Frankincense, the oleogum resin from members of Boswellia, has been used as medicine and incense for thousands of years, and essential oils derived from frankincense are important articles of commerce today. A new source of frankincense resin, Boswellia dalzielii from West Africa has been presented as a new, alternative source of frankincense. In this work, the oleogum resins from 20 different Boswellia dalzielii trees growing in Burkina Faso, West Africa were collected. Hydrodistillation of the resins gave essential oils that were analyzed by GC-MS and GC-FID. The essential oils were dominated by α-pinene (21.0%-56.0%), followed by carvone (2.1%-5.4%) and α-copaene (1.8%-5.0%). Interestingly, there was one individual tree that, although rich in α-pinene (21.0%), also had a substantial concentration of myrcene (19.2%) and α-thujene (9.8%). In conclusion, the oleogum resin essential oil compositions of B. dalzielii, rich in α-pinene, are comparable in composition to other frankincense essential oils, including B. sacra, B. carteri, and B. frereana. Additionally, the differences in composition between samples from Burkina Faso and those from Nigeria are very slight. There is, however, a rare chemotype of B. dalzielii that is dominated by myrcene, found both in Burkina Faso as well as Nigeria.
Keywords: essential oil composition; frankincense; olibanum; α-pinene.