Liver support & Detox essential oil blends

Essential Oil Book Club

I discovered another essential oil company, smaller than the MLMs but it looks like a similar set up. Vibrant Blue Oils is a female owned business and the blends of oils are more clearly intended for therapeutic use in their labeling. …but pricy compared to making your own blends. $36 is the average price for a 5 mL blend, which is pricy compared to using less expensive single oils which might cost $15 for a 15 mL bottle from the MLM companies or $15 for 30 mL from NOW brand. (shop.vibrantblueoils.com/product/liver-support-essential-oil)

Blends can be used to suggest your own blends. I prefer to avoid citrus oils because I do seem to be sensitive to topical or internal use of them. Making my own blends makes it easier to skip the citrus and substitute Lemongrass essential oil instead. It also has limonene which makes the characteristic citrus aroma.

Dried cloves, prior to being ground into a powdered spice. Photo by K15 Photos on Unsplash

Brief post, I’m jotting down notes in a format that won’t turn into an oily unreadable label.

Parasympathetic blend

(a citrus free version of this product)- edible oils in MCT oil so I can make my hot blended structured water beverage with it. Mixed in a 30 mL eyedropper bottle:

• Lemongrass essential oil - 30 drops

• Clove oil - 20 drops

Related post from the Vibrant Blue Oils site: What is the Parasympathetic State?, (vibrantblueoils.com) Jodi Cohen recommends using the blend topically on the vagal nerve areas of the neck. The Parasympathetic response of the body is the opposite of the Autonomic fear response with the fight/flight patterns of behavior. We digest food well with the Parasympathetic system activated and we don’t when the fear response is active. It is a bit of a teeter totter - we don’t get both at the same time, one or the other is active. Modern life tends to keep us continually in the fear response metabolic patterns of the Autonomic Nervous System.

“It is important to note that different application points yield different results. You can significantly amplify your results by intentionally applying essential oils on specific healing points known as acupuncture points or reflexology points that are correlated with specific organ systems or regions of the brain, like the vagus nerve. For example, acupuncture points behind the ear and around the neck are the most effective points for stimulating the auricular branch of your vagus nerve. A neural anatomy study showed the vagus nerve is most accessible for stimulation via the lower half of the back ear.  Research on “acupuncture and vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) found that acupuncture points produce clinical benefits through stimulation of the vagus nerve and/or its branches in the head and neck region that are anatomically proximate to vagus nerve pathways there, where the VNS electrode is surgically implanted.” (Study)” - Jodi Cohen, What is the Parasympathetic State?, (vibrantblueoils.com)

Aside - Cypress oil applied at that behind the ear area of the neck has really helped relieve my occasional migraines.

Liver/Detox Edible Blend

- MCT oil as the carrier, mixed in a 30 mL eyedropper bottle.

• Lemongrass - 20 drops

• Cilantro - 20 drops

• Celery Seed - 10 drops

• Clove - 10 drops

• Rosemary - 10 drops

Some math: This is a bit stronger than my salad dressing blends. 70 drops in ~ 500 drop container = I think, a 14% dilution meaning you get 1/7 of a drop of essential oil blend in each drop of the dilution. One drop of a pure essential provides ~ 60 mg of the essential oil. One milliliter of the dilution - the eyedropper tube if filled completely - would provide about 17 drops of blend, divide by 7 and we learn that one full dropper might have 2.4 drops of the pure oils, or 143 mg.

Liver Support Topical Blend - Fractionated Coconut oil as the carrier, mixed in a 30 mL eyedropper bottle.

• Cypress, Juniper, and Guaicwood - 15 drops each

• Geranium, Lavender, Vetiver, Ylang Ylang - 10 drops each

This is also a stronger blend, but prediluted for topical use, no other carrier oil needed. 95 drops diluted in 500 drops is about a 20% dilution. One mL eyedropper tube might contain 3.2 drops of the pure oils, or 194 mg; 1/4 tube might contain 48 mg, slightly less than one drop of the oil blend - and that seems like a nice amount for topical use over a small area of the body.

Checking the chemistry for synergistic blending

It would be good to check the synergistic balance against the info in this post:

• Edible essential oils & why we benefit from using the fragrant gifts from nature. (Substack)

In it we learned of a power trinity of phytonutrients to use for maximal healing benefits - combine oils that contain sesquiterpenes, monoterpenes and phenylpropanoids. David Stewart shares these three groups of chemicals which are commonly found in many favorite essential oils but not necessarily all three in the same single oil. Used in combination, they may maximize the effectiveness of a blend against chronic disease. (Link) Phenylpropanoids are precursors for many potent flavonoids like quercetin, luteolin, baicalin and caffeic acid. (Ramaroson, et al., 2022)

Lemongrass provides a lot of monoterpenes:

Lemongrass essential oil contains: “citral, geraniol, myrcene, limonene, and linalool, have significant antifungal activity” (Mukarram, et al., 2021) Citral has a lemon aroma and is also in citrus. It is an unsaturated aldehyde but is made of a combination of monoterpene aldehydes. “Citral is a mixture of neral and geranial which are monoterpene aldehydes (Maarse, 1991).” (Citral) Geraniol is a monoterpene alcohol. Myrcene is an acyclic monoterpene. Limonene is a monoterpene. Linalool is a terpene alcohol which can be synthesized from the monoterpene alpha or beta pinene. Pinenes are unsaturated bicyclic monoterpenes.

Clove provides phenylpropanoids, sesquiterpenes and monoterpenes:

The major phytonutrients in clove essential oil are: Eugenol, Eugenyl acetate, β-caryophyllene - “S. aromaticum is rich in many phytochemicals as follows: sesquiterpenes, monoterpenes, hydrocarbon, and phenolic compounds. Eugenyl acetate, eugenol, and β-caryophyllene are the most significant phytochemicals in clove oil.” (Batiha, et al., 2020)

Eugenol is a phenylpropanoid. (Mohammadi Nejad, et al., 2017) Eugenyl acetate is a related compound to eugenol, and is also called acetyleugenol. It is also a phenylpropanoid compound. (Haro-González, et al., 2021) β-caryophyllene is a bicyclic sesquiterpene, (Caryophyllene), and a similar compound found in clove oil, α-humulene, is a monocyclic sesquiterpene. (Batiha, et al., 2020) Monoterpenes found in clove oil include alpha and beta pinene. (Haro-González, et al., 2021)

“Eugenol, a phenylpropanoid, is pale yellow oil with a spicy aroma with the molecular weight of 164.2 g/mol. This molecule is a weak acid which is soluble in organic solvents and specially extracted from clove oil, nutmeg, cinnamon, basil and bay leaf.” (Mohammadi Nejad, et al., 2017)

I think a break is warranted - this was supposed to be a short post. The combination of Lemongrass and Clove alone provides a balance of the three desired compounds: phenylpropanoids, sesquiterpenes and monoterpenes. (David Stewart, lensoils.com/tag/david-stewart/ or Link)

The Essential Life, 9th Ed. (oillife) is a handy reference for basics about the single oils, and the phytonutrients but Pubmed has more info. For Clove essential oil, (page 164), we learn that it might help thyroid conditions and a slow metabolism - take in a capsule or use topically, apply to the big toe (that must connect with the thyroid via a Prime Meridian channel/Primo Vascular vessel). The list of things it may help is extensive and finding out that it contains some of all three of the power trinity of phytonutrients may help explain why it can help Alzheimer’s dementia, toothache, poor circulation or metabolism, fight yeast, parasites, and other infections, support the liver during hepatitis, and improve osteoporosis, cancer, or foot fungus.

Disclaimer This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health guidance.

Reference List

(Batiha, et al., 2020) Batiha GE, Alkazmi LM, Wasef LG, Beshbishy AM, Nadwa EH, Rashwan EK. Syzygium aromaticum L. (Myrtaceae): Traditional Uses, Bioactive Chemical Constituents, Pharmacological and Toxicological Activities. Biomolecules. 2020 Jan 30;10(2):202. doi: 10.3390/biom10020202. PMID: 32019140; PMCID: PMC7072209. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7072209/

Caryophyllene, Science Direct, https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/caryophyllene

Citral, Science Direct. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/citral See: Toxicological Aspects of Ingredients Used in Nonalcoholic Beverages, Canan Ece Tamer, ... Gülşah Özcan-Sinir, in Non-Alcoholic Beverages, 2019

Essential Oils, Cancer & The Blood Brain Barrier, blog by Deborah Stauss, original article by David Stewart, March 22, 2016, Link or for just David’s article lensoils.com/tag/david-stewart/

(Haro-González, et al., 2021) Haro-González JN, Castillo-Herrera GA, Martínez-Velázquez M, Espinosa-Andrews H. Clove Essential Oil (Syzygium aromaticum L. Myrtaceae): Extraction, Chemical Composition, Food Applications, and Essential Bioactivity for Human Health. Molecules. 2021 Oct 22;26(21):6387. doi: 10.3390/molecules26216387. PMID: 34770801; PMCID: PMC8588428. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8588428/

(Mohammadi Nejad, et al., 2017) Mohammadi Nejad S, Özgüneş H, Başaran N. Pharmacological and Toxicological Properties of Eugenol. Turk J Pharm Sci. 2017 Aug;14(2):201-206. doi: 10.4274/tjps.62207. Epub 2017 Aug 15. PMID: 32454614; PMCID: PMC7227856. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7227856/

(Mukarram, et al., 2021) Mukarram M, Choudhary S, Khan MA, Poltronieri P, Khan MMA, Ali J, Kurjak D, Shahid M. Lemongrass Essential Oil Components with Antimicrobial and Anticancer Activities. Antioxidants (Basel). 2021 Dec 22;11(1):20. doi: 10.3390/antiox11010020. PMID: 35052524; PMCID: PMC8773226. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8773226/

(Ramaroson, et al., 2022) Ramaroson M-L, Koutouan C, Helesbeux J-J, Le Clerc V, Hamama L, Geoffriau E, Briard M. Role of Phenylpropanoids and Flavonoids in Plant Resistance to Pests and Diseases. Molecules. 2022; 27(23):8371. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27238371 https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/23/8371