Since the ancient world the aromatic fragrance of burning frankincense has been part of many religious ceremonies and is still used as a means to indicate special festive atmosphere in the church today.

But frankincense can do much more.

"The resin from the trunk of Boswellia trees contains anti-inflammatory substances," said Professor Dr. Oliver Werz of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Germany).

The chair of Pharmaceutical and Medical Chemistry is convinced that these substances can be very beneficial in therapies against diseases like asthma, rheumatoid arthritis or atopic dermatitis.

However, so far the active substances in frankincense cannot at present be found in drugs in German pharmacies, as the pharmacological impact of frankincense hasn't been thoroughly investigated.

"Although Boswellia resin has been used for thousands of years in the Ayurvedic medicine for instance, the clinical studies we have so far are not suffice for a license in Germany and Europe," Professor Werz explained.

But that could change. As part of a mutual project with partners of the University Saarbrucken and a start-up company, Professor Werz and his team examined the curative effect of frankincense.

In this project the researchers were able to show where exactly the boswellic acids which are responsible for the impact of the ingredients of the Boswellia resin actually interfere in the process of inflammation.

"Boswellic acids interact with several different proteins that are part of inflammatory reactions, but most of all with an enzyme which is responsible for the synthesis of prostaglandin E2," Oliver Werz pointed out.

Prostaglandin E2 is one of the mediators of the immune response and plays a decisive role in the process of inflammation, in the development of fever and of pain.

"Boswellic acids block this enzyme efficiently and thereby reduce the inflammatory reaction," the Jena pharmacist explained.

With this, not only a targeted use in the therapy of inflammatory diseases is conceivable. It can also be expected that boswellic acids have less side effects than today's prevalent anti-inflammatory treatments like diclofenac or indometacin. Their impact is less specific, they can increase the risk of stomach ulcers and can negatively affect renal function.

In their latest study the researchers around Professor Werz additionally compared the resin of different kinds of frankincense in its anti-inflammatory impact.

There are more than ten Boswellia species in the world. The most well-known and widely-used one is the Boswellia serrata from Northern and central India.

"We were able to show that the resin of the Boswellia papyrifera is ten times more potent," Professor Werz explained a further result of his research.

This species mostly occurs in the Northeast of Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia) and on the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen, Oman).

Whether frankincense will become accepted, is indeed not only due to the outcome of the clinical examination, which is yet to come.

"Boswellic acids exclusively occur in the resin of Boswellia trees and are very difficult to produce synthetically," Werz pointed out.

Therefore these trees are the only source of these promising active ingredients. However Boswellia trees are already an endangered tree species. In many places they are just being used as heating fuel.

"Thereby without sustained protection not only plant species are endangered but at the same time medicine loses promising active ingredients," Professor Werz warned.

The significance of the World Population Day, observed on July 11 every year, lies in the fact that the world holds 7,025,071,966 people as on July 9, 2012, a leap of over 2.5 times over the last fifty years, while earth's resources remain finite.

A huge number of people, running into billions, suffer from abject poverty, starvation, malnutrition, diseases, illiteracy, lack of access to healthcare, wars and all kinds of social, political and economic injustice.

In 1989, in its decision 89/46, the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme recommended that, in order to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues in the context of overall development plans and programmes and the need to find solutions for these issues, 11 July should be observed by the international community as World Population Day.
Popular interest in the Five Billion Day on July 11, 1987, the date on which the world's population reached five billion people, is said to have acted as the inspiration.

Since framing of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the themes of the annual event have centred around one or more of these goals. The theme of the World Population Day 2012 is "Universal Access to Reproductive Health Services".

Many activities and campaigns will call attention to the essential part that reproductive health plays in development of communities.

Kids who grow up with cats or dogs tend to get fewer respiratory infections during their first year of life, according to a new study from Finland.

Researchers followed 397 children from pregnancy through their first year of life, and found that those living with dogs developed 31 percent fewer respiratory tract symptoms or infections, 44 percent fewer ear infections and received 29 percent fewer antibiotic prescriptions.

Contact with cats was also linked with fewer infections, but the effect was not as drastic as contact with dogs - for example, infants living with cats were 2 percent less likely to need antibiotics.

"We speculated that maybe the dogs somehow can bring dirt or soil inside the house, and then the immune system is strengthened, or maybe it's something about the animals themselves," said study researcher Dr. Eija Bergroth, a pediatrician at the Kuopio University Hospital in Finland.

The link between pets and fewer infections held even when researchers took into account factors known to affect infants' infection rates, such as breast-feeding and number of siblings. Still, the researchers acknowledged that couldn't account for all such factors, and noted that they found a correlation, not a cause-and-effect relationship.

In a rare surgery, doctors of a government hospital here have removed an iron arrow pierced through the chest of a Bonda tribal without anaesthesia, doctors said today. The surgery had to be conducted on Soma Chalan, hit by the arrow on his back at Mudulipada three days ago, as soon as he was brought to the Malkangiri district hospital. As the hospital had no anaesthesia at that time, his critical condition did not permit any referral to the nearest MKCG Medicl College Hospital at Berhampur, about 500 km from here, surgeon Sapan Kumar Dhinda said. "He would have died on way to Berhampur because his condition was very critical. I took a risk and conducted the very difficult operation", Dhinda said. Chief District Medical Officer, Malkangiri, Sasibhushan Panda said, "It was one of the rare surgeries conducted under difficult circumstances. Dhinda took it as a challenge and saved Soma's life". PTI COR SKN PR

Strawberries, the traditional summer treat, could offer unexpected health benefits of preventing development of heart disease and diabetes, says a study.

University of Warwick scientists have been studying the beneficial effects of strawberries on cardiovascular health, particularly around how they prevent the development of heart disease and diabetes.

Paul Thornalley, professor at the Warwick Medical School, heads the team that discovered extracts from strawberries positively activate a protein in our bodies called 'Nrf2′, which is shown to increase antioxidant and other protective activities.

This protein works to decrease blood lipids and cholesterol, the very things which can lead to cardiovascular problems, said a university statement.

Eating strawberries has previously been found to counter post-meal blood glucose and low density lipoprotein, or 'bad' cholesterol and therefore decrease risk of diabetes and heart disease, but this is the first time that strawberry extracts have been proved to actively stimulate proteins that offer us protection against disease.

Thornalley explained: " We've discovered the science behind how strawberries work to increase our in-built defences to keep cells, organs and blood vessels healthy and which can reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular problems such as heart disease and diabetes."

Screening and math modelling techniques developed at Warwick can now take this research further to help identify the best varieties of strawberries, how they are served or processed and how many strawberries should be eaten for optimum health benefit.

Thornalley will be presenting these findings at the 16th biennial meeting for the Society for Free Radical Research International (SFRRI), Imperial College London.