The brown reddish gum, ‘Balsam of Gilead’, is used in incense and perfumery and for tanning. Young shoots are used as deodorant by rubbing on body and underarms. The taste of its gum is slightly bitter and suggestive of turpentine. In the Middle East, Balsam of Gilead is used to treat various ailments.

In November 2021, the IUCN had no rating fro Commiphora gileadensis.

M. Thulin (1999) 2: 187-228

Plants shrubs or trees up to 5 m tall, unarmed, sometimes with long, slender, drooping branches; bark yellowish to dull orange or grey-black, smooth, sometimes pealing into small papery flakes.; branchlets longitudinally ridged, glabrous to pubescent. Leaves with 3-9(-11) leaflets, glabrous to densely pubescent, sometimes with hooked hairs; petioles 2-35 mm long, sometimes narrowly winged; rachises sometimes narrowly winged; leaflets linear to oblanceolate, obovate, or suborbicular, 0.3-3.2 cm long, 0.1-2(-2.5) cm wide, margins entire, tips subacute to retuse, lateral leaflets smaller than the terminal leaflets. Inflorescences of 1-several flowers in glabrous to pubescent cymes or clusters; peduncles about 0.5-5 mm long; pedicels 0.5-2.5(-6) mm long. Calyces 1-1.5 mm long, glabrous or pubescent; petals 2-5mm long, white or cream, glabrous or pubescent outside. Fruits ellipsoid to ovoid, 5-10 mm long, 3-7 mm wide, tips obtuse or apiculate, glabrous or sparsely puberulous, purplish, marked with 4 pale lines, usually on a distinct stalk, sometimes subsessile; pericarps 4-valved; pseudoarils with cuplike basal part and thinner upper part; stones ellipsoide to ovoid, flattened, 4-7.5 mm long, 3-5 mm wide, sterile cells much smaller than fertile cells. 

Commiphora gileadensis grows in Acacia-Commiphora bushland and in semi-desert shrub at 15-1300 m, It is known from regions N1-3, C1, 2, and S1,2 of the regions in Flora of Somalia. It is also grows in Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, and Kenya. 

As Thulin explains in the Flora of Somalia, the above description includes several variants that have been named as distinct species by others. Several of the variants differed in their pubescence.  

©The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Reproduced with permission.

Key to species of Commiphora in Somaliland and Somalia

Mary E. Barkworth

Habit: shrubs ot rees to 5 m tall, sometimes with long drooping branches; bark yellowish to dull orange or grey-black, smooth, sometimes flaking; brachlets longitudinally ridged.

Leaves: usually with 3-9 leaflets, sometimes 11, glabrous to densely pubescent, sometimes with hooked hairs; terminal leaflets linear to obovate or suborbicular, 0.3-3.2 cm long, 0.1-2.5 cm wide, margins entire, tips acute, lateral leaflets smaller.

Inflorescences with 1 to several cflowers.

Flowers: calyces 1-1.5 mm long; corollas 2-5 mm long, white or cream.

Fruits ellipsoid to ovoid, obtuse to apiculate, 5-10 mm long, purplish with 4 pale, lines; pericarp 4-valved.

As Thulin interprets the species, the species, the amount, distribution, and pubescence is highly variable.