The health benefits of Hyssop Essential Oil can be attributed to its properties as an astringent, stimulant, antispasmodic, antirheumatic, antiseptic, carminative, cicatrizant, digestive, diuretic, emmenagogue, expectorant, hypertensive, nervine, sudorific, tonic, febrifuge, vermifuge, and vulnerary substance.
The essential oil of Hyssop is extracted with the help of steam distillation of the leaves and flowers of a shrub called Hyssop. In the botanical world, it is known by the name Hyssopus Officinalis. This shrub grows mainly in the Mediterranean region and was known as a holy or sacred herb in ancient times.
Hyssop, due to its disinfectant and antimicrobial properties, was clearly mentioned even in the Old Testament as a purifying substance. The chief constituents of Hyssop essential oil are Alpha Pinene, Camphene, Beta-Pinene, Sabinene, Myrcene, Limonene, Pinocamphone, Iso-Pinocamphene, Gamma Terpineol, Cineole, and Thujone. [1]
Health Benefits of Hyssop Essential Oil
Ancient people were not wrong when they identified the medicinal properties of this essential oil. We can also benefit from the following medicinal properties of Hyssop oil.
Astringent
The function of an astringent is to contract or cause something to shrink. Hyssop essential oil, being an astringent, makes the gums, muscles and limbs, abdomen, intestines, skin, tissues and blood vessels to contract. This can help you in many ways. This can prevent muscles and skin from sagging down due to age, loosening or loss of teeth, wrinkles, and hemorrhaging, all by quickly contracting the blood vessels.
Hyssop essential oil has a slightly sweet scent and was considered a sacred oil in ancient Egypt, Israel, and Greece. Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Antispasmodic
Being an antispasmodic, Hyssop essential oil gives relief in spasms of the respiratory system, thereby curing spasmodic coughs. It also cures spasms of the nervous system in order to cure convulsions and related problems, as well as reducing muscular spasms, which cures cramps, and spasms of the intestines, giving relief from acute abdominal pain.
Antirheumatic
Since Hyssop oil improves and promotes circulation, it helps cure diseases associated with poor circulation, such as rheumatism, arthritis, gout, and swelling.
Antiseptic
Whenever we are wounded or get a cut or abrasion, our first worry is that the wound might become septic. Hyssop oil, applied on wounds, might help us avoid both of the above situations. Since it is an antiseptic substance, it prevents infections from developing into wounds.
Cicatrisant
Deep cuts will heal quicker and the scar marks left by them will disappear sooner if Hyssop oil is applied to them. It is equally beneficial to fade away the after spots of boils, pox, infections, and insect bites.
Digestive
This oil facilitates digestion. Being a stimulant, it stimulates the secretion of gastric juices like acids, enzymes, and bile into the stomach, which speeds up the decomposition of complex proteins, carbohydrates, and other nutrients. It also facilitates the passage of these foods through the intestines by stimulating peristaltic motion, thereby optimizing the absorption of these nutrients by intestinal villi. [2]
Diuretic
Hyssop essential oil can also speed up detoxification of your body, removal of excess water and sodium, loss of fats and reduction in blood pressure just by promoting a single thing – urination. It increases the frequency of urination and the quantity of urine as well. This has other benefits too. Hyssop essential oil keeps your heart healthy, aids digestion, and also reduces the formation of gas.
Emmenagogue
This property of Hyssop essential oil can help women with irregular, obstructed, painful, or exhausting menstruation. This oil opens up menses, makes it regular and also helps overcome symptoms related to menses like nausea, headache, pain in the lower abdomen, fatigue, loss of appetite, and mood swings.
Expectorant
This is yet another beneficial property of Hyssop essential oil. It is an expectorant. This is a good remedy to loosen phlegm that has been tightly deposited in the respiratory tracts. This keeps the respiratory system warm and stops any further deposition of phlegm in it. Moreover, it helps to cure the infections due to the common cold.
Carminative
This oil, having carminative properties, helps clear gases from the intestines and relieves you of problems like uneasiness, heaviness, indigestion, stomach aches, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and even heart troubles. Furthermore, Hyssop oil does not allow the formation of gas. It actually stimulates the downward passage of gas for safe expulsion from the body.
Febrifuge
When fever is due to infections, it helps reduce it by fighting infections. When fever is due to an accumulation of toxins in the body, this oil reduces it by promoting the removal of toxins from the body through urination. Hyssop oil also brings about sweating, which helps bring down a person’s temperature in cases of very high fever.
Hypertensive
Now, this property may not be welcome for normal or hypertensive people, but it is beneficial for hypotensive people (people who suffer from low blood pressure). This essential oil can raise blood pressure and help get rid of problems associated with low blood pressure, such as headaches, a tendency of vomiting, fatigue, and swelling in the limbs.
Nervine
Being nervine means serving as a tonic for the nervous system. This keeps the nervous system healthy and in good, working order, and helps to avoid nervous disorders. It is effective in cases of vertigo, nervousness, and convulsions as well. Hyssop essential oil is a good nervine and tones up the entire nervous system.
Stimulant
Hyssop oil stimulates all the systems running inside the body. It stimulates the nervous, circulatory, digestive, endocrine, neural, and excretory systems. Thus, it stimulates the body’s metabolism as a whole and helps in optimal consumption and absorption of the nutrients. It also stimulates and activates the immune system and protects your body from infections and diseases.
Sudorific
If someone is suffering from very limited perspiration, obstructed perspiration, or no perspiration at all (something teenagers have always wanted), he or she could be in big trouble. It simply means that toxic elements, excess water, and sodium is accumulating in your body, which is paving the way for bigger or chronic trouble. So, get going and use Hyssop essential oil. Being a sudorific, it helps bring about a lot of perspiration and frees your body of toxins, water, and extra salts. It also can help you to slim down.
Vermifuge
It kills worms, intestinal and otherwise while helping those children enjoy a better life who were suffering from obstructed growth due to these worms. Nutrients can actually be put to good use, and children can begin to develop properly.
Vulnerary
Hyssop essential oil protects wounds from infections and helps them heal quicker.
Other Benefits
It is very effective against diseases resulting from viral infections such as coughs, colds, flu, mumps, tonsillitis, and sore throat, as well as on bronchitis, asthma, eczema, dermatitis, and inflammation. [3]
Word of Caution: This oil should be avoided by people with epilepsy or during pregnancy since this oil contains a compound called Pinocamphone, which can stimulate the nerves.
Blending: Essential Oils of Angelica, Lavandin, Geranium, Orange, Tangerine, Melissa, and Rosemary blend well with Hyssop essential oil.
