The Rich Biblical History Of Essential OilsНамуна

A Walk Along the Frankincense Trail 

A few years ago, I had the privilege of traveling with my daughter Elizabeth to Oman in the Middle East, the only place on earth where the sacred frankincense tree grows naturally. Our guide was none other than the man who introduced me to essential oils, the late D. Gary Young. Considered the father of modern-day essential oil distillation, Young spent decades researching the ancient origins of essential oils on the Arabian Peninsula, in Egypt, and across the Mideast. 

In Oman, we saw a frankincense tree that is over 700 years old and still giving its “liquid gold” sap. We traveled down the streets of Salalah, where the air is richly fragrant with frankincense. It was a wonder to behold! Salalah was a city on the Frankincense Trail, the 1,200-mile trading route connecting Oman and Yemen to the Mediterranean port in Gaza. From the fifth century B.C. through the third century A.D., the Frankincense Trail carried, at its height, 3,000 tons of precious frankincense, aromatics, and spices each year.

While frankincense is used daily by people in the Middle East, the Frankincense Trail reached the West very recently. We are just now discovering the fragrant and therapeutic benefits of frankincense, so I’m thankful that it is affordable to most people today. However, when I visited Oman, I discovered that many of the ancient frankincense trees were being cut down due to the difficulty of growing and maintaining them. I hope and pray that this book will inspire frankincense growers around the world to protect these magnificent trees to ensure that our children and grandchildren will be able to experience the benefits of this amazing essential oil. 

Essential oils were used in ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, and India. According to the New World Encyclopedia, the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia used machines to obtain essential oils from plants more than 5,000 years ago.

During the time of Christ, essential oils were so precious, they were traded in the marketplace as if they were gold or silver coins. A king’s wealth was determined in part by his possession of cinnamon oil (in India) or frankincense oil (in Israel).