the finished cones were also brushed with a "wine-based potash solution".12
Back then, the lush greenery promised customers something other than the scent of fir: depending on the dose, a slight intoxication, visions and hallucinations, even anaesthesia.8 Datura, a nightshade plant like henbane and belladonna, was a drug used by poor people. They used it not only to alleviate toothache, but also their hunger. However, unlike frankincense or myrrh, the leaves of datura are of a rather dubious nature. The herb contains tropane alkaloids that are difficult to calculate, especially scopolamine and hyoscyamine. Even small amounts can cause nausea, confusion and memory loss, while higher doses of the herb can lead to respiratory paralysis.9
Christian creeds
No matter which ingredients are burnt during incense burning, frankincense and myrrh are always the most sought-after. What do they have to offer in terms of active ingredients, given that they are the most expensive and precious resins of all time? For thousands of years, they were traded on incense routes as far away as China.24 At times, the drugs were worth their weight in gold. No celebration of ancient peoples such as the Babylonians, Egyptians, Hellenes or Romans was complete without opulent incense offerings with the resins of Arabia.32,40
The resin of the pagans found its way into the Christian liturgy in the 5th century at the latest.4 Since then, the Vatican has been buying frankincense and myrrh from its Muslim competitors at a high price. Why is that? Because it smells so good? Lavender and pine resin would do just as well. Or is it because it kills lice, bugs and ticks? Did the three wise men from the Orient only offer frankincense and myrrh to the baby in the manger to rid the poor boy of lice?
The effect is sometimes literally mind-blowing: Again and again, altar boys complain of severe drowsiness or even unconsciousness when waving the pious embers. But this is precisely what the experts resolutely ignore: No, there is nothing suspicious in this incense. Not even cases of addiction to incense are able to change the experts' minds.32 According to their creed, church incense is free of drugs.
In the penal system, wine containing frankincense was served as an anaesthetic.32,34 One such case, but with myrrh, is at least known to those familiar with the Bible. However, in order not to jeopardise the church's ambiguous use of intoxicants, its drugs are naturally free of drugs. Faith alone ensures the rapture. But then why don't they put cheap bean straw in their censers?
In particular, the claim that tetrahydrocannabinol is produced when the resins are smouldered is unfounded. Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC for short, is the most popular psychotropic active ingredient in hashish. Dieter Martinetz and Karlheinz Lohs from Leipzig gave the impetus for this hypothesis in 1981.33,29 THC would inevitably be produced by burning olivetol and verbenol. Both substances were detected in incense.53
Now something strange happened: the expert scene usually senses the danger of addiction everywhere and never misses a warning about potential drugs. They say that even wine gums are enough to tempt children into alcoholism. Only with incense is the opposite true. An initially elusive dissertation from Basel served as proof. In 1983, a doctoral student there was tasked with analysing cannabinols in frankincense. But the young man found nothing suspicious.26 Except for phthalates - an indication that some of his samples were probably not genuine.37 However, he did not discuss this obvious suspicion any further.
His doctoral thesis is also suspicious. The dissertation was approved in 1989 and published in '91. It was printed again in 2019 after having worked on it again.26 The required affidavit stating that the thesis was written independently is missing. The good old practice of publishing dissertations of general interest as specialist articles in a scientific journal was dispensed with. However, the author's details would then be checked by analysts. Apparently, the field of research was abandoned as quickly as it was started.
The gas chromatograms shown in the appendix are worthless. A gas chromatograph separates mixtures and writes a peak on the paper for each individual substance that it recognises. However, the chemist does not yet know whether the substance he is looking for is present. To identify it, he adds it to the mixture and analyses the whole thing again. If the substance was already present, one of the peaks will be larger. If not, a new peak appears. Such evidence is missing. The doctoral student only provides play material.26 This feeds the suspicion that he has indeed found THC.
The mass spectra shown are no different. He prefers to show his reference solutions. In the few real spectra, several peaks of the gas chromatograms were analysed by mass spectrometry, but the doctoral student does not know what to do with them, except to assert that it is "obviously not a cannabinol".26 An oath of disclosure!
An interested student would first look for the precursors of THC, i.e. verbenol and olivetol. A lazy student would be ordered to do so by his supervisor. Even these most obvious results are missing. Nor was there a search for the multitude of possible cannabinoids. Incense mixtures are not the same as hemp.
The actual dissertation, the experimental part, i.e. the analysis of frankincense, which began in 1983 and was completed six years later, comprises only a few pages from 73-89. The rest is partly nice, general texts on "Frankincense in South Arabia" or "Frankincense in the Old Testament". The meagre opus was stretched out with a good dozen full-page black and white photos of clouds of smoke and holiday photos.26 Hardly believable that there is a doctorate for this. In the author's favour, we can assume that he was not allowed to publish essential results. Who knows how much this must have upset the young man.
Meanwhile, the dodgy opus did its intended job. Finally, everyone could refer to it: No THC in the incense. This also absolved the Pope and his staff. The issue was finally settled, as the German-language press eagerly reported with wording that was surely only coincidentally identical. Their tenor: "Much smoke about nothing".
Even in the specialised press, in the Pharmazeutische Zeitung, a commentator was scornful: the thesis that there is THC in frankincense is unrealistic "paper chemistry". "It is sometimes, as in this case, highly regrettable that clever hypotheses are open to the destructive work of experimental scientists."47 So why didn't the experts, who were so sure of themselves, check the result that was so important to them as usual? Strange, there would have been enough time.
It was probably better that way, because the supposedly unrealistic paper chemistry has been a reality in the world's laboratories for 80 years. THC is synthesised by reacting olivetol with a terpene such as verbenol. This has been practised since 1941.15 Here is another paper from 42,50 here from 46,51 or here from 70,45 72,36 75,44 7635. And so it goes on. Here 2019 from Münster,23 2020 from Eindhoven,10 the most recent is from 2023.6 This synthesis route has written chemical history. Incidentally, the hemp plant also uses almost the same pathway to form THC: It couples olivetolic acid enzymatically with verbenol.18,20
Let's take a closer look at the two reaction partners. They are not only present in the smoke of frankincense and myrrh, but also in other ingredients. Verbenol is formed from pinene, chrysanthenol, limonene and other terpenes, which are abundant in incense such as styrax, artemisia and juniper.5,11,21
The second component, olivetol, is one of many resorcinols. It is obtained industrially by distilling tree resins. If resorcinols other than olivetol are used for synthesis, other cannabinoids are obtained, some with stronger effects.27 Incense blends are therefore more varied than hashish. So much for the chemistry.
The picture is about to become complete
Now to the pharmacy. Let Professor Hermann Ammon, a pharmacologist, have his say: "Doctors repeatedly report a psychotropic effect in patients who have been treated with frankincense extracts for other reasons." "The ... diverse ... effects in the areas of pain, inflammation, neuroprotection, learning ability, depression and ageing would be reason enough to investigate such effects."3 Frankincense is therefore fierce competitor for the lucrative market of psychotropic drugs. Unfortunately, the resin cannot be patented because its effects are well known to Arab and Indian doctors.
Frankincense calms the intestines and stops diarrhoea.3,16 It relieves the urge to cough in asthma.3,19 And it puts you in a good mood. Every pharmacologist knows that these three effects are usually the hallmark of an opiate.
Viennese humour: "Tyrolean theologian debunks 'drug legend'"
Probably in an endeavour not to sully the impeccable reputation of the church with "hashish", the Austrian semi-intellectual newspaper "Der Standard" guaranteed: THC is "not contained in church incense". The editors refer to a religious teacher who blithely rants: no THC has been found in "three direct scientific tests", "not even in the nanogram range". To confirm this, he had even "personally telephoned" a ministerial councillor. And he confirmed that his office had not carried out any tests. From this the holy man concludes: if a Viennese ministerial councillor says "personally" that he knows nothing, then there is no such thing.46
What does this teach us? In Austria, there are also impersonal telephone calls and "indirect" scientific investigations. The theologian may have been referring to an older study that is occasionally cited in this context because it also found no THC.39 What is supposed to sound like proof of the absence of the hallucinogen is actually the opposite: the researchers came from a perfume company and had not been looking for it at all. They were looking for the balsamic scents of Arabian resins. THC smells like nothing, not even like "shit".
The statement that THC is a unique feature of hemp, that no other plant has ever managed to produce these active ingredients, is also incorrect. All kinds of mushrooms, mosses and even some flowering plants contain cannabinoids.18,20 On the other hand, the belief that cannabinoids are the active ingredient in hashish is probably incorrect. Sesquiterpenes also contribute to mood enhancement.28 They are not only found in hemp, of course, but are also abundant in incense resins.32 Also in hops. But as we all know, hops are a hemp plant.
Not forgetting the incensol acetate. This ingredient in frankincense works - oh wonder - just like cannabis, just like THC.34 Its psychotropic properties are only reluctantly mentioned and, as a precaution, described with terms such as "neuroactive".1,43
The pretty reference book that popularised the idea of THC in incense was published by the Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft in Stuttgart.32 Two of the three authors were working in the GDR (German Democratic Republic) at the time. And that's when the Tyrolean religion teacher was struck by a spark: The whole thing was just a communist propaganda ploy: "Don't send your children to church. They'll get addicted there."46 If you don't want to assume that a drink of mass wine in the editorial office got out of hand, then there is something to be said for a labour of love for the clergy, who were probably worried about their flocks.
So there is reason to doubt the saying that religion is opium for the people. Without good drugs, the business has no future. Let's put it this way: religion needs opium for the people.
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