Currently, Essential oils are widely used in various fields of industries such as perfumers, food industries and pharmaceuticals. The main objective of this research was to extract and characterize essential oil from frankincense resin collected around Metema. Soxhlet extraction method was used as extraction mechanism by using hexane 99.9% v/v as a solvent. In the extraction process, particle size was kept constant to determine the effect of extraction time and temperature on yield of the extraction of essential oil. The extraction times were 1 hour, 2 hours, and 3 hours and the temperature was kept at 80, 90 and 100°C. The percentage essential oil yield was evaluated at different extraction time and temperature until the optimum time was investigated. The maximum percentage yield found in this study was 5.18% w/w at extraction time of 120 minutes and extraction temperature of 90°C. According to this study the oil extracted has specific gravity 0.79 ± 0.008, kinematic viscosity 0.54 ± 0.008 kg/m.s, acid value 14.19 ± 0.138, saponification value 143.056 ± 2.065, and ester value 128.86. The chemical composition of the oil analyzed by GC-MS was monoterpenes 2.52%, diterpenes 1.95%, Ester 69.75%, Alcohol 13.3%, Benzyl benzonate 0.27% and the remaining different hydro carbons like ketones and their derivatives. The physico-chemical properties show the oil extracted from Ethiopian B.papyriferia has basic components of the oil done in different studies of similar species.