Bay Leaf Essential Oil
Scientific Name: Laurus Nobilis
Origin: India
Plant Part: Leaf
Scent: Warm, floral, spicy, earthy, a little bitter
Color: Pale yellow to clear
Consistency: Thin
Perfumery Note: Middle to top
Initial Aroma Strength: Pungent
Extraction Method: Steam distillation
Suitable Blending Oils: Bay Leaf Essential Oil blends well with every green scent like pine, cypress, and juniper, herbal fragrances like rosemary, dill, hyssop, and lavender as well as citrus and spice oils.
These all have relaxing and uplifting energetics which are similar to how bay essential oil makes you feel.
Bay Leaf Essential Oil Composition
- Eugenol: 52.54%
- Limonene + 1,8-Cineole + b-phellandrene
- Myrcene: 10.87
- Beta caryophyllene: 5.69
- Humulene: 1.25
- Methyl eugenol: 0.04
Bay Leaf Essential Oil Benefits and Actions
Antifungal, antiseptic, bactericidal, carminative, diaphoretic, digestive, expectorant, and tonic. (Battaglia, 2018)
Bay Leaf Essential Oil Uses
Bay Leaf Essential Oil for Digestive Support
It’s very easy to think you need to understand loads about chemistry and endless data to be good at aromatherapy. But often, kitchen use will inform many of the uses for herbs.
Bay leaves are used in stews to flavor them. Their chemical constituents meld into the juices to help you digest tougher meats. In particular, you’ll usually find bay leaves in recipes with red meats.
Bay leaves guard against indigestion and heartburn as well as preventing reflux. Bay leaf essential oil is often used by aromatherapists to reduce flatulence, expel wind, and as a tonic for the liver.
Combined with camomile, bay leaf essential oil may be helpful for sufferers of GERD or gastric reflux.
Bay leaf’s richness in eugenol also makes it very helpful for stomach bugs and stomach upsets too, since eugenol has powerful antimicrobial abilities.
Bay Leaf Essential Oil for Respiratory Support
When you inhale bay laurel essential oil, it makes you gasp. You can feel it going right down the bases of the lungs. It feels cleansing and fortifying, expelling mucus and other pulmonary rubbish.
Massage diluted bay leaf essential oil onto the chest for respiratory support during coughs and colds or more difficult infections like bronchitis.
Bay Leaf Essential Oil for Pain
The high levels of eugenol in bay laurel essential oil suggest it would have powerful nociceptive properties, helping to reduce pain signaling to the brain. This particularly relates to the stomach, of course, and Lis-Balchin describes how bay acted as an antispasmodic when tested on guinea pig ileum. (Lis-Alchin, 2005)
Eugenol is especially useful when pain is sudden and acute. Another oil which is rich in eugenol, is famously helpful for toothache. It is eugenol's fast response to pain receptors that help it to do this.
Eugenol engages with thermoreceptors that also send messages to the brain about heat and pressure and translate those into potential pain messages. (Chung, 2014), (Klein, 2014) The mouth is rich with these so-called TRPV1 channels which send information about how hot the food we’re chewing is, as well as how hard we bite …hence …toothache.
The mouth is not the only place that has these receptors for eugenol to engage with. TRPV1 receptors are found right across the central nervous system and the periphery (that is outside of the brain and spinal cord along limbs etc).(Mandadi & Roufogalis, 2008)
Specifically, TRPV1 receptors are found in the joints, in the top and lower layers of the skin as well as in the nose. (Caterina et al., 2000, 1997).
It is presumed that these signaling pathways play a vital role in pain transmission, since rats that do not have these TRPV1 receptors have impaired function in their pain experience. (Caterina et al., 2000, 1997)
Eugenol also helps pain in another way, via an inflammatory pathway known as COX-2. (Kim, 2003) Anti-inflammatory medications such as NSAIDs engage with the same pathway. Cox-2 is an inflammatory pathway. Eugenol inhibits it which may explain at least some of bay leaf essential oil’s anti-inflammatory nature.
Using Bay Leaf Essential Oil for Skin Healing
Eugenol is a strong biological agent able to cleanse and heal the skin. Use bay laurel of ulcerated and suppurated skins.
Bay leaf essential oil helps clean around infected wounds that seem unwilling to heal or are oozing pus.
Always dilute bay leaf essential oil into a carrier or cream and apply it, diluted, around the areas (not into the open wound). (See the section on how to use bay leaf essential oil for safely calculating the correct dilution).
This is not an oil you would often choose for beauty.
Bay leaf Essential Oil Benefits for the Mind Body Spirit
Mojay describes the main action of bay leaf essential oil is to regulate qi.
Translated, qi means "vapor", "air", or "breath". However, the word has many meanings. It sometimes used to simply mean energy, but could be extended to have deeper meanings such as "vital energy", "vital force" or "material energy".
Chinese Medicine describes Life as a gathering of Qi. Happy and healthy human beings exhibit a harmonious mixture of the different aspects of Qi.
Qi is in a state of continuous flux, perpetually transforming from one aspect of Qi into another. Qi is neither created nor destroyed, simply changing its manifestation.
To talk about the relationships between the various aspects and manifestations of Qi within a given context, Chinese philosophy employs the concepts of yin and yang.
Yin organs are moist, passive, and receptive and work in partnership with a Yang organ.
These pairs share specific tissues, muscles, and energetic functions, and their energy shifts through specific energy states.
Qi continually moves between yin and yang, back and forth through passivity and activity.
Each pair is affiliated with an elemental state.
- Liver/Gallbladder - Wood
- Heart/Small intestine - Fire
- Spleen/Stomach - Earth
- Lungs/Large intestine - Metal
- Kidney/bladder - Water
(The triple burner is subsumed into the fire element)
Each organ system functions independently, but also in relation with the other.
All Five Phases are aspects of Qi and are perhaps understood like the cycles of life and the seasons.
Bay Leaf Essential Oil Regulates Qi
Now understanding (a very oversimplified) basic premise of qi, we perhaps get a better picture of how bay leaf essential oil works within the body. Combatting stagnation in the energy flow, it aids digestion, it counters chest congestion (as well as constipation)
We think of how it would feel to have stagnancy in other parts of the body. Headaches perhaps? Stiff joints, greasy skin, wounds that will not heal.
Interesting to experiment with how bay leaf essential oil regulates qi to bring about many different types of healing.
Qi = Pneuma
Qi belongs to Traditional Chinese Medicine. The ancient Greeks called this pneuma.
Interestingly, the most famous example of pneuma belongs to the Oracle of Delphi.
For almost 800 years, Melissa Delphis (The Oracles), or the Delphic Bee sat on her tripod and uttered an ecstatic prophecy from the god Apollo. Before taking her station in her sacred sanctuary, the Dayton, she would bathe in the Castilian spring. When she retired, she offered sacrifices to the god, then sat upon her tripod, and began to breathe the pneuma (which we now know to be ethylene coming up from the center of the earth).
She dropped her attention down into the womb, then to signal to the god she was ready, she would shake laurel leaves.
When you read the accounts about the oracles, these wore well respected, highly skilled academics and psychics who inspired huge followings. But, there are many accounts of them having to stand on their own in extremely confrontational situations.
Intuition is an essential yin state… Oracular prophecy is an extreme example of being a receptacle for wisdom from the divine.
Yet, simultaneously, accounts describe Delphic bees as being capable and open to stingings…able to answer back and defend themselves in incredibly volatile situations. Was the Bay Leaf part of their secret of being able to move so seamlessly between the states? Interesting to ponder, I think.
Interestingly, Battaglia says of bay leaf essential oil: “It is well suited for people who lack self-esteem and doubt their abilities and intellect”.
Worwood says “ The oil is ideal for those with psychic tendencies who depend on their intuition and inspiration for their work. It promotes confidence, insight, and courage”.
Aromatherapy
Beautiful scent-sorry aid to confidence and get up and go.
On days when you feel lethargic or even a bit victimized by the world, inhaling bay leaf puts the world on notice.
How To Use Bay Leaf Essential Oil
Tisserand and Young suggest a maximum dilution of 0.5%. Eugenol is a very fierce constituent, but also methyl eugenol has been proven to be a carcinogen in rodent trials when used in high concentrations. Thus, we keep the dilution low.
Is Bay Leaf Essential Oil Safe To Use?
This is not a suitable oil to use during pregnancy or breastfeeding. Avoid the use of bay leaf essential oil on children under the age of six years old.
Bay Leaf Essential Oil Uses: For Wholesale Purposes
Soap Making
Not really an ideal candidate for soap making.
Natural Perfumery
Lends a gorgeous sophistication to blends. In particular works well in masculine blends, green fragrances, and refreshing eau de colognes.
Bay Leaf Essential Oil Blends: DIY Recipes
Bay Leaf Essential Oil Wound Wipe
- 9ml Grapeseed Carrier Oil (Vitis Vinifera)
- 10 drops Tamanu Carrier Oil (Calophyllum Inophyllum)
- 3 drops Lavender Essential Oil (Lavandula Angustifolia)
- 3 drops Roman Chamomile Essential Oil (Anthemis Nobilis)
- 1 drop Bay Leaf Essential Oil (Laurus Nobilis)
Method of use: Use around the periphery of the wound, on the intact skin. Do not apply to the open wound.
Safety: Not suitable for use in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy or on children under the age of six years old.
Armour for Creative Intelligence
Not all of us think in rational, logical ways. Unfortunately, it’s all too common for people who have academic skills to try to belittle those of us who operate from the left side of our brains.
This is a great blend to use if you need to sit in front of the bank manager, present an intuitive piece of work to the board, or even defend “I don’t know why I think something is going to happen…I just do”.
- 1 drop Bay Leaf Essential Oil (Laurus Nobilis)
- 1 drop Melissa Essential Oil (Melissa Officinalis)
- 1 drop Patchouli Essential Oil (Pogostemon Cablin)
Method of use: Wear on an aroma pendant. If it looks like the oils are going to touch the skin (for example on lava beads) Ensure you add to 1 tbs carrier and then just use a couple of drops of the mix.
Precautions
Tisser and Young suggest a maximum dilution of 0.5%. Eugenol is a very fierce constituent, but also methyl eugenol has been proven to be a carcinogen in rodent trials when used in high concentrations. Thus, we keep the dilution low.
This is not a suitable oil to use during pregnancy or breastfeeding. Avoid the use of bay leaf essential oil on children under the age of six years old.
Why Choose VINEVIDA
At VINEVIDA, we love botanicals and the planet they come from. We believe in stocking the best at affordable prices and supplying to the discerning, which is why we are also members of both the Alliance of International Aromatherapists and the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy. In recognition of our excellent standard of product, we are proud to hold a 2021 Certificate of Registration as a Cosmetic Products Establishment with the U.S. Drugs and Food Administration.
Our joy at seeing people make beautiful things means we stock from the smallest amounts to the largest. Our bulk essential oils’ prices begin with our smallest essential oil of 10ml to our largest of 396lb, meaning any manufacturing company can afford to stock as many or as few oils as their business can accommodate without running the risk of spoilage of some of nature’s most precious commodities. So why not see if you can save money by buying your Bay Leaf essential oil in bulk? Remember how stable it is proven to be, so as long as you store it carefully, it should last and last.
Don’t forget too; we like to look after our customers with reasonable prices and excellent customer service and reward the loyal ones with money-off discounts over the year.
Conclusion
So, why not check out if you qualify for our loyalty scheme and start saving today with an environmentally friendly choice of oil for skin, hair, massage oils, and soap making? Add VINEVIDA Bay Leaf essential oil to your cart today.
Safety Data Sheet
