Description
Sweet birch essential oil is steam distilled from the bark of Betula lenta, the sweet birch or cherry birch tree, native to eastern North America from southern Canada down through the Appalachian Mountains. Sweet birch has a long history of use in North American folk medicine and has been used to make birch beer, birch syrup, and various wood products.
Sweet birch essential oil has a very distinctive, sweet, wintergreen-like aroma. Like wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), sweet birch oil is dominated by methyl salicylate, typically present at 95 to 99%. This compound gives the oil its characteristic sweet, medicinal, candy-like aroma that is immediately familiar and also responsible for its well-known topical analgesic properties. The two oils are essentially interchangeable in most applications.
In aromatherapy, sweet birch essential oil is used primarily in sports and muscle care massage preparations, where its methyl salicylate content provides a warming, pain-relieving sensation when applied topically. It is closely related to aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) and is one of the most effective natural topical analgesics available. It should be used at low dilutions (0.5 to 1%) in massage preparations.
Sweet birch essential oil must be used with care. It is not suitable for children, during pregnancy, or by those with aspirin sensitivity. Maximum skin dilution 1%. This 10ml bottle is for use in diluted massage preparations only. Not for internal use. Keep out of reach of children.
