Does Boswellia work?
The only clinical study (Oxford level of evidence IV) compared three different dosages of Boswellia extracts. Allocation to intervention groups was neither randomised nor concealed and there was no control group (without intervention or with placebo). The number of patients in this study is rather small and no further information is available on possible intervening factors like co-morbidity. It remains unclear how the clinical status of patients and the claimed improvement of clinical status was assessed. The radiologic method (CT scan) to evaluate edema size was criticised as unreliable and no information was available as to whether outcome assessors were blinded to treatment status of patients. Therefore, it remains unclear whether there was a significant reduction of brain edema at all and whether the reported reduction could be attributed to the Boswellia extracts. The hypothesis that the observed clinical improvement and a possible radiologically diagnosed reduction of brain edem
