Basil and Lime BenefitsThe History Behind The Mystery"Scent Stimulation"Basil and Lime Benefits Continued
Basil and Lime Benefits
When looking for a way to alleviate a stuffy nose or a sore throat, a lot of "natural ways" will undoubtedly suggest something to do with citrus or mint, and if you keep scrolling you'll definitely find Basil and Lime as two scents that come up a lot.
If you read a generic "Google Search" description, you'll find that there is a plant called Lime Basil which blossoms in the late summer.
Basil and Lime is visually described as; "Minty, compact, smooth, bright green, teardrop-shaped leaves that have slightly scalloped edges and are smaller than common sweet basil...[Basil and Lime] leaves offer a strong, sweet, citrusy scent and a mild yet zesty, peppery-lime at the same time." (source)
As great as that may be to know, why they come up would be another question in itself, right?
The History Behind The Mystery
Before going deeper into the benefits, its important to note that a lot of it has to do with history, like most things when looking up anything to do with plants. According to the authors, Véronique Zech-Matterne & Girolamo Fiorentino in their book: "AGRUMED: ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY OF CITRUS FRUIT IN THE MEDITERRANEAN" it's got a lot to do with Ancient Egypt.
If you've been reading our blogs for a while, as you know by now, once you start researching scents, it doesn't take long to land yourself right back in Ancient times!
What they found while researching citrus's introduction to the Mediterranean, they discovered old relics of plants that goes by a certain term. Archaeobotanical is the term to be specific. I'm sure you use it all the time, but just in case you don't, here's a definition!
Definition: Archaeobotany is concerned with the recovery of the fragmentary remains of plants from archaeological sites, their taxonomic identification, and their interpretation in terms of past human activities and the environment. (source here)
Let's face it, most of us are visual learners, right? Let's take a look at what these even look like:
What your looking at comes from the book itself and shows evidence of a trading route regarding citrus. Going into history here just denotes how important Citrus or Basil and Lime have been to many cultures, families and friends for such a long time. Here is the map of the listed sites:
And here are the listings sites themselves where they found evidence of these very ancient plant-based artifacts:
"Scent Stimulation"
Okay, so now that you know a lot more noticeable information about Citrus, Lime and Basil as well as mint in general, let's get a bit deeper on how it actually stimulates you.
From NCBI, (aka National Center for Biotechnology Information);
"...Furthermore, the intake of basil has beneficial effects on the cholesterol level; the intake of basil improves lipid metabolism in high-cholesterol-affected animal models [7]. In addition, orally administered linalool, one of the major compounds in basil, improves cholesterol levels and, when administered by inhalation, induces sedative and relaxing effects..." (source)
More on this...;
"...When fragrant products are inhaled, individual fragrance compounds bind to nasal olfactory receptors, and a signal is transmitted to the cerebrum. When a volatile compound is inhaled, it dissolves in the mucus of the nasal mucous membrane and moves to the olfactory epithelium..." (source)
So in short, it helps to have a lil Basil and Lime around! Now that's the physical components that make the magic happen, what about your mental state?
Basil and Lime Benefits Continued
Most of the studies concluding that Basil and Lime actually do the job the right way were done on animal subjects so not much can be concluded scientifically and accurately regarding it's effects on humans. That being said, basil and lime do produce results that stop a lot of stress from building up. They stop something called dyslipidemia, which basically is a cholesterol imbalancemongst other things . The trick with using basil or any herb like that for either a diffuser or a candle is all in the timing. For folks who are normally healthy, how about a boost in the right direction and for those of us who are unfortunately under the weather, how about some balance for that bad day?
There is so much more to cover regarding this scent, like how it boosts your energy and the scientific breakdown to that, the uses in modern day trends regarding basil and why that is, etc... However, we have covered a bunch here. Feel free to leave a comment to start the discussion on what you might use Basil and Lime for or why you like them or not like them?
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