Green Frankincense Demystified

Updated 2026

This post was originally written in 2024. Two years later, after sorting through many more fresh shipments of frankincense, I have learned a little more about these beautiful green tears.

If you have ever dabbled in incense or perfume making, travelled to Oman, or explored Arabian traditions around frankincense, you will likely have come across Royal Green Hojari: the lovely green-toned tears of Boswellia sacra from Oman. They are beautiful, highly valued, and often considered as the best of the best.

But here is the important part: green frankincense tears are not exclusive to Oman.

Above-Royal Green Hojari-Sultan's Grade

Green tears are found in many frankincense types

Over the past two years, I have found beautiful green tears in fresh shipments of:

• Boswellia serrata from India
• Boswellia carterii from Somalia
• Boswellia papyrifera from Ethiopia
• Boswellia dalzielii from Nigeria
• Boswellia sacra from Oman, including Hojari and Royal Green Hojari

The difference is not that Oman alone produces green frankincense. The difference is that nowhere else are these green tears sorted, collected, appreciated, and held in such esteem as they are in Oman.

In most fresh harvests, green tears appear here and there among the rest of the resin. In Oman, the grading and sorting of frankincense has been refined to a remarkable degree. The result is Royal Green Hojari and, at the very top of that grade, Sultan’s Choice.

Green tears from a recent shipment of Ethiopian frankincense papyrifera.

Large green tears are often abundant in Nigerian frankincense dalzielii.

Frankincense serrata from India. Some shipments arrive with a plethora of green tears.

Why Omani green frankincense is so special

Frankincense is much more than a commodity in Oman. It is deeply rooted in the country’s culture, history, hospitality, folk traditions, and national identity.

For thousands of years, frankincense travelled by caravan from Oman toward the Mediterranean, Europe, and beyond. The old Frankincense Road, also called "The incense route", created trade, but it also helped create a deep cultural pride around this local resin.

Oman’s frankincense is carefully graded, often with an attention that is not seen in other harvesting regions. The most beautiful green Hojari tears are not simply valued for their colour. They represent heritage, skill, tradition, and the esteem in which frankincense is held by the Omani people.

Oman also protects its local frankincense through rules governing harvesting and imports, helping preserve the identity and integrity of this important national material.

What is Sultan’s Choice frankincense?

Sultan’s Choice, sometimes called Sultan’s Select or Sultan’s Grade, is the cream of the Royal Green Hojari harvest.

These are the biggest, cleanest, greenest, and most beautiful tears selected from the Royal Green Hojari grade. They have traditionally been associated with Omani hospitality and are often given by the Sultanate of Oman to visiting dignitaries as a gift representing the country.

In my view, this is what gives Sultan’s Choice its real value. It is not simply a green resin. It is a material that carries history, pride, generosity, and cultural meaning.

Does green frankincense smell different?

Not because it is green.

A green tear and a white or pale tear may come from the same tree and the same harvest. The green colour itself does not create a different aroma profile.

Of course, every harvest varies. Growing conditions, location, weather, harvest timing, and the number of cuts made during a season can all affect the fragrance of frankincense. But green tears are not automatically more aromatic simply because they are green.

What the green colour does tell us is that the resin is usually very fresh.

The green tone is transitory. It fades over time with heat, desert sun, and exposure to ultraviolet light. If you want to preserve it as long as possible, keep your frankincense in a sealed container, in a cool place, and out of direct sunlight.

Are green tears better medicinally?

I have found no evidence that green tears are more medicinal than other tears from the same tree and harvest.

They contain the same essential oils, resin acids, and aromatic compounds as the rest of that harvest. Their greater value is largely aesthetic and cultural, not a matter of special therapeutic chemistry.

That does not make them any less beautiful. It simply means we should appreciate them for what they are.

What makes frankincense green?

The honest answer is: I do not know.

One popular theory is that chlorophyll may be involved, which would help explain why the colour is so fleeting. But I have not found a definitive scientific explanation for the compounds responsible for the green colour.

If you come across a good study on the subject, please send it my way.

Folklore adds value too

In Oman and Arabia, folklore has also shaped how particular frankincense tears are valued.

Tears shaped like male anatomy are sometimes called dakar, meaning “male” in Arabic, and have traditionally been associated with virility and male libido. Conversely, tears with shapes associated with female anatomy have been considered useful for female complaints.

Whether or not one accepts these traditions literally, they show how people have long found meaning, story, and value in the natural shapes of frankincense tears.

I sometimes wonder whether especially beautiful frankincense may once have been collected as tribute or tax for rulers. If this purpose lent it the name "Royal". Pastoralist communities had sheep, goats, camels, and frankincense. The rarer and more remarkable the resin, the more suitable it would have been as an offering. Perhaps this is where the highly refined sorting process started.

That is only my theory, but it fits with the long history of the Sultanate and Imamate that preceded it in Oman, and with the added value placed on the finest grades of frankincense.

A fresh eye for green frankincense

These days, whenever I receive a particularly fresh shipment of Boswellia carterii, dalzielii, serrata, papyrifera, or sacra, I look for the green tears and set them aside as something special for my customers.

Not because they are magically different. Not because they are more medicinal.

But because they are fresh, beautiful, fleeting, and a reminder that every frankincense-producing region has its own treasures.