Hemlock Spruce
Pleasant, balsamic, sweet, fresh fragrance.
Spruce is often added to other pine or fir oils in air fresheners, disinfectants, detergents and soaps.
Spruce is antiseptic, antimicrobial, antitussive, astringent, diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, nervine, rubefacient, tonic. The oil is non-toxic, non-irritant, non-sensitizing if fresh.
The fresh-balsamic, sweet-fruity odor of Spruce blends well with pine, oak moss, cedarwood, galbanum, benzoin, lavender, lavandin, and rosemary.
Native Americans heated the twigs in steam baths to induce sweating for relief of rheumatism, colds and coughs. They applied the bark and twigs externally to stop bleeding wounds and boiling the spruce twigs and cones in maple syrup made beer. Tea was made from bark to treat colds, painful joints and as a laxative.
Native to North America, mostly to the west-coast of the USA. There are 50 known species of spruce tree family. The estimated life span of a spruce tree is 1200 years. The bark of the hemlock spruce contains tannis and resins as well as volatile oil.
It is currently in the British Herbal Pharmacopoeia indicated for diarrhea, cystitis, mucous colitis, leucorrhoea, uterine prolapse, pharyngitis, stomatitis and gingivitis. An extract of the bark is used by the tanning industry.
King American Dispensatory, 1898: 'The essential oil of this tree, the oil of hemlock, has occasionally been used by pregnant females to cause miscarriage, but serious effects are apt to follow therefrom. As a liniment this oil has been used in croup, rheumatism, and other affections requiring a stimulating local application. The essence (oil) of hemlock is diuretic and highly stimulant.'
'The alcoholic preparations of this drug usually pass under the name of Pinus canadensis. Such preparations are of much value where a mild stimulant and astringent is required, and especially in catarrhal disorders of the mucous tissues, with marked pallidity and relaxation. It is likewise of value in passive hemorrhages, and is useful topically in scalds and burns. Tincture, 5 to 30 drops; specific Pinus canadensis, 2 to 10 drops, preferably in equal parts of water and glycerin; the oil, 2 to 5 drops.'
Essential and resin oils are volatile, fragrant materials extracted from the root, bark, wood, seed, fruit, leaf or flower of a single plant. Essential oils contain the odor, taste and medicinal properties of the plant itself, but in very concentrated form, with no base oil, alcohol, water or dilutants added.
Steam distillation and cold pressing are used to extract the essential oil from the plant.
Starwest Essential Oils are guaranteed to be 100% pure and undiluted. The distillation process occurs either at the site where the plants are grown or at a distillery. Each oil is tested for purity and strength using the gas chromatography method.
Packaged in glass amber bottles to preserve the oils, the 1/3 ounce size has a fitted dropper insert and a tamper-evident, child-proof lid. The larger items are in amber glass or PET gallon containers, depending on the product.
Starwest’s pure essential oils are suitable for use in aromatherapy, cosmetic preparation, healing and body care, potpourris and more.
Essential oils are very potent and should always be used sparingly and in conjunction with a reliable reference.
