Beeyo and maydi: Boswellia sacra and Boswellia frereana compared

Beeyo and maydi are the resins of the two main frankincense trees harvested in Somaliland.¹ They are different species, tapped in different seasons, and they go to different buyers.¹ We sell both as core supply.

The trade sells beeyo as Boswellia carterii.² Its accepted botanical name is Boswellia sacra, and that is the name we use here, with the trade name beside it.³ Every figure in this article is a published value. None is a property of a lot we offer.

Beeyo and maydi side by side

Type	Beeyo	Maydi
Accepted botanical name	Boswellia sacra Flück.4	Boswellia frereana Birdw.5
Name in trade	Boswellia carterii2	Maydi, also spelt meydi or maidi6
The tree, in Somali	Moxor, also written mohor1	Yagcar1
Native range	Northern and north-eastern Somalia, southern Yemen, south-western Oman4	Northern and north-eastern Somalia only5
Resin	Milky, yellow-brown1	Large golden tears1
Scent, in our own words	Bright, citrus and pine, with a warm resinous base	Soft, lemony and fresh, less sharp than beeyo
Harvest season	Summer, the season called xagaa1	Winter, the season called deyreed1
Published oil yield	Typically 4 to 8%7	No commercial figure in the sources cited here
Oil chemistry, as published	More than one chemotype, with oils dominated by terpenes, fatty alcohols or fatty esters7	α-thujene and α-pinene, with sabinene and p-cymene8
Boswellic acids	Present9	None found9,8
Screen the lot for	1-methoxydecane, the marker of Boswellia occulta7	The same marker8
Main uses	Essential-oil distillation, perfumery and cosmetics, incense1	Chewing, incense, distillation for perfumery and cosmetics6,1

What the names mean

Beeyo is the resin of the tree Somali harvesters call moxor.¹ Kew’s Plants of the World Online accepts Boswellia sacra as the name of that tree and lists Boswellia carteri as a synonym.^4,3 A review by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh measured 37 characters and found none that separates the trees in Arabia from those in Somalia.¹⁰

The trade still uses the synonym, usually spelt with a second i, carterii.² CBI’s European market study gives Boswellia carterii for Somalia and East Africa and Boswellia sacra for Oman and Yemen.² The habit has some basis, because Somali and Omani resin can be told apart by their triterpenic acids, although botanists treat the trees as one species.⁹

So read “carterii” on an offer as a statement of origin, Somali as opposed to Omani. Where your files need the accepted name, write Boswellia sacra. Where the trade name has to stay, the Edinburgh review suggests writing it as a commercial designation, Boswellia sacra ‘carteri’.¹⁰

Maydi raises no such question: it is the resin of Boswellia frereana, the tree called yagcar.¹ Kew gives its native range as northern and north-eastern Somalia and nowhere else.⁵ In Somaliland, which these sources record under northern Somalia, both trees grow in Sanaag, and the same species continue into neighbouring Puntland.¹

Resin, harvest and grading

Beeyo is a milky, yellow-brown resin, tapped in summer, the season Somalis call xagaa.¹ Maydi forms large golden tears and is tapped in winter, in deyreed.¹ Harvesters’ own rules treat tapping outside the season as highly damaging to the tree.¹ Published accounts differ on how long each season lasts, so we give no months here.^1,11 Ask us what is available now.

Both resins are graded by size, colour and cleanliness, and traditional practice sorts maydi into six or more grades and beeyo into three.⁶ Grade names and sizes vary between traders, so we agree the specification with you in writing and send photographs and samples of the actual lot before you order. There is more in how Somali frankincense is graded.

What the published chemistry says

Somali Boswellia sacra resin typically yields 4 to 8% essential oil.⁷ More than one chemotype of the species has been identified. The study that reports the yield describes the oils of the known Boswellia chemotypes as dominated by terpenes, fatty alcohols or fatty esters, and names α-pinene, α-thujene, limonene, myrcene, sabinene, octyl acetate and octanol across the genus.⁷ That is a list for the genus. It is not a profile of Somali resin, and should not be read as one.

For Boswellia frereana, the figures here come from a study of twelve single trees sampled in Sanaag.⁸ Their oils held 14.5 to 43.9% α-thujene and 3.0 to 63.0% α-pinene, with sabinene at 3.3 to 8.0% and p-cymene at 1.7 to 13.0%.⁸

Two independent studies found no boswellic acids in Boswellia frereana resin.^9,8 Its triterpenes are mainly lupeol, α-amyrin, 3-epi-lupeol and β-amyrin.⁸ Somali Boswellia sacra resin does contain boswellic acids, but the Somali samples in one survey differed widely from one another and showed no clear pattern.⁹

These figures describe the species. For the lot you are offered, distil the sample. Our frankincense sheet sets out what is fixed in every order and what is tested on request.

A third species under the beeyo name

Sanaag has a third frankincense tree, Boswellia occulta, known locally as mohor madow.¹² It was described as a new species only in 2019, after generations of local harvesters had tapped it.¹² It is known from a limited area of Sanaag, mainly around the towns of Ceel Dibir and Bildhalaay.⁷ Ask where a lot was collected: our lot list records the collection area of every bag.

Its resin is sold as beeyo too, and it has been found mixed with the resin of Boswellia sacra.^7,13 Boswellia occulta gives a different oil, marked by 1-methoxydecane at 26.6 to 47.9% in single-tree samples.¹³

A 2019 study tested 13 commercial oils sold as pure Boswellia carterii and found methoxydecane in 9 of them, including 4 of the 5 that were certified organic.⁷ Its authors concluded that organic certification is not enough to guarantee purity in a wild-harvested product.⁷

Oil sold as frereana is not exempt: the single-tree study found no methoxyalkanes in any Boswellia frereana sample, and its authors concluded that commercial frereana oils containing them are mixtures with Boswellia occulta.⁸

GC-MS detects the marker readily.¹³ If you sell your oil as carterii, mixed resin becomes your labelling problem. Write a 1-methoxydecane screen into your specification and have it run on the lot itself. We arrange GC-MS on request through an outside laboratory. See how to verify the species and quality of a frankincense lot.

Where each resin goes

The essential-oil market now drives demand for beeyo, and its oil has long been used in perfumery and cosmetics.¹ In 2010 Somaliland’s resin went mainly to Arab wholesalers, and by 2016 and 2017 Somali exporters were shipping cleaned resin to distilleries in the USA, the EU and the UAE.¹ Frankincense oil serves as a base and a fixative in soaps, cosmetics and perfumes.⁶

Maydi is chewed as well as burned: a 2005 review of the gum-resin trade recorded it as highly valued for chewing, for its lemon scent, sweet taste and pale colour.⁶ Its top grades were a prestigious chewing product in Saudi Arabia and were used by pilgrims during the Hajj, while Egypt took many of the lower grades for incense.⁶

Conflict in Yemen and Libya, two countries that historically used a significant amount of maydi, has depressed the trade in it.¹ Maydi is distilled too, as beeyo is, into essential oil for perfume and cosmetics.¹

Choosing between them

Oil sold as carterii. Buy beeyo, and put a 1-methoxydecane screen in the specification.

Oil sold as frereana. Buy maydi, ask for the same screen, and distil the sample before you fix a profile. A published α-pinene range of 3 to 63% between single trees means the species name alone will not predict the oil.⁸

Incense and bakhoor. Both resins are burned as incense, so the choice is one of appearance and scent.¹ Compare samples of the same grade side by side.

Chewing. Buy maydi. The published accounts place the chewing market in its top grades.⁶ We make no food-safety statement for resin sold for chewing: that assessment is the buyer’s, for its own market.

Extracts standardised on boswellic acids. Maydi is the wrong resin, because none have been found in it.^9,8 Beeyo contains them, in amounts you should measure on the lot.⁹ European demand for such extracts is centred on Boswellia serrata from India.²

If you are unsure, test both. We send graded samples of the exact lot on offer, so the order matches what you approved. Request a sample and tell us what you make.