Essential oils are water-insoluble liquids obtained from different parts of plants in sub process of distillation. Aromatherapy is known for centuries and essential oils proved to have beneficial effect on both mental and physical human health. Besides their relaxing properties and pleasant fragrance, almost all essential oils have amazing curative and preventive properties, very beneficial to our health in general.
Essential oils have their effect on human body achieved in two ways. The first way is through the sense of smell and the other one through the bloodstream. New studies and researches about essential oil properties and application have been finding more and more information on their potential medical usage. Today, besides basic aromatherapy application, essential oils are becoming more common in oral form.
Oral application of essential oils
Essential oils are a set of easy volatile, biologically active chemical compounds that originate from different parts of different plants. They are obtained from raw plant material, such as roots, leaves, flowers, seeds, fruits and more. Essential oil can be isolated by various methods, but the most common way is distillation process. These preparations are highly concentrated in many valuable compounds.
There has been a lot of speculation over the question about ingesting essential oils. There are different opinions, because these preparations are very powerful in their chemical content, so should be treated with great responsibility. As an illustration, you need about 300 pounds of plant leaves to make just one pound of essential oil.
Essential oils have strong antifungal, antimicrobial, antibacterial, sedative, mucolytic, spasmolytic and many other properties, all thanks to high concentration of a particular plant part material. Those properties can be extremely healthy, but also dangerous, if taken in larger amounts than it should be. For example, when it comes to antibacterial powers, essential oils would affect both the good end the bad bacteria, so you must pay great attention when consuming it. Overconsumption could make serious health issues.
How to consume essential oils?
Essential oils are to be taken in extremely small doses, as if they were medications. So, never use them too often and make sure you thoroughly checked what properties and health effect particular essential oil has. Many people make mistake and consume it too frequently. You should always consult your doctor before taking any essential oil, just as you would do with antibiotics.
Essential oils have strong taste and some of them could be harmful to use in their concentrated form. Most of people use it with water, although they are insoluble, like every type of oil.
However, mixing with water would certainly ease consumption. Pour one or few drops of essential oil into a tea cup of water and drink it together. Another good way of consumption is mixing one drop of oil with one tablespoon of honey and then diluting mixture in warm water. One drop at the time is usually sufficient.
There are various essential oils and some of them are listed as safe to consume oral. This list includes cinnamon, clove, dill, lavender, basil, eucalyptus, bergamot, lemon, lime, grapefruit, ginger, peppermint, thyme, nutmeg, myrtle, spearmint.
