According to legend, lavender was widely used in ancient Rome. With the rapid development of the chemical industry in the 19th century, people preferred products prepared by modern industry, and essential oils were gradually forgotten. Until 1910, French chemist Rene Maurice Gattefosse (the father of modern aromatherapy) burned his hand in an experiment and soaked his hand in lavender oil. The pain disappeared quickly, and Shang Ke also healed quickly. The role of lavender has aroused a strong interest, began to devote himself to research in this area, and pioneered aromatherapy with other chemists.
Lavender is native to the Mediterranean coast and gradually spread to all parts of the world. Provence, France is one of the famous producing areas of lavender. There are also large areas of lavender planted in the Xinjiang region of my country, and the quality of the organic dried lavender powder produced is also good, and it has already occupied a place in the world's organic dried lavender powder market.
The composition of lavender powder is complex, containing dozens of compounds, the main components are linalool, linalyl acetate, eucalyptol, β-ocimene, terpene-4-ol, and camphor. The types and origins of lavender are different, and the ingredients contained in them vary greatly. This determines their different market prices, different application ranges and different fragrance types. The quality of lavender is also related to the extraction site, extraction method, and extraction equipment.
The quality of lavender should be judged according to various physical and chemical indicators, which requires professional instrument testing. However, ordinary consumers can still judge the quality of a lavender essential oil through some personal feelings. High-quality lavender essential oil has a strong lavender fragrance, which is refreshing and refreshing, not pungent, and feels very pleasant. Lavender essential oil is highly volatile, and it evaporates quickly when dropped on white paper without leaving oil stains. If oil stains are left after the essential oil evaporates, it means that the lavender essential oil is impure.
Effect on the brain
● sedative hypnosis
Some research institutions have done tests. After inhaling 10% lavender essential oil, the subjects will show obvious body relaxation, decreased anxiety, increased alpha wave amplitude in EEG (increased surface sleep), and EEG showed obvious comfortability.
Another research institution conducted a study on long-term hospitalized mental patients. Lavender essential oil can improve the patient's emotional score and reduce psychological pain. The fragrance of lavender can make people happy, affect the changes of sympathetic nerves, and help patients sleep.
Lavender essential oil calms, soothes, and helps sleep effects have been confirmed by a large number of experiments. However, there is one point to note that lavender essential oil is only to help and promote sleep, and it has an auxiliary effect on patients with long-term insomnia. It may not be possible to rely on it to treat insomnia.
There are many ways to use lavender to promote sleep. You can drop the essential oil in the aromatherapy lamp and let the essential oil diffuse slowly. For those who do not have an aromatherapy lamp, you can directly drop lavender essential oil on a piece of white paper before going to bed, and put it next to the pillow to promote sleep. You can also buy dried lavender flowers directly and put them in the room. It is not recommended to buy products with invisible contents such as lavender sachets. Many of these products use lavender essence, which cannot achieve the effect of promoting sleep.
● relax muscles and relieve fatigue
In addition to acting on the central nervous system, lavender essential oil can also relax smooth muscles, relax muscles, relax blood vessels, relieve stress, and relieve fatigue. In practical application, it is mainly about diluting lavender essential oil with base oil, and then massaging with techniques to achieve the purpose of relaxing muscles and relieving fatigue. This effect is widely used in aromatherapy.
● antibacterial effect
Lavender angustifolia has excellent antibacterial and antifungal effects. Studies have shown that lavender essential oil can inhibit the growth of 17 kinds of bacteria and 10 kinds of fungi. The antibacterial effect of lavender essential oil can relieve the symptoms of psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema and other skin diseases.
The antibacterial effect of lavender can explain why some cold patients can relieve cold symptoms after using organic dried lavender powder. Some friends with acne have improved after using lavender essential oil. However, it should be noted that although lavender essential oil has antibacterial effects, its effect on more serious inflammation is very limited. In the medical field, lavender is used for antibacterial treatment. After purification, it belongs to medical grade, which is different from the lavender used in cosmetics. Therefore, friends who use lavender to remove acne will find that although there is improvement, the effect is not particularly ideal.
