Benefits of lavender

Lavender is a shrub that belongs to the perennial family. Most often it can be found in India, as well as the Mediterranean. This plant got its beautiful name, presumably, from the Latin word “lava”, which means “wash”. The first mention of lavender is found in ancient Rome, where it was actively used as an additive for aromatic baths. Lavender is considered to be one of the most famous herbs used in aromatherapy. In Greece, for example, dried plants were set on fire to fill a room with a pleasant scent. The main producers of useful lavender essential oil are Spain and Italy, Japan and France.

Composition

The main biologically active substance of lavender is an extremely pleasant-smelling essential oil. In addition, tannins, flavonoids, phytosterols and coumarins can be named. All parts of the plant contain essential oil. The essential oil contains esters of linalool alcohol and acids: acetic, butyric, valerian and nylon. In addition, it contains hexenyl butyrate, neryl acetate, geraniol, nerol, lavandulol, amyl alcohol, borneol, citral, cumin alcohol, cinnamic and valerian aldehydes, cineole, apinene, camphene, bisabolene, zedren, and other compounds. The flowers contain ursolic acid, coumarin and herniarin.

Properties

Lavender flowers are diuretic, anticonvulsant and sedative. Lavender oil has antiseptic and bactericidal properties. In addition, lavender oil promotes active wound healing (especially chemical burns) with complete regeneration of epidermal cells. When taken, cranial blood pressure decreases, bronchospasm is relieved, intestinal tone increases, gastric acidity increases, and appetite improve. Lavender flowers have a calming effect on the central nervous system as well as on the nervous system of the respiratory tract. Due to the presence of tannins, they have a fixing effect in case of diarrhea, especially those occurring with the phenomena of fermentation. To some extent, lavender flowers can also be a choleretic agent.