Rosemary Essential Oil for Memory - How to Use?
Since ancient times, human has used aromatic plants and their extracts for religious rituals, perfumery, cosmetics, food manufacture and preservation, as well as for aromatherapy. Essential oils are essence extracted from the plant or from some of its parts. It could be defined as natural metabolic secretions that have not yet been fully understood. But it is known for its effect on some psychological and physical consequences through Aromatherapy.
What is Aromatherapy?
According to The National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA), the definition of “Aromatherapy” is “the therapeutic application or the medicinal use of aromatic substances (essential oils) for holistic healing”. Smelling and inhaling the vapors of essential oil can activate the immune system and assist in psychotherapy.
Mechanism of Aromatherapy
Inhaling essential oils which stimulates the olfactory system (the partof the brain connected to smell including the nose and the brain). Molecules that enter the nose or mouth would pass to the lungs, and from there, to other parts of the body. As the molecules reach the brain, they affect limbic system, which is linked to the emotions, the heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, stress, hormone balance and memory. In this way, essential oils can have a subtle, yet holistic effect on the entire body.
How to use essential oils for treatment?
There are several methods suggested for using essential oils in the aromatherapy treatment including:
A few drops are placed on the areas of the pulse such as behind the ear, neck, wrist.
Add few drops of essential oils to a warm bath water.
Add drops of essential oils to a container with hot water to be placed in the room until the steam is inhaled.
Add a few drops essential oil to cotton and then is inhaled.
Essential oils have been used as an alternative medicine since twelfth century, and became more widespread in the second half of the sixteenth century. This has allowed modern chemistry to adopt a scientific approach in using it, and rosemary oil came on the top list the oils.
Rosemary:
Roemaryofficinalis L., popularly known as rosemary, is an aromatic plant belonging to Lamiaceae family , where the origin of the name ′′ Rose-Marie ′′ is Latin: ′′ Rose," which means ′′ Sumac ", and ′′ Marinos ′′ which means ′′ sea ".
Rosemary is a perennial aromatic woody shrub, with narrow, tall, evergreen leaves that smell aromatic. Leaves are 2-4 cm in length and 2-5 mm in width. It is green on the top and white on the bottom, covered with dense hairs. Its flowers are multicolored as it could be pink, purple, and white or blue. It is used as a spice and as a food preservative, in addition to its medicinal importance for curing many diseases.
4 Ways to Extract Rosemary at Home (YouTube video)
Rosemary essential oil is extracted from its leaves by steam distillation, as leaves contain a volatile oil, ranging between 0.44-0.73%, and this oil has many chemical components , which makes it one of the most important sources for medicines manufacturing with biological effectiveness .
Make rosemary essential oil at home with LT3000 distiller
Rosemary has been linked to memory for hundreds of years. Ophelia in Hamlet says to her brother Laertes: "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance." There are published scientific study presenting promising benefits of rosemary to memory and brain function.
1, Improve Image and Numerical Short-term Memory
The study involved 53 secondary school students (24 boys and 29 girls) aged 13–15 years, residents of the Ukrainian metropolis. Participants were divided into the control group and “Rosemary” group, in which the rosemary essential oil was sprayed. The statistically significant differences in productivity of the short-term memory of the participants of these two groups have been found, and inhalation of the rosemary essential oil increased the memorization of numbers as well.
2, Boost Memory Performance
In double-blinded randomized controlled trial, the 68 participating students randomly received 500 mg rosemary and placebo twice daily for one month. Prospective and retrospective memory performance of the students were measured using Memory Questionnaire.The scores of all the scales and subscales indicated that Rosemary as a traditional herb could be used to boost prospective and retrospective memory.
3, Improvement on Patients with Alzheimer's disease
This study, examined the curative effects of aromatherapy in dementia in 28 elderly people, 17 of whom had Alzheimer's disease (AD). Aromatherapy consisted of the use of rosemary and lemon essential oils in the morning, and lavender and orange in the evening. All patients showed significant improvement in personal orientation related to cognitive function on both the GBSS-J and TDAS after therapy. In particular, patients with AD showed significant improvement.
4, Enhance Cognitive Performance
Twenty healthy volunteers performed serial subtraction and visual information processing tasks in a cubicle diffused with the aroma of rosemary. Mood assessments were made pre- and post- testing, and venous blood was sampled at the end of the session. Findings suggest that compounds absorbed from rosemary aroma affect cognition and subjective state independently through different neurochemical pathways.
5, Improve Children's Working Memory
A study of total 40 children aged 10 to 11 took part in a class based test on different mental tasks. Children were randomly assigned to a room that had either rosemary oil diffused in it for ten minutes or a room with no scent. Analysis revealed that the children in the aroma room received significantly higher scores than the non-scented room. The test to recall words demonstrated the greatest different in score.
Due to the limited amount of published data it is difficult to make a strong conclusion about rosemary medicinal use on memory. More research is needed to better understand of the basic mechanisms responsible for the vital activities as well as the main compounds of aromatic oils. The other factors including methods of its cultivating, harvesting, and determination the most effective methods of distillation that affect the quality and effectiveness of essential oil, are reflected on its medicinal proprieties.
References:
1, The essential oil of rosemary and its effect on the human image and numerical short-term memory, May 2017, Egyptian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences 4(2)
2, Effects of Rosmarinus officinalis L. on memory performance, anxiety, depression, and sleep quality in university students: A randomized clinical trial, Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 30 (2018) 24e28
3, Effect of aromatherapy on patients with Alzheimer's disease, The Official Journal of the Japanese Psychogeriatric Society, Volume 9, Issue 4, Pages: 157-207, J19-J30, December 2009
4, Plasma 1,8-cineole correlates with cognitive performance following exposure to rosemary essential oil aroma, Ther Adv Psychopharmacol. 2012 Jun; 2(3): 103–113.
5, Rosemary aroma can aid children's working memory, Dr Mark Moss and Victoria Earle of Northumbria University at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference in Brighton
