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Extracts of a plant used in traditional medicine for centuries have shown anti-proliferative effects against breast cancer in a small early-stage clinical trial. Researchers provided breast cancer patients with an extract of the Boswellia tree—probably best known as the source of frankincense—and instructed them to take it each day until surgery. The researchers then compared the activity of cancer cells in each woman's tumor removed during surgery with the activity in the piece of her tumor that was removed during the biopsy. "We looked at differences in the growth rate of the tumors before and after treatment, and we found...

It is one of the oldest fragrances in the world. Nicolas Baldovini's team at the Institut de chimie de Nice (CNRS/UNS) has just discovered the components that give frankincense its distinctive odor: two molecules found for the first time in nature, named "olibanic acids" by the scientists. Their research results have just been published online, on the website of the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition. It is mentioned more than twenty times in the Bible, where it is one of the gifts offered by the Three Wise Men. Frankincense (also called olibanum1), one of the world's oldest fragrances, is a...