Aromatherapy
Lavender essential oil...
essential for well-being
Lavender is the most modern antidote for stress.
It has many benefits, from colds to insect bites.
"It is divine, I get tipsy with it everyday.” wrote the Marquise de Sévigné to her daughter, Madame de Grignan, about lavender.
Celebrated since antiquity for its aromatic and medicinal qualities, lavender essential oil has, indeed, many therapeutic benefits.
In "Mémoires de la Lavande" by Editions Equinoxe, Gilbert Fabiani and Alain Christof write enthusiastically about it.
"Lavender essential oil is ideal for treating mild sleep and respiratory disorders: coughing, colds, stuffy nose, asthma or influenza.
Sedative, calming, digestive, diuretic or tonic properties are among the lavender attributes.
On skin it has an antiseptic and healing action.
Effective against lice, it also deters mosquitoes”."
It has been established that the precious mauve-blue flower fashioned in the rocky lands of Provence is one of the most natural and most modern antidotes to stress.
According to Dr. Pascal Arlot in the Phyto-Aromatherapy Handbook, lavender is used for clearing sinuses and respiratory tracts (expectorant). It has strong anti-infection powers and is a remarkable aid for severe burns. It is applied by anointment on the chest, throat, sinuses and locally on burns.
According to Dr. Valnet, lavender aids digestion, soothes headaches, wards off colds and, diluted, is a hair and skin ally.
In his book, "C'est la nature qui a raison, Nature is right", Maurice Messegue says, “Lavender repels insects (moths), has an antivenom and antiseptic action. It is also a sedative and a disinfectant.”
There are many benefits derived from lavender essential oil.
It is one of the oils most often used in aromatherapy and its development in this area shows an annual growth of about 15% by volume.
Next to perfume, aromatherapy has become a new stronghold for lavender use.
Lavender, the prized plant
Excerpt from the book "Aromatherapie" by Docteur Jean Valnet
lavandula angustifolia P. Miller
Common to southern France where it grows between 600 and 1800 m (1900-5700 ft) in altitude, lavender bears the title Appellation d'Origine Protégée AOP (Protected designation of origin PDO) in the well-defined dry mountain lands of southeastern France.
Parts used : Receptacles and essential oil obtained by distillation of the flower tops.
Properties
• External uses
- Wound healing
- Antiseptic
- Parasiticide
- Antivenom
- Nervous system regulatorcicatrisant
• Internal Uses
- Antispasmodic
- Analgesic
- Calming cerebro-spinal excitability (via digestive tract and skin)
- Antiseptic, bactericide internal and external
- Antiseptic modifier of pulmonary and bronchial secretions
- Choleretic
- Diuretic and diaphoretic tonic
- Cardio tonics and calming nerves of the heart
- Anti-rheumatic
- Increases gastric secretion and intestinal motility
- Anti-migraine
- Worming
- Emmenagogue (stimulation of blood flow)
- Hypotensive (blood pressure reduction)
Applications
• External Uses:
- Wounds of all kinds, simple lack of tonic (leg ulcers), infection, gangrenous, syphilitic chancre, anal fistula
- Chronic perineal, perianal eczema
- Leucorrhœa
- Burns
- Insect, animal and snake bites (adjunct therapy)
• Internal uses
- Irritability, spasm, insomnia, melancholia, neurasthenia
- Eruptive fevers, infectious diseases, asthma, coughing fits
- Whooping cough, flu, bronchitis, rheumatism
- Gastric and intestinal atony, dizziness, hypertension
Mode d'emloi
• Instructions for use
- Decoction (extraction method by boiling with herbs, etc.) :
Handful of flowers per liter of water, boil 10 minutes. Add one liter of water. To use via vaginal injection in leucorrhoea
Handful in a half-liter of olive oil. Place in boiling water bath for 2 hours. Let marinate overnight. Strain through a cloth and use in ointments (dry eczema)
• Internal Use:
- Infusion :
Teaspoon of flowers per cup of boiling water. Let steep for 10 minutes. 3 cups a day between meals.
- Tinctures :
40 drops 4 times per day in a little water (diuretic)
- Essential Oil :
2 to 5 drops on a sugar cube or hydro-alcoholic solution. 2 to 3 times per day