Myrrh

Synonyms in a broader sense

Latin name: Commiphora myrrha Genus: Balsamic shrub

Plant description

The home of the plant is Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen and Sudan. The tree grows barely 3 m high, small and often twisted leaves, the flowers grow in panicles. Also in Arabia myrrh is harvested, the trees are bigger and higher and covered with thorns. Already in the antiquity myrrh was known, as means for embalming and as a salve oil. Also myrrh, similar to incense, is burned as incense.

Medicinally used ingredients

The air-dried resin is used. From the bark of the tree a milky sap emerges from which dries and is then collected. The raw material can look grey-brown, yellow-brownish, matt or shiny. Mostly nut-sized, the smell aromatic, the taste scratchy and very bitter.

Ingredients

Essential oil, resin, pectins, mucilage

Curative effects and application

The drug has haemostatic, disinfecting and astringent effects. It also has an antispasmodic effect in the gastrointestinal tract. Chronic inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease may be favorably influenced by myrrh and prolong the time without symptoms between attacks. Myrrh is mainly used as a tincture to treat inflammation of the mouth and gums, for brushing or gargling.

Preparation

To gargle, mix a few drops of myrrh tincture in a glass of lukewarm water.

Combination with other medicinal herbs

You can also make a tea from bloodroot (tormentill) and add some myrrh tincture to it to rinse the mucous membrane of the mouth. For this purpose, 2 tablespoons of cut and dried tormentil are boiled with 1⁄2 l of water for 10 minutes, left to infuse for 10 minutes, then strained. Add a few drops of myrrh tincture per cup and gargle with it unsweetened several times a day.

In addition, a mixture of myrrh tincture and bloodroot tincture can be made to brush the inflamed gums. Mix 50 g of myrrh tincture with 30 g of blood-root tincture. You can use this mixture undiluted or put 20 drops into a glass of lukewarm water and gargle with it.