Benefits of Birch Essential Oil
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
Using therapeutic essential oil for aromatherapy, massage therapy, or lifting your spirit and your mood can have tremendously beneficial effects. There are numerous means by which you can incorporate essential oils into your life. For instance burning aromatherapy candles containing essential oils is an excellent way to affect the mood and energy of your home. Likewise, utilizing sachets or potpourri filled with, scented lavender is an affordable and easy way to accomplish a harmonized balance in the home or closet. Away from home, numerous individuals find that the use of a refreshing essential oil body spray can supply a prompt pick-me-up when they are feeling hot, flushed, exhausted, or stressed out.
Birch essential oil has historically been in use for medicinal purposes, mainly to ease muscle and joint pain. Native Americans in North America used birch extracts as a tonic, an anti-inflammatory, and a beverage that induces sweating. Birch essential oil is very effective for this purpose; it contains the same active ingredient, methyl salicylate (oil of wintergreen), found in aspirin. Anyone with aspirin sensitivities should consequently avoid using birch essential oil.
Birch essential oil is extracted from the pulverized bark of the birch tree by using steam distillation methods. Cold pressed methods are preferred to steam distillation methods of extraction because the heat in the steam can alter the attributes of the extracted oil; however, birch essential oil is exceedingly powerful, even in its heat extracted form.
Birch essential oil is used in modest amounts in men’s colognes and commercial fragrances. In greater, pure quantities, the oil can have potentially toxic results therefore it should always be used in its diluted form. Even diluted, it should be avoided by patients who have liver disease, blood thinning medications, the elderly, the fragile, and the very young, pregnant or nursing mothers. Birch oil is so powerful that it is considered an environmental and marine pollutant and contaminant. Always completely use up all your birch oil; if you do have some of it leftover, dispose of it through a toxic disposal service. Do not discard of it by pouring it down the drain or flushing it down the toilet.
As with any essential oil, a skin patch test should be executed before the oil is used in great quantities, to assess any allergic response that may occur. Moreover, birch essential oils should not be applied directly to any open wounds or irritated skin. Most importantly, oils should always be kept out of reach of children.
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