Myrrh - Commiphora chemistry

Abstract

Myrrh and opopanax has been used throughout history in incense and as a perfume. Since Bible times it has been used for the treatment of wounds. The first attempts to identify content compounds were almost 100 years ago. In this review we discuss the present state of knowledge in the chemistry of substances of Commiphora spp. General On this place we must mention the most known Commiphoras, namely Commiphora myrrha (Nees) Engl., true myrrh, officinal myrrh, Heera Bol tree; C. myrrha (Nees) Engler var molmol Engler (C. molmol Engl. ex Tschirch), Somalian myrrh; Commiphora abyssinica (Berg) Engler (syn. Commiphora madagascarensis Jacq.), Arabian myrrh, Abyssinian myrrh; Commiphora africana (A. Rich.) Engl., myrrh, African bdelium; Commiphora guidottii Chiov., sweet myrrh, habag-hady (name in Somalia);

Effects of Mirazid® and myrrh volatile oil on adult Fasciola gigantica under laboratory conditions

“…One of the latter exhibited cytotoxic activity. Myrrh oil had one of the highest levels of sesquiterpenes [13] . In vitro physicochemical assays characterized these components as antioxidants [26] .…”

“…The method of extracting volatile oil from myrrh included the steps of grinding up the myrrh, covering the ground up plant with a layer of water to create a mixture of plant and water, passing steam through the mixture, condensing volatile oil from the steam in a condensing chamber, and separating the layer of oil from the aqueous layer [13] .…”

“…The gum contains polysaccharides and proteins, while the volatile oil is composed of steroids, sterols and terpenes. The characteristic odor of myrrh is derived from furanosesquiterpenes [13] . One of the advantages of myrrh is that, like many herbal and botanical products, it is safe to humans and animals.…”

Antiectoparasitic activity of the gum resin, gum haggar, from the East African plant, Commiphora holtziana

“…The chemical composition of C. holtziana and C. myrrha gum resins has been reported elsewhere (Provan et al, 1987;Cavanagh et al, 1993;Zhu et al, 2001Zhu et al, , 2003Dekebo et al, 2002;MortezaSemnani and Saeedi, 2003;Marongiu et al, 2005;Hanus et al, 2005;Ahmed et al, 2006). These studies show that the resins comprise mainly sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and furanosesquiterpenes, some of which are known from unrelated studies to be effective arthropod repellents, e.g.…”

Commiphora Berryi Ameliorating Effect on Scopolamine-Induced Memory Impairments in Mice

“…Diverse secondary metabolites including terpenoids, steroids, flavonoids, sugars, lignans, etc. have been previously discovered in the Commiphora genus 27 . This revealed the bark of Commiphora berryi having rich sources of secondary metabolites.…”