Select Favorite Essential Oil Agility Blend (Muscles & Joints) Cedarwood Chamomile, Roman Composure Blend (Stress) Cypress Eternal Noel Blend (Excitement) Eucalyptus Frankincense Geranium Grapefruit Healthy Blend (Immune System) Healthy Nail Blend (Nail Fungus) Helichrysum Lavender, French Lavender/Roman Chamomile (Children) Lemon Lemongrass Lime Distilled Nerola (Alluring Perfume) Orange Patchouli Peppermint Respire Blend (Colds/congestion) Quiescence Blend (Relaxation and Sleep) Rosemary, Wild Rosewood Sandalwood Tea Tree Wealthy (Emotional Prosperity) Wise Blend (Confidence) Ylang Ylang

The oil is a very good stimulant of the body’s own immune system.  It activates white blood cell formation and helps protect the body during flu epidemics.  For strengthening the immune system, it may be combined with angelica. The oil has been recommended for treating ureter infections, along with sandalwood oil.  Lemon and savory oils combined may be taken orally or in a sitz bath and have been considered beneficial in treatment of male sterility.

Undiluted, lemon oil, like lavender oil, may be directly applied to insect bites to take away itching and avoid swelling.  Its healing properties and fresh fragrance make it a wonderful addition to a sauna bath.  For the sauna, you may mix it with eucalyptus, Swiss pine, or verbena.

Lemon oil adds a refreshing note to massage oils, in which it acts as a muscle tonic.  The oil is frequently added to cologne water.  Use it to make your own aftershave lotion, shower gel, cologne water, and refreshing perfumes.

Lemon is best known medicinally throughout the world as a remedy that relieves fevers, sore throat, coughs, and indigestion. Studies show that the essential oil counters a wide range of viral and bacterial infections and increases immune system activity by stimulating the production of the white corpuscles that fight infection. It is most often used in massage oil or as an aromatherapy steam. The massage oil also relieves lymph glands congested from infection and reduces bloating, and some say that it promotes weight loss. It also reduces inflammation and works particularly well at relaxing stiff muscles.

Lemon stimulates white corpuscles that defend the body against infection. In Spain and other European countries, Lemon Oil has been regarded as a cure-all for infectious diseases such as fever, malaria, and typhoid. Counteracts acidity in the body; used for stomach upsets. It supports the digestive, glandular, immune, and circulatory systems. It helps to maintain a healthy skin. Clean, light, and refreshing, Lemon can be used topically to help ease the discomfort caused by warts and can be diffused to help purify the air and soothe colds. Lemon is used for clearing the head during a cold or when you are mentally exhausted. It provides energy for an aching body, boosts circulation and can be used for cellulite.

The lemon conjures up images of freshness and cleanliness.  Many commercial household products borrow the lemon scent as a symbol for superior cleaning, freshening, and disinfecting properties.  However, all these lemon scents clearly do not come from the fruit of the lemon tree.  Usually, a synthetic citral, produced from isoprene, a methylheptenon or dehydrolinalool compound is used.  Natural citral, however, can also be produced from much less expensive plants like lemongrass and Litsea cubeba, a tree that grows in China.

Some countries require that the lemon oil offered in pharmacies contain a certain percentage of natural citral.  The amount of this substance in the plant is affected by weather conditions.  The natural citral in lemon oil may be insufficient, under adverse conditions.  That’s why lemongrass and synthetic citral are sometimes used to bring the product up to specification.

Little stands in the way of falsifying the essential lemon oil, particularly since the presence of citral from sources other than lemon cannot be detected, even with the aid of a gas chromatograph.

For reasons of commerce, big companies subject essential lemon oil to further alterations.  When the oil is used for the food and drink industry, it must mix easily with other substances and therefore be separated from its natural waxy component.  The wax will drop out of cooling the essential oil to about 104° F.  For aromatherapy, however, every essential oil must be kept intact.  The oil’s effectiveness depends upon the delicate balance of all its different components.  For therapeutic use only unadulterated lemon oil is acceptable.  The essential oil of the lemon is located in the skin of the fruit. The skin is cold-pressed and the substance is then separated in a centrifuge.  Prior to the invention of the centrifuge, the skin was pressed by hand into a sponge.  This method guarantees that everything in the skin is passed on to the essential oil—which includes any pesticides, if the trees have been treated.  It is important to ask for oil from organically grown trees. Click here for information on how to select the highest quality essential oils.

Like all citrus tree oils, lemon oil has a shelf life of about 8 to 10 months.  Larger quantities should be refrigerated, since the oil is sensitive to light and heat.  To guarantee longer shelf life, a stabilizer is often added to lemon oil intended for general use.  Such an oil is also unacceptable for aromatherapy.  The purchase of essential lemon oil for aromatherapy is therefore a delicate matter for dealers.  Their only real guarantee is direct contact with the producer.

In aromatherapy the essential lemon oil has a wide range of applications. Lemon oil is an essential oil with high vibrations, comparable to a high-toned whistle.  Essential oils with high vibrations lifts spirits, especially when one may be feeling mental fatigue.  Although lemon oil is beneficial for both physical and psychological heaviness, it mostly stimulates the mind – increasing concentration and the ability to memorize.

Brain research concerned with the effects of fragrances has found that lemon oil primarily activates the center of the hippocampus.  Scientists in Japan have studied the effect of lemon oil on the ability to concentrate.  They found that typing mistakes were reduced by 54 percent when essential lemon oil was disbursed in the room.  In times of confusion, the essential oil helps clear the mind and aids the decision-making process.  It does this very effectively during times of psychological turmoil.  In contrast to emotionally stimulating oils, like jasmine and ylang-ylang, this essential oil is a rational oil.  The oil is helpful in calming stormy emotional outbursts or avoiding them altogether.

Lemon oil is often recommended for use at the desks of people involved in intellectual tasks.   As a mercury oil it stimulates communication.  In contrast to lemongrass oil, it conveys a definite warmth, which brings a sense of fun to intellectual pursuits.

Lemon oil has high antibacterial properties.  The vapor of the oil helps kill meningococcus germs. Typhus germs may be killed in less than an hour; germs causing pneumonia in three to four hours; staphylococcus germs in five minutes.  Its antiseptic properties will last for twenty days.  It is perfect for destroying air-borne germs in hospital rooms, waiting rooms, and schools.  The essential oil is particularly effective when used in aroma lamps and diffusers.  In England, where aromatherapy is extensively used in hospitals, this oil, among others, is used in patients’ rooms.  It is particularly effective in neutralizing unpleasant body odors of patients suffering from cancer, and it is psychologically strengthening to usually depressed and fearful patients.

For colds or throat and mouth infections, gargling with lemon oil (2 drops diluted in a half glass of water).   For asthma, the oil is beneficial taken orally in combination with other oils used to treat asthma, like Roman chamomile and hyssop, as well as in an aroma lamp and room diffuser.   To reduce fever add lemon oil to a cold compress and place on forehead or back of neck is very soothing.

For treatment of itchy eczemas, add lemon oil to a sponge bath – 1 to 2 drops to a quart of water.  For childhood illnesses accompanied by itching skin, like measles, such a sponge bath is a great relief.  Since oils strengthen vascular tissues, it is used for treating varicose veins.  It may be applied in skin lotions and compresses, mixed in a 1-to-1 ratio with cypress oil.  Taken orally it strengthens the heart and prevents the onset of arteriosclerosis.  Lemon oil stimulates red blood cell formation, and because of its vitamin C content, it is beneficial for treating anemia.

Merely the sight of a lemon creates a sour taste in the mouth.  But taken orally it is not an acidifier.  On the contrary, it produces an alkaline reaction inside the body.  That makes lemon a good heartburn remedy and beneficial for treating high body acidity.

Poor nutrition often leads to an acid-base imbalance.  Refined flour, oil, sugar, tea, coffee, too much pork, and overcooked food create a high level of body acid.  This may be the root cause of many illnesses, particularly rheumatism and gout.  Raw vegetables, unrefined grain products, and herbal teas introduce the alkaline foods needed to reestablish a healthy pH balance.  Essential lemon oil taken orally will help counteract a high acid content in body fluids by stimulating production of potassium carbonate, a neutralizing substance.  In combination with the oil of the queen of the meadow lemon oil is a preferred remedy for rheumatism and gout, since it cleanses the body of uric acid, side effect of high acidity.  In this case, the oil may be taken both orally and topically.

Lemon gets bubble gum out of dog hair

My black lab recently "fell into" some bubble gum....my husband was about to apply some turpentine and I immediately stopped him. First of all, our wonderful dog would lick at it and get sick, and secondly, I have great oils to use! I decided to go for the lemon first. A few drops on a clean rag was all I needed. With a few swipes to her fur, the gum was gone. Anne