# Boswellia extract effective in Crohn's, colitis



## PollyH (Feb 17, 2013)

Boswellia (Frankincense) is fairly well known for its ability to control inflammation in arthritis. It is also helpful in intestinal inflammation. However, for enhanced inflammation control, you want a product that is high in an extract of Boswellia called AKBA. Such a product exists. It is called Boswellia 3K ™ . (I do not sell this.) Here is some information that indicates the effectiveness of AKBA in the control of inflammation in Crohn's and colitis or IBD. 

Specific findings 

Poeckel (28) reviews in detail the human and animal studies done with a variety of boswellia preparations in the IBD model. His main findings are summarized briefly here. 

Animal studies showed protective effects specifically of AKBA in toxin induced hepatitis and ileitis. AKBA also significantly blunted experimental mouse colitis and prevented typical inflammatory cell reactions like recruitment of adherent leukocytes and platelets into inflamed colonic venules. AKBA also largely prevented the P-selectin up-regulation. These effects were similar to those in mice treated with corticosteroids.(30) 

Recently, BA‟s were shown to prevent experimental diarrhea and to normalize intestinal motility without slowing down the rate of transit when given to control animals. (8) 

In a human study patients with colitis, grade II and III, had an 82% remission rate when treated with BA‟s as opposed to 75% of those in the control sulfasalazine group. 7 

In another study 14 BA‟s treated patients, out of a total of 20 patients, went into remission, as opposed to 4 out of 10 patients in the control sulfasalazine group. 

General conclusions: 

- BA‟s improved clinical well being in patients with IBD; 

- BA‟s improved stool properties, microscopy of rectal biopsies, hemoglobin and other blood parameters, serum iron, calcium, phosphorus, proteins, total leukocytes and eosinophils, and the Crohn‟s disease activity index. 

The above quote is from this document

http://www.truebotanicafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Therapeutic_Advantages_of_AKBA.pdf

Please note that you need to get the AKBA fraction of the Boswellia plant in order to get these results. Some of the Boswellia products only contain 1 to 3% of AKBA. A 90% AKBA extract is available in a product called Boswellia 3K ™


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## Igor_Passau (Feb 18, 2013)

Hi,
I was on Boswellia Serata about 1 mouth! I purchased from Germany! It helps! but not for long time. I posted on this forum my research regarding Boswellia!


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## Igor_Passau (Feb 18, 2013)

http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=15474


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## PollyH (Feb 18, 2013)

I really like the information I've read from your links so far. Thank you! However, I wonder if there is an aspect of Boswellia that is missing from those links. In order to get enough of the AKBA, you need to extract mainly just that portion of the plant. Otherwise you would end up taking a lot of pills, and high doses of some of the other components of the Boswellia plant might become a problem. Here is the summary paragraph from this article.


http://www.truebotanicafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Therapeutic_Advantages_of_AKBA.pdf

Conclusions

Abundant scientific research shows that the AKBA fraction of Boswellic acids is ideally suited to inhibit the 5-lipoxygenase pathway and its resultant pathological inflammatory cascade. The use of boswellia over the centuries attests to therapeutic potential of the gum resin. In recent studies results have been favorable but never spectacular. Raising the level of daily doses of unpurified boswellia extracts, in order to achieve an optimal blood level is difficult from a practical compliance point of view. Even at a standardization level of 5% AKBA, which most market preparations do not have, (if they declare it on the label at all), it would take approx. 16 capsules of 250 mg BSE to achieve a daily dose of 200 mg AKBA per day. The bigger problem, however, would be the concern that concomitantly with the desired AKBA fraction high dosages of the other beta boswellic acids would be ingested. They could potentially exacerbate a hypercoagulable state, particularly in today‟s world where most patients are presenting with a host of co-morbid conditions.

A highly purified pharmaceutical grade BSE consisting essentially of pure AKBA avoids all the problems and increases exponentially the clinical success rate.

The safety and versatility of this nutritional product will allow its use in numerous pathological conditions that have never been approached in this manner before.
Including inhibitors of 5-LO mediated inflammations in one‟s routine clinical management should become an established standard of care.


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## nogutsnoglory (Feb 19, 2013)

For those of you taking the supplement, how many milligrams do you take per day?


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## ctrl z (Feb 19, 2013)

Cool. Looks like the boswellia I've been using has the akba formulation. It's not the boswellia 3k stuff though.


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## mnsun (Feb 19, 2013)

I see there is a Life Extension brand with 20mg AKBA per cap.  Ctrlz which do you use?


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## ctrl z (Feb 19, 2013)

Yep... that's it. It's the Life Extension. I take 2 in the AM and 2 in the PM. Not sure if that's really the greatest to do but I'm doing my best! Hopefully it's not going to make me sprout tentacles or explode my liver :biggrin:


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## kiik (Feb 19, 2013)

Hi, how do I know if what I'm taking is high in AKBA?
I'm taking Source Naturals which says it yields 243 mg of boswellic acids and is standardized to contain at least 65% boswellic acids. Is that what I want?


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## ctrl z (Feb 19, 2013)

It will say on the back of the bottle if it uses the AKBA formulation.


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## PollyH (Feb 19, 2013)

The Boswellia 3K product at this website contains 60 mg per capsule of AKBA. It currently costs $34.35 for 90 capsules. They also carry a AKBA Plus product with some added ingredients that I don't think that much of.

http://store.truebotanica.com/store/product/SRW0233/Boswellia3K90caps.aspx


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## Maree. (Feb 20, 2013)

Interesting that the article mentioned the traditional use in Arabian Peninsular, locals here still swear by  Boswellia, but its Boswellia Sacra (Frankinscence) not Serrata that Arabs swear by.  I wonder if there is a difference in the makeup of the two varieties.   

In Arab markets it comes as cubes of resin, when you chew it, it gets the texture of chewing gum, it has a slightly herbal flavor which is quite nice.   Locals with stomach issues go through enormous volumes of the stuff as they often chew constantly.  On trips to Oman (Boswellia Sacra grows in Oman & Yemen) we've bought kilograms of it for Saudi friends.  In Saudi you have to pay very high prices for your Boswellia to be sure you don't get Boswellia Serrata (from India), which is often substituted by unscrupulous vendors and which they don't believe has the same medicinal benefits.

I did a internet hunt and it doesn't seem like there has been much research done to compare the different Boswellia plants to see if the acids in them are the same.


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