Small bottle, big promise. Essential oils are supposed to calm down, make them happy, motivate and even help aromatherapy against diseases. But is that true? What should you pay attention to when using? And how sustainable are the essential oils?
Aromatherapy used people in ancient Egypt, China and India to strengthen the body and heal diseases. Even the Bible mentions the use of essential oils almost 200 times. What exactly is an essential oil? A concentrated water vapor distillate made of plants. The fragrant substances are not oils in the real sense, because they are easily fleeting and vaporize completely and without residue. Nevertheless, they are called oils because they are fat -soluble liquids. When evaporating, they spread an intensive fragrance.
How do essential oils work?
Essential oils can be inhaled by us or absorbed through the skin at a bath or massage. In lower doses you can also find yourself in teas or capsules, the active ingredients then get into our body via digestion. However, the essential oils should never be used pure, but always diluted. They are popular because they have supposedly few side effects. Nevertheless, caution is advised and not every advertising promise can be observed.
Aromas are perceived by the body by olfactory receptors. These docking points for fragrance molecules are not only in the nose, but also in the skin and others. In this way you stimulate the nervous system and trigger certain body processes. For example, fragrances can activate the limbic system in the brain and trigger neurotransmitter such as serotonin and dopamine. In particular, smells that we combine with positive or negative memories trigger strong feelings. The smell of orange is linked to most people with pleasant memories and can thus lighten the mood and increase well -being.
Can aromatherapy heal?
There are indications that aroma substances can help with physical and mental symptoms. However, they are not an alternative to conventional medicine, but an addition. Lavender is associated with a calming effect, for example, mandarin scent should be stimulating, rosemary is intended to increase concentration and help eucalyptus with colds.
In the case of diseases such as sleep disorders, depression or pain, the data situation for aromatherapy is contradictory and often only derived from animal or cell tests. Clinical studies on such essential oils have very small samples and are mostly methodologically poor. For controlled studies, it is important, for example, that neither an experimental manager nor study participants know who gets the active ingredient or placebo. Since aroma substances are recognizable by the smell, this scientific standard is often not feasible. Therefore, statements about the effects of aromatherapy can therefore only be made to a limited extent and further basic research is necessary.
In the past few years, however, there have been interesting study results: In Bochum, researchers have shown that the artificial fragrance sand alore over the or2at4 olfactory receptor promotes wound healing and can even inhibit the growth of certain leukemia cells. In small studies with dementia patients, lavender oil has reduced unrest, sleep problems and social retreat. There are also individual controlled studies in chronic pain, colds and nausea that suggest positive effects. Peppermint oil is effective in voltage headaches and is approved as external therapy.
What should you pay attention to when using essential oils?
Even if essential oils have a natural origin, it does not mean that they are harmless. Some oils can irritate the skin or nose if you use it incorrectly. For example, citrus and mountain range oil increase the risk of sunburn. Oils such as camphor, peppermint and eucalyptus can be poisonous when swallowing. Pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and small children should not use some essential oils because they could harm. It should also be paid to individual allergies, because many fragrances are strong allergens. You can trigger eczema and rashes, nausea and headache.
How are essential oils made and how sustainable are they?
Plant leaves, roots and woods are treated with hot water vapor to extract essential oils. The slightly fleeing fragrance molecules come off the plants. The steam then cools down and the water is separated from the essential oils. This process is called distillation. However, flowers are too sensitive to this method. Therefore, your aroma substances are obtained as a solvent using alcohol. In the case of citrus fruits, the shell is pressed out so that juice and oil emerge. Then a centrifuge water and oil separates from each other.
Despite their plant origin, essential oils are only partially sustainable. On the one hand, they consume large amounts of vegetable material. For one liter of rose oil, manufacturers process 5000 kilograms of rose flowers, for example. This means that the cultivation of the vegetable fragrance suppliers needs a lot of water and land space. As in conventional agriculture, pesticides are often used to combat pests and weeds. If you pay attention to organic certificates, the cultivation is at least a little more environmentally friendly in this regard, since no chemical fertilizers or synthetic pesticides are used.
The same applies to the disposal of residues essential oils as with drugs: such a high concentration of plant substances as in essential oils would not occur in nature. Therefore, some fragrance oils are difficult to break down or even toxic to aquatic plants and animals. Therefore, essential oils should not be disposed of through the drain or household waste, but by hazardous waste.
