Frankincense and myrrh are always mentioned together — do they smell alike?

No. They are unrelated in profile despite sharing the Burseraceae family and a shared history in trade. Frankincense is bright, dry, papery and lightly citric. Myrrh is dark, warm, bitter and medicinal, with far greater tenacity. In a formulation they perform quite different jobs: frankincense lifts, myrrh anchors.

An old bottle of Tincture of Myrrh — Reference photograph of the material, not of a specific lot. Stephencdickson, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 8 photographs

SKU: MYRRH-OIL-001
Material: Essential Oil
Origin: Somalia
Extraction: Steam distillation
Plant part: Oleo-gum-resin
Lots held: 1

Myrrh OilSample data

Somali Myrrh Oil

Commiphora myrrha(Burseraceae)

AvailableSomalia9.8 kg unreserved

GC-MS AvailableCOA AvailableOrigin VerifiedTraceableSample AvailableBulk AvailableWild Harvested

Steam-distilled Commiphora myrrha — warm, bitter-balsamic, medicinal and deeply tenacious.

100 g

$52.00

$0.52 / g

MOQ

100 g

Pack size

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Volume pricing

Quantity	Per g
1–500 g	$0.52
500+ g	$0.44

Myrrh oil steam-distilled from Commiphora myrrha gum-resin collected in northern Somalia. Where frankincense is bright and papery, myrrh is dark, bitter and warm — a fundamentally different register despite the two being perennially paired.

The oil is thick, deeply tenacious and carries a distinctive bitter-medicinal edge over a warm balsamic base. It is a fixative of the first rank and holds a composition together at very low inclusion rates. Above a few tenths of a percent it will dominate.

Supplied as a viscous, dark amber liquid. Some sedimentation over time is normal for this material and is not a defect.

Declared origin: Somalia
Additional origins: Not recorded
Harvest season: Not recorded
Harvest year: 2025
Traceability: Not recorded

Lots

SOM-MYR-2025-007Origin verified

Available

Origin: Somalia
Harvest: 2025
Available: 9,800 g
Testing: Completed

Trace this lot

Harvest / collectionHarvest · 10 May 2025
Raw material collected at declared origin during the 2025 season.
Steam distillationProcessing · 11 Jun 2025
Steam distillation carried out at origin. Batch identified as SOM-MYR-2025-007.
Intake and identificationIntake · 12 Jul 2025
Batch received, weighed and assigned a lot reference against the supplier declaration.
Analytical testing completedTesting · 13 Jul 2025
Analysis completed for this lot. Reports are released per the documentation panel.
Origin declaration verifiedDocumentation · 14 Aug 2025
Supplier origin declaration checked against shipping and batch documentation.

Supplier and producer identity is held internally and is not published. Disclosure to a buyer of record is handled case by case.

Warm, bitter-balsamic and medicinal, with a dry, faintly smoky woodiness and very high tenacity. Functions as a fixative; assertive above roughly 0.3 percent.

Balsamic90

Medicinal78

Woody62

Smoky48

Earthy54

Spicy36

Relative prominence of each descriptor, recorded on evaluation. Indicative only; not an analytical measurement.

Botanical name: Commiphora myrrha
Botanical family: Burseraceae
Common name: Myrrh
Material type: Essential Oil
Plant part: Oleo-gum-resin
Extraction method: Steam distillation
Extraction technology: Not recorded
Colour: Dark amber to brown
Appearance: Viscous liquid; slight sedimentation is normal
INCI name: Commiphora Myrrha Oil
CAS number: 84929-26-0
EINECS: 284-510-0
HS code: 3301.29
CITES status: Not CITES-listed
REACH: Not recorded
Shelf life: 48 months
Storage: Store in full, tightly sealed amber glass or lined steel, away from light and heat, ideally between 4 and 15 °C. Headspace accelerates oxidation; decant into smaller vessels as stock is drawn down.
Allergens: Allergen content is determined per lot by analysis. Where an allergen declaration is listed for a lot, it reflects that lot only. Where no declaration is listed, none has been issued and none should be assumed.
Regulatory notes: Not recorded

Natural materials vary by harvest, season and lot. Specifications describe the referenced lot and are not a guarantee for future batches.

Fine Fragrance

Alcoholic fine fragrance, extrait and eau de parfum formulation.

Incense & Bakhoor

Incense, bakhoor, joss and traditional burning preparations.

Cosmetics & Skincare

Leave-on and rinse-off cosmetic formulation.

Attar Production

Traditional attar and mukhallat compounding.

3 documents on file · 1 available on request

AllergenAllergen Declaration
Documentation available upon request
COACertificate of Analysis — SOM-MYR-2025-007
Documentation available upon request
GC-MSGC-MS Report — SOM-MYR-2025-007
Documentation available upon request
SDSSafety Data Sheet
Documentation available upon request

Documentation is issued per lot where it exists. Where a document is listed as available on request, it has not yet been published to this catalogue. Sign in to access documents released to account holders.

Wild-harvested. Commiphora stands in the region are subject to grazing and land-use pressure. Harvesting-interval data is recorded at lot level where the collector supplies it.

Packaging options

100 g amber glass
500 g amber glass
1 kg lined aluminium
5 kg lined steel

Shipping eligibility is subject to destination-country regulations. Transit estimates are shown only where a configured shipping lane provides them.

Frankincense and myrrh are always mentioned together — do they smell alike?: No. They are unrelated in profile despite sharing the Burseraceae family and a shared history in trade. Frankincense is bright, dry, papery and lightly citric. Myrrh is dark, warm, bitter and medicinal, with far greater tenacity. In a formulation they perform quite different jobs: frankincense lifts, myrrh anchors.