Abstract :
According to my inherited custom, the dried West African Frankincense dalzielii undergo pyrolysis in a charcoal burner during religious services, actively undergoing metabolites sublimation and the members eventually inhaled the resultant but major essential effluent smoke, and to date, the health benefits of the incense fragrance havent been evaluated up till now, as traditionally used by our religious forefathers. The principle, Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food, advocated by Hippocrates (460377 BC), the father of modern medicine is very germane. Hence, I thus investigated the beneficial role of B. dalzielii frankincense and myrrh smoke as its usually applied during worship in most Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Taoist, and Buddhist Chinese religious centers, and as it perhaps modulates the adiposity, cardiac rate, systolic and diastolic values of high fat fed Wistar male rats, within an acute duration of 60days using Tail cuff measuring device. Rats (n =21) were used in this study and equally divided into three groups, within which the third group fed high-fat chow were exposed to 30g of B. dalzielii frankincense and myrrh smoke for one hour, emanating from incense-charcoal burner twice daily, morning and night for 60 days. During the period, weights of all the rodents were measured, noted twice a week, and at exactly 24 hours after the last exposure, cardiac rate, systolic and diastolic values were quantified using a Tail cuff device at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ibadan. Group 2 assaulted with the high fat diet (HFD) only, revealed a significant increase in adiposity, blood pressure, and heartbeat, while group 3 co-exposed to the smoke of B. dalzielii resources with the HFD showed a significant reduction in the latter to near normal group. More so, agility and active responses in the co-treated group were of imminent accomplishment. This investigation demonstrated that B. dalzielii smoke could attenuate high fat diet triggered adiposity, positive inotropism, and high heart pressure.
Keyword :
B. dalzielii, pyrolysis, incense smoke, blood pressure, cardiac rate, adiposity.