Garlic essential oil
Precautions for use
Garlic essential oil should be avoided during pregnancy and while breastfeeding, as well as in children under 6 years old.
| Warning: The properties and indications mentioned in this sheet are based on a body of research which presents a traditional use of the essential oil, recognized by experts in aromatherapy.Nevertheless it remains recommended for the use of essential oils to contact an aromatherapy professional in order to collect personalized and secure information, adapted to your medical situation, your profile and your age. |
Choosing a Good Garlic Essential Oil
To choose a good essential oil of garlic, you must bear in mind its optimal biochemical composition, its physical and organoleptic characteristics as well as some notions on its geographical exploitation.
- Common name: Garlic, common garlic, cultivated garlic, theriac of the poor, capon
- Latin name: Allium sativum
- Botanical family: Liliaceae
- Distilled part: Bulb
- Origin: France, China, India, Egypt, United States
Biochemical composition
The biochemical composition is likely to change depending on the production conditions and the quality of the oil. Nevertheless, we can rely on this composition to assess the quality of an oil:
- Main chemical compound: sulfur compounds, Diallyl disulfide (38%), Diallyl trisulfide (30%)
- Other chemical compounds: methyl allyl trisulphide (7 to 8%), diallyl sulphide (6 to 7%), diallyl tetrasulphide (4%) methyl allyl disulphide (3%).
Physical characteristics
The most convenient form is probably capsules containing diluted essential oil, but bottled solutions are possible.
Organoleptic characteristics
Garlic essential oil is yellow, with a strong, unpleasant odor and a burning flavor. Its consumption leads to a strong smell of the breath and the skin, recognizable and persistent: it is due to the allyl sulphide, contained in the essential oil of garlic and the excess of which is eliminated by the pulmonary route.
The smell of garlic essential oil is always more powerful than we imagine: it is advisable to store it in its original glass bottle and then place it in an airtight plastic bag or a tightly closed jar. , possibly with an anti-odor ball (with activated carbon) inside.
History of garlic essential oil
shan, on the border of China and Kazakhstan, to the east. In this vast region, about 150 wild species belonging to the genus Allium have been found. Known to the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans to protect themselves from infections, it spread to southern and eastern Europe, then to North America in the 19th century.
However, it did not always have good press because of its smell, which betrayed “a deplorable peasant origin” in the words of Cervantes. This is why it was long nicknamed “the stinking rose”.
