Olibanum bezoar: complication of a traditional popular medicine.

In the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, olibanum (frankincense) is commonly recommended as a part of the traditional popular medic cine for the treatment of some abdominal disease. Olibanum is used in Misurata as a chewing gum and is swallowed for the treatment of dyspepsia. Bezoars are large conglomerates of vegetables fibres, hairs or concretions of various substances loc cated in the stomach or small intestine of humans and certain ruminant animals [1,2]. There are 3 common varieties of bezoars, trichobezoar, phytobezoar and lactobezoar. Medication bezoars resulting from intake of certain drugs are rare. Phytobezoar is a compact mass of fibres, skins, seeds, leaves, roots or stems of plants that collects in the stomach or small intestine [3]. We report a 17cyearcold Libyan female with coeliac disease who developed a gastric bezoar as a result of excessive olibanum intake. To the best of our knowledge, olibanum bezoar has not been reported before in the medical literature.