Boswellia extracts are taken from the resin (a thick, sticky organic substance) of the tree Boswellia serrata, which is native to the Arabian peninsula, Somalia, Ethiopia, and India. It has been used in a variety of different folk medicines for inflammatory, gastrointestinal, and respiratory conditions.^{[1][9][10][11]}

Boswellia has also been called frankincense, from the Old French term franc encens, which means “pure and noble high-quality incense”.^[11] It has been used in funeral ceremonies and religious rituals in the Catholic church.^[11]

The most evidence for Boswellia is in osteoarthritis, where it generally has large effect sizes, but the evidence is of low quality.^{[1][4][12][8]}

There is some overall weak evidence in support of Boswellia for neurological concerns (traumatic brain injury,^[6] stroke recovery,^[7] and memory in older adults^[13]), and burns (from fire^[14] and cancer radiation^[10]). Additionally, there is scant evidence for acute diarrhea^[9] and chronic asthma in adults.^[15]

Boswellia has consistently had no adverse effects in a variety of clinical studies.^{[16][12][8][4][17][7]} In some studies a small minority of participants in the Boswellia group had headache, dizziness, or diarrhea.^[6][5]

Boswellia resin contains such compounds such as boswellic acids (mainly acetyl-keto-boswellic acid) which inhibits inflammatory cytokines and enzymes such as C-reactive protein, TNF-ɑ, 5-lipoxygenase, and matrix metalloproteinases, which may play a role in the cartilage degradation and inflammation of osteoarthritis.^{[1][18][19][12]}