Medicinal Plant Rosemary

Rosemary is of course a delicious kitchen spice, but it is also a very effective medicinal plant that you can use in many ways.

If you use rosemary often when you make baked potatoes or cook Mediterranean dishes. But rosemary is just as useful in naturopathy as it is in the kitchen, because you can use the green needles for many purposes.

Basic use of rosemary

No matter for what purpose you want to use rosemary as a medicinal plant, you please take the following advice to heart: please use if you would like rosemary oil, only pure essential oil of rosemary, no cooking oils or fragrance oils with rosemary flavor!

The latter have no effect at all and are nothing more than a chemical “brew” that has more negative than positive consequences for your health.

Never use pure rosemary essential oil (or other essential oils) undiluted on the skin, as this can cause skin irritation! As beneficial as rosemary can be, the essential oil irritates the skin and mucous membranes and can therefore cause undesirable side effects.

If you want to make an infusion for healing purposes, please use fresh sprigs of rosemary if possible and make sure that they are free from pesticides.

For this purpose, collect rosemary in nature, buy branches or plants from certified organic cultivation or at least rinse them off vigorously with plenty of clear water.

Use in hair care

Rosemary in hair care has been known and loved since ancient times. Even the Romans, Greeks and other cultures of the Mediterranean region knew how to use rosemary effectively in hair care. But why exactly is rosemary used in hair care?

The first noticeable effect of rosemary in hair care is the spicy scent that products with active ingredients from the spicy needles give your hair. It does not matter in which form you use the herb in hair care: whether as rosemary oil, rosemary water or rosemary extract.

Products that use rosemary in hair care advertise the following traditional properties, which are based on experience and tradition, but are rarely scientifically proven.

• Vitalizes the hair.
• Improves the supply of nutrients to the hair roots.
• Reduces hair loss.
• Promotes hair growth.
• Strengthens the hair.
• Keeps your scalp healthy.
• Promotes blood circulation in the scalp.
• Helps against dry, itchy scalp.
• Reduces dandruff.
• Excessive sebum is reduced.

Due to its mild antibacterial and antifungal properties, rosemary oil is an effective treatment for inflammation of the scalp and for reducing dandruff.

Use as a deodorant

Rosemary has an antibacterial effect – also against the bacteria that produce the smell of sweat. Simply drizzle a few drops of pure, essential rosemary from the pharmacy onto a cotton pad and use it to spread a thin layer (!) On your armpits. Better yet, mix the essential oil with some almond oil before you apply it.

Use as a mouthwash

A self-made mouthwash made from warm water and a little essential rosemary oil has an antibacterial effect and provides fresh breath with a spicy taste. You can also use a strong infusion of the herb as a mouthwash or gargle with it.

Rosemary for rubbing

Intractions are a tried and tested home remedy for circulatory disorders. By rubbing in with, for example, the aromatic, fragrant rosemary oil, you can improve the performance of the muscles and thus symptoms caused by circulatory disorders.

After all, the calf muscles should support the veins in optimally supplying blood to the legs!

To do this, mix the essential oil with a little almond oil or buy a ready-made mixture as a rub. If alcohol is added to the rub (such as the popular “rubbing alcohol”), there is also a pleasant refreshing effect due to the evaporative cooling.

Rosemary as a bath additive

If you like the scent, you can also use the green needles in personal hygiene. A bath in an infusion of rosemary needles has a relaxing, invigorating and vitalising effect. You should therefore not use it if you want to go straight to bed afterwards.

Add a strong infusion of rosemary and water (see description below) to the bath water. Alternatively, add a few drops of rosemary essential oil to the running bath water. Make sure that the water temperature is not too high, so as not to prevent the stimulating effects of the rosemary.

Making infusions or brews

For an aqueous solution with the active ingredients of the plant, you have to make a brew from rosemary. Use fresh twigs and needles and pour boiling water over them.

Let the brew soak until the liquid has cooled to lukewarm temperature. Then pour everything through a fine (tea) sieve to remove needles, twigs and coarse cloudy matter. The brew can be stored in the refrigerator until it is used again.