How Essential Oils Boost The Effectiveness Of Herbal Remedies

Essential oils have profound access to the body. There are several ways in which we can use essential oils to provide different entry points, but ultimately, whatever method we use, the tiny molecules that essential oils are composed of, will make their way deep inside our bodies.

Inhaling essential oils delivers instant benefits to the limbic region of our brain, responsible for our emotional responses and our memories.¹ When we inhale essential oils, aromatic molecules are immediately delivered to the olfactory bulb, located in the front part of the brain, beneath the frontal lobe, and above the nasal cavity.

The olfactory bulb sends signals to our limbic system. This interaction can influence our mood, stress levels, and the formation of memories, explaining how certain aromatic influences can trigger strong emotional and nostalgic responses. It is also why essential oils are considered one of the most effective methods of supporting our emotional health.

Research has shown that there are traces of essential oil within our urine within two hours of receiving an aromatherapy massage. Even more impressively, essential oils are also detectable in our blood within minutes of application, peaking at around 20 minutes.²

But, it’s the ability of essential oils to enter our cells that make them all the more amazing. It is also the reason why essential oils provide important complementary actions for other treatment protocols, such as herbal remedies, etc.

In this short article, you will learn how the intracellular action of essential oils helps to boost the benefits of herbal remedies, when they are used together.

Intracellular Action Of Essential Oils

The term ‘intracellular action of essential oils’ sounds a lot more complicated than it is. Simply put, it means that essential oils have the ability to enter our cells.

Or, put another way, the intracellular action of essential oils allows essential oils to deliver their benefits at a cellular level.

This is because essential oils are made up microscopic molecules, known as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. And, because VOCs are oil based, they easily pass through the lipid barrier of our cells.

A lipid is an oil or a fat. So, the lipid barrier, or lipophilic barrier, around each of our cells, readily permits many oil based compounds, like essential oils, to pass through, whilst at the same time repelling water based compounds, such as herbal medicines.

Extracellular actions describe the influences of a compound outside our cells. Herbal medicine works in an extracellular way, unless aided by other compounds.

Direct Benefits Of Essential Oils

Because essential oils can act inside our cells, they can influence cellular pathways linked to things like inflammation, oxidative stress, or apoptosis (programmed cell death).

Some essential oils can also penetrate and destabilize biofilms, which are the protective layers that pathogenic microbes build around themselves for protection.

Essential Oils Coupled With Herbal Remedies

When essential oils exert regulatory influences at a cellular and systemic level, this makes our bodies more receptive to herbal treatments. And, because essential oils exert mood-regulating and beneficial neurological effects, that calm our bodies, this makes us much more receptive to healing, in general.

But, the benefits certainly don’t end there. When combined with herbal extracts, essential oils can help carry herbal molecules deeper into tissues or even across cell membranes, into our cells.

Increased permeability of skin and mucous membranes, in response to essential oils, also provides herbal compounds with greater access to areas of the body that would otherwise be barred. Access is further facilitated by the essential oils that act to destabilise things like biofilms, rendering pathogens more susceptible to herbal medicines.

Essential oils that destabilise biofilms include those rich in phenols and terpenes, such as cinnamon, clove, thyme, tea tree, oregano, frankincense, turpentine and peppermint. These aromatherapy oils can reduce biofilm biomass, inhibit their formation, and disrupt the structure of existing biofilms by damaging bacterial cell membranes and interfering with communication mechanisms. Specific components like thymol, eugenol, and terpinen-4-ol are crucial for this anti-biofilm activity.

Essential Oils Boost Herbal Remedies In The Following Ways

Here is a simple breakdown of the specific ways in which essential oils support the benefits of herbal remedies:

Enhanced Absorption

Essential oils increase permeability of skin and mucous membranes. When combined with herbal extracts, including ointments, teas, and tinctures, they can help carry herbal molecules deeper into tissues or across cell membranes.

Synergistic Anti-inflammatory Effects

Herbs like chamomile, turmeric, and licorice reduce inflammation due to their flavonoid and polyphenol content.

Essential oils like German Chamomile and Frankincense are also anti-inflammatory, but due to their intracellular acitivity, when used together with anti-inflammatory herbs, a stronger combined effect can be achieved.

Antimicrobial Amplification

Herbal antimicrobials, like Goldenseal, Barberry and Garlic, mainly act in our extracellular environments.

Antimicrobial essential oils, like Thyme Red, Tea Tree, Oregano, Cinnamon and clove, etc, can penetrate microbial membranes, weakening and killing many pathogens.

When used together, herbs and essential oils target both extracellular and intracellular infectious agents.

Oxidative Stress Protection

Many herbs contain polyphenols that scavenge free radicals, thereby reducing oxidative stress. A good number of essential oils are very rich in polyphenols, usually at much higher concentrations.

The polyphenols in essential oils deliver lipid-soluble antioxidants inside cell membranes, protecting lipids and organelles.

This dual action of herbs and essential oils offers a more broad spectrum antioxidant coverage.

Nervous System & Mood Support

Herbal remedies, such as valerian, passionflower, and ashwagandha, modulate neurotransmitters, providing systemic balancing effects.

Essential oils, like lavender, bergamot, and sandalwood, when they enter via olfactory and limbic pathways, can induce relaxation, mood balance, and stress relief.

Using herbs and essential oils, in this kind of combination, creates a multi-level nervous system effect:

herbal biochemistry + aromatic neurostimulation

This is a very simplistic illustration of only some of the benefits obtained from using herbs in combination with essential oils in this way.

Scientific evidence supports the use of essential oils for managing symptoms of hormonal imbalances, particularly those related to stress, menstrual cycle, and menopause, by reducing cortisol, improving mood, and promoting relaxation. Research outline the use of essential oils like Clary Sage for menstrual comfort and cortisol regulation, Lavender for stress and sleep, and Geranium for mood stabilisation and perimenopausal symptom relief.

Plus, there is scientific evidence that essential oils affect neurotransmitters by interacting with the olfactory system, triggering brain responses that can modulate neurotransmitter levels and influence mood and cognitive functions. While research is ongoing, scientific evidence suggests certain oils, like lavender and bergamot, may increase dopamine and serotonin, while oils such as rosemary can increase acetylcholine, impacting memory and alertness.

It is interesting that research findings often correspond with time-honoured understanding. For example, Rosemary Essential Oil has been referred to as the aromatherapy oil of remembrance for a long time. And, the herb, has also the same reputation:

Rosemary has been associated with memory enhancement since ancient times, it has been referred to from the latter part of the Elizabethan Era to the Early Romantic period as the herb of remembrance. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia says, “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance.”(Hamlet, iv. 5.) It has also long been used as a symbol for remembrance during weddings, war commemorations and funerals in Europe and Australia. Mourners in old times would wear it as a buttonhole, burn it as incense or throw it into graves as a symbol of remembrance for the dead.³

Conclusion

It is clear that there are many benefits for using essential oils in combination with herbal medicine. However, an elegant approach to using both modalities in this way is desirable. For this reason, this approach would benefit from a practitioner who is knowledgeable in both herbalism and aromatherapy.

A less well-informed approach, could lead to over-prescribing, placing unnecessary burdens on an ailing system.

There is also the question of whether the intracellular action of essential oils could allow harmful substances to access cells? With so many health-disrupting ingredients in conventional personal care products, and household cleaning products, this is a very legitimate concern.

However, because so few conventional and complementary therapies possess intracellular capabilities, the importance of essential oils is clear.

Aside from anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities, essential oils can also deliver other important effects, when inside our cells:

For example, terpene containing essential oils can act on mitochondria by boosting ATP, whilst others can induce natural cell death, (apoptosis), in harmful cells. These are powerful actions that should not be underestimated.

Sources:

1. Essential Oils as a Resource to Support the Mental Health of Academics and Health-Care Professionals: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377320404_Essential_oils_as_a_resource_to_support_the_mental_health_of_academics_and_health-care_professionals
2. Essential Oil Inhalation on Blood Pressure and Salivary Cortisol Levels in Prehypertensive and Hypertensive Subjects: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3521421/
3. Could aromatherapy actually affect my memory?: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/46gYK1cHQt2zZ0dKhq87k8h/could-aromatherapy-actually-affect-my-memory