Ginger Essential Oil

Clove is spice that native from Maluku island, Indonesia and has been used for centuries as food preservative and many medicinal purpose. This spice is frequently cultivated from coastal areas (maximum 200 m above sea level). Flower buds are collected in maturation phase after 4 years of plantation. The trade and search of this valuable spice  stimulated the economic development of Asiatic region. Nowadays, the larger producer of clove are Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Tanzania.  Clove as a rich source of antioxidants for the treatment of memory deficits caused by oxidative stress. Clove contains high polyphenols and antioxidant compounds.

The employment of clove as analgesic have been reported since the 13th century, for toothache, join pain and antispasmodic, being the eugenol the main compound responsable for this activity. The antioxidant activity of eugenol are multifunctional as reducing agents, hydrogen atom donators, and singlet oxygen scavengers.

Eugenol, is a clear to pale yellow oily liquid extracted from certain essential oils especially from clove oil, nutmeg, cinnamon, and bay leaf. Eugenol, a component of clove, may reduce the ability to feel and react to painful stimulation. Therefore, use of clove products on the skin with other numbing or pain-reducing products such as lidocaine / prilocaine cream, theoretically it may increase the effects.

 

Active Ingredients

Eugenol Beta-caryophyllene Eugenyl acetate

This aromatic perennial grows about 1meter (3 feet) high and is a popular ingredient in wax candles, as an insect repellant, and is also widely used in perfumes, soaps, skin lotions and deodorants. It is extracted from a hardy grass, native to Sri Lanka and Java. Although this essential oil has been typecast as an insect repellant (especially for malaria carrying mosquitoes), it also has great benefit in clearing the mind, refreshing rooms and for softening skin, while combating oily skin and sweaty feet.

The Citronella from Java is characterized by a higher content in citronellal (>30%) and a high content in geraniol (>20%).

Cumin is a delicate annual plant thought to originate from Egypt, but grown in the Mediterranean area for many years BC and now naturalized in hot countries all over the world – the North African coast, Malta, the Middle East and America. It has a slender and fragile stem, leaves that are divided into narrow strips, and tiny part-umbels of flowers which are white to pinkish purple. The plant later sets the narrow-ridged seed-fruit that are the cumin spice, and the only part of the plant used. These seeds look rather like those of caraway, and indeed they are often confused in Europe: caraway is called cumin des pres in France; cumino holandese (Dutch cumin) in Spain. There is no real resemblance in flavour. The name comes from the Hebrew kammon or Arabic kammun, and later became kuminon in Greek.

There are two types of cumin spice, which are most clearly defined in Indian culinary terminology. Kala or shah zeera is the ‘true’ or black cumin, and this is quite rare and expensive. White cumin, safeid zeera, is the seed more commonly available in ethnic shops and better supermarkets.

Cumin seeds were found in the tombs of the Pharaohs in Egypt. The plant was cultivated by both Ancient Egyptians and Hebrews, much as it is today. It was mentioned in both Old and New Testaments, and the Hebrews also used it in their ceremony of circumcision as an antiseptic.

To the Greeks, cumin was a symbol of selfishness, and they referred to people so avaricious that they would divide everything, even their cumin seeds. Dioscorides thought of it as one of the best aromatics to help with flatulence, and recognized it as a stimulant for the digestive system. The Romans used cumin a great deal in their cooking: to spice their olive oil, to sauce their shellfish and grilled fish, to keep their meat fresh, to spread on bread, and to substitute for pepper. Cumin seeds were also used in digestive cakes at the end of a meal, along with caraway, dill and fennel. Cumin apparently helped congested people regain their normal pale colour, so it was popular with over-eaters and heavy drinkers; Pliny even suggested that this ‘whitening’ property was utilized by scholars wishing to impress their teachers that they were working harder than they actually were! Pierre Pomet, in his book History oj Drugs (1694), recommended cumin for rheumatic conditions in the essential oil form. Nearer our own time, Dr Leclerc classified it as a general tonic for the heart and nervous system. Eugene Perrot, in his 1940s and 1970s researches, found it a tonic and aphrodisiac.

Verbena, a somewhat scraggly shrub, is much loved for the powerful lemon scent of its foliage. This fragrance led to the plant being nicknamed lemon verbena. The waffled leaves are of a pretty shade of bright green and are covered in secretory glands containing the essential oil. Summertime is when its small, pale lavender flowers bloom, forming terminal spikes. The flowering stems are reaped in July and August and immediately distilled. The resulting essential oil is herbaceous, with a refreshing citral character. The aromatic verbena, Lippia citriodora, should not be confused with lemongrass, Verbena officinalis, with properties similar to those of melissa or lemon balm, or with the verbena used for herbal tea, Dracocephalum moldavica.

Originally from Latin America (Chile, Peru, and Argentina), verbena was introduced to Europe by 17th-century Spanish conquistadors. It is now grown around the Mediterranean basin, especially in France and North Africa, as well as in the West Indies, Reunion Island, and India. Verbena has many botanical names: Lippia citriodora, Aloysia citriodora, Aloysia triphylla, Lippia triphylla, and Verbena triphylla. The common name comes from the Latin verbennae, referring to branches of laurel, olive, myrtle, and verbena, clustered together. With time, this term came to mean only verbena.

Lemon or lemon-scented verbena – not to be confused with its relative, vervein, Verbena officinialis – is a native of South America (Chile and Peru). It was introduced to North Africa, India, Australia, the Caribbean islands and the island of Reunion and reached Europe around 1760. It is a perennial, deciduous, slender shrub which reaches about 1.5 m (5 ft) in height, less in temperate regions. The leaves are long, pale green and pointed, and the flowers are tubular, purple and grow in terminal clusters. The entire plant smells strongly of lemon.

Lippia comes from Augustin Lippi, a seventeenth-century Italian naturalist. The plant is now more correctly defined as Aloysia citriodora, although it is also know as Verbena or Lippia triphylla.

In Parte pratica de botanica (1784), Palau y Verdera was one of the first to describe the plant, giving its therapeutic values as a fortifier, regularizer of the nervous system, and a stomachic; he said it helped with bad digestion and flatulence, nervous palpitations, dizziness and hysteria.