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Frankincense Extraction Plant
Specialty African Botanical & Natural Ingredients

Frankincense Extraction Plant

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Compact stainless-steel distillation still with a pressure gauge, an inclined shell-and-tube condenser and a firebox boiler on a plant floor

Frankincense Extraction Plant

Frankincense is the dried oleo-gum-resin of Boswellia trees, tapped as hardened tears in the dry woodlands of East Africa and the Sahel belt, among other regions. A processor weighing up a plant has one question to answer first: which product will the buyer pay for? An aromatic essential oil, a base-note resinoid or absolute, and a boswellic-acid powder for supplements come from three different process trains, and none is a setting on another. The tear is mostly not oil: Boswellia papyrifera tears are about 3-8% volatile oil, 60-70% alcohol-soluble resin and 27-35% water-soluble gum, so the oil route works on a small fraction of the tear and the solvent routes on a much larger one. This page is written for fragrance and incense suppliers, herbal-ingredient makers and resin aggregators who now sell raw tears and want to add value locally, and it sets out what to decide before a plant is sized.

Start with the feedstock. Tears can arrive with bark, grit and dust from tapping and bagging, so every route begins with sorting, cleaning and size reduction. After that the routes split. The water route uses steam or hydro distillation in a stainless still, a chilled condenser and an oil-water separator, and gives oil plus a hydrosol; resin needs a long run, and Boswellia sacra distillate has been collected in fractions over many hours. The solvent routes use closed jacketed extractors, filtration, vacuum evaporation and solvent recovery, and end as a resinoid or, with purification and drying, as a powder. Wetted parts are SS 316L. Final configuration depends on the feedstock, the product specification and the capacity.

Indicative Capacity Range

  • 100–2,000 kg resin/day

Key Specification Inputs

Resin grade, volatiles vs nonvolatiles, distillation/extraction.

Technical Specifications

Routes coveredDistillation to an essential oil, or solvent extraction to a resinoid or to a boswellic-acid extract
FeedstockHardened Boswellia tears from tapping; species (for example B. papyrifera, B. sacra (syn. B. carteri) or B. serrata) to be confirmed for every sourcing lot
Essential oil routeSteam or hydro distillation of cleaned, milled resin; the oil is checked by GC-MS profile and physical parameters and is not sold on boswellic-acid content
Resinoid routeClosed, jacketed SS 316L extractors using a food-grade alcohol or hydrocarbon solvent chosen for the target product, giving a resinoid or absolute
Boswellic-acid routeTemperature-controlled solvent extraction followed by purification; Boswellia serrata extract grades run from 30% to 85% boswellic acids by titration, including AKBA-enriched
Front endResin reception, cleaning and sorting, then controlled milling
Distillation trainSS 316L still, multi-tube condenser on chilled-water circulation, stainless Florentine flask, then polish filtration and drying
Solvent trainFilter press or pressure leaf filter, cartridge polishing, falling-film or vacuum evaporator and a closed solvent-recovery loop
Wetted materialSS 316L, designed for CIP cleaning
ControlsPLC-based; PLC-SCADA with recipe handling on the extraction routes
Flammable solventsAreas handling solvent on the resinoid route are engineered for flammable duty
Capacity basisSet to the requirement; because resin varies by origin, species and season, capacity is fixed only after a pilot trial

Typical Process Route

1

Receive, Grade and Clean the Resin

Incoming tears are checked for species, size, colour and age, then cleaned of bark, sand and other debris collected during tapping and bagging.

2

Size Reduction

Clean tears are crushed or milled to a controlled particle size. Particle size, feed rate and any cooling needed during milling are settled in the trial on your own resin.

3

Distillation Route: Charging and Steaming

For essential oil, the milled charge goes into the SS 316L still and is steam- or hydro-distilled. The mode and run length are settled in the pilot trial, and resin generally needs a long run, many hours.

4

Distillation Route: Condense and Separate

Vapour is condensed in a multi-tube condenser on chilled water. The oil is drawn off in a Florentine flask, and the aromatic water is kept as a hydrosol co-product.

5

Distillation Route: Filter, Dry and Test

The raw oil is polish-filtered and dried, and each batch is tested by GC-MS profile and physical parameters before it is released.

6

Solvent Route: Extraction

For a resinoid or boswellic-acid extract, milled resin is extracted in closed jacketed SS 316L vessels at controlled temperature, usually through several cycles because the resin matrix is dense.

7

Solvent Route: Clarify, Concentrate and Recover

The resin-bearing liquid is clarified by filtration and cartridge polishing, then concentrated under vacuum. Solvent is condensed and returned through the closed recovery loop.

8

Standardise, Purify and Finish

A resinoid is assayed and adjusted to its declared specification. On the boswellic-acid route the concentrate is purified, vacuum-dried and pulverised, and released only after residual-solvent, heavy-metal, microbial and moisture tests.

Major Plant Equipment

  • Resin receiving, cleaning and sorting station
  • Resin crusher or controlled-milling unit
  • SS 316L still configurable for steam or hydro distillation
  • Multi-tube condenser fed by chilled water
  • Stainless Florentine flask for oil-water separation
  • Oil polish-filtration and drying station
  • Closed jacketed SS 316L extraction vessels
  • Solvent storage tanks with transfer pumps
  • Filter press or pressure leaf filter, with cartridge polish filters
  • Falling-film or vacuum evaporator
  • Closed-loop solvent recovery with condensers and vacuum pumps
  • Vacuum tray dryer or spray dryer plus pulveriser for the powder route
  • Clean-in-place (CIP) skid
  • PLC panel, motor control centre and field instruments

Plant Output

Frankincense (olibanum) essential oil, steam-distilled and checked by GC-MSFrankincense hydrosol, a co-product of distillationFrankincense (olibanum) resinoid or absolute from solvent extractionStandardised boswellic-acid extract powder (Boswellia serrata), graded by boswellic-acid content

Applications

  • Essential oil for aromatherapy, perfumery and fragrance compounding
  • Resinoid as a base-note ingredient in fine fragrance
  • Incense and traditional resin-based products
  • Boswellic-acid extract for joint-health and anti-inflammatory supplements
  • Aromatic and active ingredients for cosmetics and skin care
  • Raw material for Ayurvedic, Unani and other traditional preparations
  • Standardised ingredient supply to pharmaceutical manufacturers

Key Features

  • Resin-Specific Front End

    Sorting, cleaning and milling are set up for hard, dusty tears with bark and sand attached, which is a different handling job from leaf, flower or seed.

  • Three Products, Three Trains

    Oil, resinoid and boswellic-acid powder are not interchangeable. Boswellic acids are high-molecular-weight compounds, so a distilled oil is not a boswellic-acid product.

  • Oil Released on Analytical Data

    Each distilled batch is judged against its GC-MS profile and physical parameters, and a certificate of analysis can accompany it.

  • Long-Cycle Solvent Extraction

    Time and temperature are configured for the dense resin matrix, and a closed loop returns recovered solvent for reuse.

  • Adjustable Distillation

    Distillation mode and run length can be adapted to the hardness and volatile content of different Boswellia sources.

Country Pages for Frankincense Extraction Plant

This product is listed on the pages of the countries below, each with its own enquiry route. Where Kadali has no office in a country, enquiries are handled from the Accra office.

Related Products

Frequently Asked Questions

Which should I make first: essential oil, resinoid or boswellic-acid extract?
Let the customer decide. A perfumer or aromatherapy buyer wants distilled oil, a fragrance house working on fixative base notes wants a resinoid, and a supplement maker wants a boswellic-acid powder with an assay. Because each needs its own train, settle the product and its specification before talking about capacity. The aromatic oil distillation plant page covers the water route in more general terms.
Why will distilled frankincense oil not meet a boswellic-acid specification?
Boswellic acids are high-molecular-weight compounds, unlike the lighter volatile constituents that make up most of a distilled oil. In hydrodistillation of Boswellia sacra, longer and hotter runs carried more high-molecular-weight compounds, boswellic acids included, into later oil fractions, but the oil is still judged by its GC-MS profile and physical parameters, not as a boswellic-acid product. If the content of boswellic acids is what you are selling, the solvent-extracted and purified route is the right one, and the assay method should be agreed at the start.
How should tropical-climate resin be prepared before it reaches the plant?
Keep tears dry, off the ground and away from rain, and remove bark and grit at the collection point rather than at the plant. Separate by species, origin and harvest if you can, and record moisture and lot identity on receipt. Lots differ with species and season, so a trial on your own resin is more reliable than any general assumption.
Which Boswellia species do African origins offer, and does it matter?
Boswellia papyrifera is found from Ethiopia and Eritrea through Sudan and Chad to Nigeria, and several other species are traded. Species matters: B. papyrifera is used mainly for incense and boswellic-acid extraction, while B. sacra (syn. B. carteri) gives an oil richer in monoterpenes such as alpha-pinene, limonene and myrcene, which perfumery, cosmetics and aromatherapy prefer. A standardised-extract target, such as an AKBA-enriched grade, should be proven on your actual resin lot, not assumed from another species.
What decides solvent and energy use on these routes?
On the distillation route the main loads are steam raising and condenser cooling water, and resin needs long runs. On the solvent route the drivers are solvent inventory, the number of extraction cycles, the evaporation duty and how well the recovery loop works. Flammable solvents also bring ventilation, electrical-classification and storage requirements for the site. A solvent recovery distillation plant is the related page for the recovery side.
Which solvents can be used for the resinoid route?
A food-grade alcohol or a hydrocarbon system is chosen according to the target product, run in closed jacketed SS 316L extractors with solvent recovery. The final choice, and the residual-solvent limit you must meet, is settled in process development against your buyer's requirements.
Does the plant scope include tapping, collection or grading?
No. Those are upstream and sit outside the plant. The scope begins when resin is received, sorted and cleaned. If that interface matters to you, say so when you enquire so the proposal states what it includes.
What sample and trial work should come before a proposal?
Gather a representative resin sample with species, origin, moisture and tear grade, plus the product you want, its specification or assay target and the market you will sell into. A pilot trial is the usual way to fix yield and capacity; ask in your enquiry whether one can be arranged. See also essential oil and oleoresin solutions.
Can one plant also handle myrrh or other resins?
Myrrh follows broadly similar cleaning, milling, extraction and recovery steps, but whether one plant should serve several resins depends on their properties, the conditions each needs and the cleaning changeover between them. That is decided case by case. The specialty African botanical and natural ingredient plants category lists related ingredients.
What should a quotation request contain?
List the species and tear grade, expected volume, the product wanted (oil, resinoid or boswellic-acid extract), the specification, the finished form, the degree of automation and the site utilities. Capacity is confirmed after a pilot trial. You can request a quote with those details.

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