TY  - JOUR
A1  - Börner, Friedemann
A1  - Werner, Markus
A1  - Ertelt, Johannes
A1  - Meins, Jürgen
A1  - Abdel Tawab, Mona
A1  - Werz, Oliver
T1  - Analysis of boswellic acid contents and related pharmacological activities of frankincense-based remedies that modulate inflammation
T2  - Pharmaceuticals
N2  - Extracts of frankincense, the gum resin of Boswellia species, have been extensively used in traditional folk medicine since ancient times and are still of great interest as promising anti-inflammatory remedies in Western countries. Despite their common therapeutic use and the intensive pharmacological research including studies on active ingredients, modes of action, bioavailability, pharmacokinetics, and clinical efficacy, frankincense preparations are available as nutraceuticals but have not yet approved as a drug on the market. A major issue of commercially available frankincense nutraceuticals is the striking differences in their composition and quality, especially related to the content of boswellic acids (BAs) as active ingredients, mainly due to the use of material from divergent Boswellia species but also because of different work-up and extraction procedures. Here, we assessed three frequently used frankincense-based preparations for their BA content and the interference with prominent pro-inflammatory actions and targets that have been proposed, that is, 5-lipoxygenase and leukotriene formation in human neutrophils, microsomal prostaglandin E2 synthase-1, and inflammatory cytokine secretion in human blood monocytes. Our data reveal striking differences in the pharmacological efficiencies of these preparations in inflammation-related bioassays which obviously correlate with the amounts of BAs they contain. In summary, high-quality frankincense extracts display powerful anti-inflammatory effectiveness against multiple targets which can be traced back to BAs as bioactive ingredients.
KW  - frankincense
KW  - boswellic acids
KW  - 5-lipoxygenase
KW  - microsomal prostaglandin E2
KW  - synthase-1
KW  - inflammation
Y1  - 2021
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/62919
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-629191
SN  - 1424-8247
N1  - This research was funded by Heidelberg-Apotheke/AureliaSan GmbH. The APC was funded by Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
VL  - 14
IS  - 7, art. 660
SP  - 1
EP  - 13
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  -