Boswellia in pregnancy and breastfeeding

What NCCIH says about safety

Boswellia is likely to be safe when taken orally. Boswellia serrata extract in doses up to 1,000 mg daily has been safely used in several clinical trials lasting up to 6 months. It has also been used with apparent safety at a dose of 2,400 mg for up to 1 month. Boswellia (frankincense) may be safe to use topically or for aromatherapy. If you have asthma, follow your health care provider’s recommendations on how to manage your condition. For your safety: Do not substitute other approaches for treatments recommended or prescribed by your health care provider. Consult your health care provider about adding any complementary health products or practices to your asthma management program. If you take medicine for asthma, talk with your provider before starting to take a dietary supplement. Some dietary supplements and medicines can interact in harmful ways. No complementary approach has been shown to cure cancer or cause it to go into remission. Some products or practices that have been advocated for cancer treatment may interfere with conventional cancer treatments or have other risks. If you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, you should consult your health care providers before using any complementary health approach. It is likely safe to use boswellia in amounts commonly found in foods during pregnancy or while breastfeeding. Little is known about whether it’s safe to use boswellia orally in medicinal amounts or to use frankincense during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.

Quoted in full from NCCIH so nothing is lost in summarising. Where they say “little is known”, that means the studies do not exist — not that the herb is known to be safe, and not that it is known to be harmful.

How much is actually known

There have been several studies on the potential health benefits and safety of using boswellia, but most of these are small and of low quality. There is not enough high-quality evidence to determine whether boswellia is useful for any health condition.

What the research has found

Several studies have shown taking boswellia orally may help reduce inflammation and pain associated with osteoarthritis, but larger, higher quality studies are needed. The topical use of boswellia (frankincense) for osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and other health conditions has been studied, but there isn’t enough evidence to show that it is an effective treatment. A few small studies suggest that taking boswellia orally may reduce asthma symptoms. However, there is not enough rigorous evidence to determine whether boswellia is a useful treatment for asthma. There has been limited research in people on taking boswellia orally for several types of cancer, and although some results are encouraging, larger clinical studies are needed. A small study of patients with malignant glioma, an aggressive brain tumor, showed that boswellia taken orally may help to reduce edema (swelling) of the brain but not the tumor. There is no evidence that boswellia can prevent or treat COVID-19.

Before you take this

Dose and form change the answer completely. A culinary amount of a spice, a cup of tea, and a concentrated supplement extract are three different things, and most research is done on the last of them.

Supplements are also not regulated like medicines, so strength and purity vary between products. Bring the actual bottle to your midwife, doctor or pharmacist — that conversation is worth more than any page, including this one.