Boswellia carteri

Al-Harrasi, Ahmed, Csuk, Rene, Khan, Ajmal & Hussain, Javid, 2019, Distribution of the anti-inflammatory and anti-depressant compounds: Incensole and incensole acetate in genus Boswellia, Phytochemistry 161, pp. 28-40 : 31

Boswellia carteri ,

the synonymous species of Boswellia sacra was the most analyzed species. Basar in her thesis ( Basar, 2005) reported 1.0% of incensole and 2.2% of its acetate from Boswellia carteri . However, as mentioned above, this species must have been confused with Boswellia papyrifera .

Surprisingly, Marongiu et al. (2006) reported relatively high content of incensole (6.1%) and its acetate (13.0%) from Boswellia carteri ( Table 2 ) using hydro-distillation. In the same paper ( Marongiu et al., 2006), the authors found incensole (9.6%) and its acetate (26.2%) using supercritical carbon dioxide extraction from Boswellia carteri (90 bar, 45 ̊C). When varying temperature and pressure of the extraction method, a similar content of incensole (at 120 bar and 60 ̊C, 17.2%, at 120 bar, 45 ̊C, 17.8) and its acetate (at 120 bar and 60 ̊C, 30.9%, at 120 bar, 45 ̊C, 32.0) were observed. A comparable result (22.5%) was achieved by Ammar et al. (2013), also from Boswellia carteri . A much less content (2.7%) of incensole was seen by Wahab ( Wahab et al., 1987). Given the fact that in all mentioned reports ( Ammar et al., 2013; Basar et al., 2001; Marongiu et al., 2006; Wahab et al., 1987), Boswellia carteri was referred to as “purchased from local markets” but not collected and taxonomically identified, the species were in fact Boswellia papyrifera and not Boswellia carteri . We wish this review clarifies this long-standing controversy between the two completely different Boswellia species ( Boswellia papyrifera and Boswellia carteri ).

In analogy to its synonymous species Boswellia sacra , other publications from Boswellia carteri reported a complete absence of incensole and its acetate ( Camarda et al., 2007; Hamm et al., 2005; Mikhaeil et al., 2003) using different methods for extraction, distillation and analysis.