Frankincense production is threatened

WAGENINGEN, Netherlands, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- Dutch scientists say current rates of tapping frankincense are resulting in fewer and less viable seeds.

The Bible says frankincense -- an aromatic hardened wood resin obtained by tapping Boswellia trees -- was given to the baby Jesus by the three wise men at Christmas. But Dutch and Eritrean ecologists say its production on the Horn of Africa is declining because Boswellia woodlands are failing to regenerate.

The Dutch ecologists posit poor regeneration is due to intensive tapping that result in the trees diverting too much carbohydrate into resin, at the expense of reproductive organs, such as flowers, fruit and seeds.

Working with Eritrean scientists, they tested the hypothesis by looking at how many seeds intensively tapped trees produced and their germination rates, compared with untapped trees.

One of the researchers, Professor Frans Bongers of Wageningen University, said: "At all study sites, trees subject to experimental tapping produced fewer flowers, fruits and seeds than trees that were exempt from tapping. Furthermore, tapped trees produced smaller fruits with seeds of lower weight and reduced vitality than non-tapped trees."

The research appears in the December issue of the Journal of Applied Ecology.