Month: January 2012

Essential oils: Lavender – the science about the aromatherapy

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Lavender essential oil is reported to have many awesome benefits, but the main ones appear to be reducing anxiety, reducing pain, and helping with sleep. So let’s take a look at some of the science behind the aromatherapy claims about lavender. (As a note, unless otherwise indicated, we’re dealing with Lavandula angustifolia, English or French lavender.)...

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Chemistry Thursday: Isomers

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I mentioned in the post on lavender essential oil that there were two stereoisomers of linalool – what the heck is an isomer? I liked this family tree type picture to give you an idea of the different kinds of isomers, so I’m including it in this post! Isomers are compounds that have the same...

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Essential oils: Linalyl acetate

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Linalyl acetate is an acetate ester of linalool, and it can be known as linalyl acetate or 3, 7-dimethylocta-1,6-dien-3-yl acetate. It’s found in clary sage (up to 78%), lavandin, lavender, and bergamot, as well as neroli, lemon, lime, and some mints (p. 171, Selected Topics in the Chemistry of Natural Products). In animal studies, it’s been...

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Essential oils: Linalool

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You see this compound listed on quite a few products, especially on products from the EU, but what the heck is linalool? Linalool is a monoterpene alcohol (also known as 3,7-dimethylocta-1,6-dien-3-ol) found in plants from the Lamiaceae family (mints, scented herbs), Lauraceae family (cinnamon, rosewood), and Rutaceae family (citrus fruits) (Wikipedia). There are two stereoisomers of...

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Essential oils: Lavender – an overview

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Lavender is one of the major essential oils, and I admit that I’ve been putting off my research of lavender because I know it’s going to take a while as we use it so much and there’s so much information out there on it. But here we go! There are a few different lavenders you’ll see...

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