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Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey rain Stuff, Lauren vogelbomb here with a classic episode

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Speaker 2: from the vault. As this episode comes out, we still

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Speaker 2: have a few sugar plums dancing in our heads. What

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Speaker 2: sugar plums are is a different episode, but in this

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Speaker 2: one we discussed two other perhaps modernly mysterious Christmas objects,

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Speaker 2: frank concense and Murr.

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Speaker 1: Hey rain Stuff, Lauren vogelbomb here. If you've heard of

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Speaker 1: frankencense and murr, it's probably thanks to the Biblical account

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Speaker 1: of the birth of Jesus. According to the Book of Matthew,

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Speaker 1: chapter two, wise men followed a bright star in the

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Speaker 1: east of Bethlehem to where Jesus had been born and

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Speaker 1: presented him with gifts of gold frankncense and MRR. During

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Speaker 1: the Christmas season. Depictions of this event are ubiquitous in

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Speaker 1: American culture, decorating churches and shopping malls alike. But don't

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Speaker 1: let the shiny tinsel and festive candy canes distract you

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Speaker 1: from our question today, what exactly are frankincense and MRR.

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Speaker 1: Both frankincense and muhr are derived from tree sap or

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Speaker 1: gum resin and are prized for their alluring fragrances. Frankencense

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Speaker 1: is a milky white resin extracted from species of the

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Speaker 1: genus Boswelia, which thrive in arid, cool areas of the

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Speaker 1: Arabian Peninsula, East Africa, and India. The finest and most

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Speaker 1: aromatic of this species is Bosswelia sacra, a small tree

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Speaker 1: that grows in Somalia, Oman and Yemen. These plants, which

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Speaker 1: grow to a height of about sixteen feet or five meters,

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Speaker 1: have papery bark, sparse branches of pared leaves and flowers

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Speaker 1: with white petals and a yellow or red center. Murr

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Speaker 1: is a reddish resin that comes from species of the

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Speaker 1: genus Comaphora, which are native to Northeast Africa and the

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Speaker 1: adjacent areas of the Arabian Peninsula. Comiphora mura, a tree

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Speaker 1: commonly used in the production of muhr, can be found

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Speaker 1: in the shallow, rocky soils of Ethiopia, Kenya, Oman, Saudi

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Speaker 1: Arabia and Somalia. It bosts shiny branches with sparse leaves

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Speaker 1: that grow in groups of three, and it can reach

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Speaker 1: a height of nine feet or about three meters. The

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Speaker 1: process for extracting The sap of these trees is essentially identical.

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Speaker 1: Harvesters make a longitudinal cut in the tree's trunk, which

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Speaker 1: pierces gum resin reservoirs located within the bark. The sap

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Speaker 1: slowly oozes out from the cut and drips down the tree,

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Speaker 1: forming tear shaped droplets that are left to harden on

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Speaker 1: the side of the tree. These beads are collected after

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Speaker 1: two weeks. People in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula

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Speaker 1: have produced franken sense and mur for some five thousand years.

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Speaker 1: For much of this time, these arimetic resins were the

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Speaker 1: region's most important commodity, with a trade network that reached

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Speaker 1: across Africa, Asia, and Europe. Today demand for frankencense and

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Speaker 1: mur has subsided a bit, but numerous Chinese, Greek, Latin,

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Speaker 1: and Sanskrit texts remind us of their past importance. Frankencens

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Speaker 1: and mur were desired for personal, religious, and medicinal use.

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Speaker 1: In a time before daily bathing, people would use the

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Speaker 1: sweet smoke from the resins to make themselves smell better.

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Speaker 1: Egyptian women would mix frankencense ash into their eyeshadow. These

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Speaker 1: substances were also widely used in religious ceremonies and burials.

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Speaker 1: According to the Greek writer Herodotus, the Egyptians used both

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Speaker 1: frankncense and murr in preparation of animal sacrifices and human mummies.

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Speaker 1: Jews incorporated them into their religious ceremonies by the third

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Speaker 1: century BCE, and Christians by the fourth century CE. The

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Speaker 1: residents also had in medical uses. In the Papyrus Ebers

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Speaker 1: from fifteen hundred BCE, priests recommended both resins for the

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Speaker 1: treatment of wounds. Other ailments they were once reported to

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Speaker 1: cure included hemlock poisoning, leprosy, worms, snake bites, diarrhea, plague, scurvy,

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Speaker 1: and even baldness. The high demand for frankencense and muhr

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Speaker 1: created a booming trade in the Middle East, lasting several

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Speaker 1: hundred years in the first century CE. Around the height

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Speaker 1: of this trade, plenty of the Elder claimed that Arabia

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Speaker 1: produced approximately one thousand, six hundred and eighty tons about

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Speaker 1: fifteen hundred metric tons of frank concense at around four

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Speaker 1: hundred and forty eight tons or four hundred metric tons

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Speaker 1: of murr each year. One of the most important trade

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Speaker 1: centers surrounded an oasis in modern day southern Oman. This

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Speaker 1: outpost exported frank concense across Usopotamia, India, and China from

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Speaker 1: about three hundred BCE to the third century CE. The

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Speaker 1: ruins of the settlement remain as a UNESCO World Heritage

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Speaker 1: Site known as the Land of Frankincense. Clearly, frankencense and

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Speaker 1: mr were widely available when the wise men visited the

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Speaker 1: baby Jesus around five BCE and would have been considered

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Speaker 1: practical gifts with many uses. The expensive resins were symbolic

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Speaker 1: as well. A frank concense, which was often burned, symbolized

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Speaker 1: prayer rising to the heavens like smoke, while murr, which

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Speaker 1: was often used in embalming, symbolized death. So scholars think

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Speaker 1: that frank concense was presented to the infant Jesus to

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Speaker 1: symbolize his later role as a high priest for believers,

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Speaker 1: while murr symbolized his later death and burial. Frankencense and

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Speaker 1: murr may not be as popular as they once were,

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Speaker 1: but they're still used today in some ways that you

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Speaker 1: might not expect. Their common ingredients in modern perfumes and cosmetics,

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Speaker 1: continuing a tradition that's lasted thousands of years, Scientists are

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Speaker 1: finding new uses for the substances as well. A recent

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Speaker 1: study suggest that frank concense or its extracts may help

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Speaker 1: in treating as P, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, and osteoarthritis.

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Speaker 1: Researchers have also discovered possible benefits of MIRR in the

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Speaker 1: treatment of gastric ulcers, tumors, and parasites. Today's episode is

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Speaker 1: based on the article what are Frankinsense and Myrr on

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Speaker 1: how Stuffworks dot Com written by Clint Pumphrey. Brain Stuff

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Speaker 1: is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot

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Speaker 1: Com and is produced by Tyler Klain.

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Speaker 2: Four more podcasts maheart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.