Lavender
Proven Health Benefits of Lavender:
- Lavender helps treat insomnia and allow for regular sleep patterns
- Lavender is known for its stress and anxiety relief and support for cognitive function
- Lavender prevents dysmenorrhea and helps ease complications of labor and parturition
- Lavender helps prevent muscular spasms
- Lavender reduces agitation among patients with dementia
- Lavender helps to balance microbiota in the gut
What is Lavender?
Lavender is a perennial bushy shrub, that Europeans, Asians and North Africans of over 2500 years ago knew and used and loved. Lavandula angustifolia, is of the mint family. The plant grows to a height of about 1.2m as a rounded compact bush. The leaves are oppositely arranged, and from them, a stalk bearing flowers arise. The purple-colored lavender flowers are fragrant and sweet-scented. This attribute has been lavender’s major attraction and ticket for use in cosmetics, spice and medicine through the ages. From folk medicine and royal baths, lavender in modern times is used in baked goods, candles, cosmetics, jellies, massage oils, perfumes and tea. Its essential oils are also very popular in the circles of aromatherapy.
What is the Usefulness of Lavender?
Lavender is known to have significant impact on the brain, nerves and cognitive function. The Cognitive Drug research assessment battery revealed that use of lavender in aromatherapy was able to decrease working memory and impaired reaction times for memory and attention among 144 participants. In essence, mood was improved or good mood maintained under strenuous labor conditions.1 Other studies cover the effect of lavender on sleep, and anxiety and agitation among people with epilepsy and dementia. Lavender is able to stop spams by antagonizing acetylcholine-induced muscle contractions.2 Perillyl alcohol (POH) and limonene show cytotoxic effects by inhibiting the initiation of tumor cells and enhancing apoptosis; an important step in the prevention of cancers.3 Components of lavender, especially cineole and POH, have been shown to lower cholesterol by inhibiting HMG-CoA enzyme and preventing the conversion of lathesterol cholesterol respectively.
Health Benefits:
- Pain relief
- Anxiety and mood improvement
- Insomnia
- Wound healing
- Skin care
- Liver cancer
- Muscular spasms
- Menstruation and labor
- Antibacterial and antifungal
Nutrition
Lavender is known mainly for its flower extracts and essential oils. The phytochemicals in lavender include 50 mono- and sesquiterpenes and phenolic acids. The most important terpenes are linalool, linalyl acetate, borneol, α-terpineol and lavandulyl acetate. The phenolic acids, which are the main determinants of antioxidant activity, include ferulic acid, rosmarinic acid and ρ-coumaric acid.
Toxicity
Lavender has very little toxicity concerns. The most relevant individuals here are those with and allergy or hypersensitivity to lavender. Lavender may also interfere with sedating drugs and cause patients to sleep longer. When using whole lavender flowers for spice or medicine there is not much restriction. However, people who use purified essential oils for aromatherapy should strictly adhere to the dosage on the package.