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Myrrh is a resin that occurs in some species of trees in the genus Commiphora that grow in Asia, Africa, and South America. Myrrh is especially prevalent in C. myrrha, which grows in the Arabian Peninsula (Oman and Yemen) and northeastern Africa (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, and northeast Kenya).

Myrrh resin and the oil derived from it have been used for millennia as a fragrance and medicine. Along with frankincense¹, it is familiar as a gift offered to the Christ child by the Magi in the Christian gospel.

In 1983, Carl Heinz Brieskorn* and Pia Noble at the University of Würzburg (Germany) and two other aroma compounds in the essential oil of myrrh. Thirteen years later, Jose R. Pedro and co-workers at the University of Valencia (Burjassot, Spain) described the from the drug santonin². The synthetic product was identical to furanoeudesma-1,3-diene obtained from C. myrrha.

Also in 1996, Piero Dolara and colleagues at the University of Florence (Italy) reported that furanoeudesma-1,3-diene and other myrrh components in laboratory mice They showed that the compound binds to opioid receptors in brain membranes and that the analgesic effect was completely reversed by administering naloxone³. Their finding explains the use of myrrh as a pain killer in ancient times.

1. Frankincense’s key fragrance components are the olbanic acids, last week’s Molecules of the Week.
2. CAS Reg. No. 481-06-1.
3. CAS Reg. No. 465-65-6.