Better and more versatile than the herb itself is the essential oil of peppermint. Used topically, peppermint essential oil calms, softens and tones the skin. It offers beneficial topical, internal, and aromatic applications and is one the best essential oils to keep in your medicine cabinet at home.
Peppermint essential oil is produced by the cold extraction of the hybrid species of spearmint and water mint’s fresh aerial parts of the plant.
Myriad Benefits of Peppermint Essential Oil to Skin
In the report, Commercial Essential Oils as Potential Antimicrobials to Treat Skin Disease, peppermint essential oil is indicated as effective for reducing blackheads, chicken pox, greasy skin, dermatitis, inflammation, itchy skin, ringworm, scabies and sunburn.
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With a higher sun protection factor (SPF) than most other essential oils, peppermint can relieve the pain of sunburns while hydrating burned skin.
PHYTO5’s Earth and Water element Skin Toners are formulated with peppermint essential oil. This oil is often used in skincare products because it’s very cleansing, slightly antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and toning. It purifies sluggish pores and when added to a steam bath activates the skin. Very suitable in treating oily skin, acne and blackheads, it is refreshing and stimulating.
Peppermint essential oil is also found in these skincare products by PHYTO5: Yang OE Cream, Contouring Serum, and Chi Yin Massage Oil.
Other Health Benefits of Peppermint Essential Oil
Peppermint essential oil is very cooling to relieve sore muscles, muscle aches, and joint pain. Studies have shown peppermint oil beneficial in the treatment of fibromyalgia and myofascial pain syndrome (1).
Peppermint can provide seasonal allergy relief by relaxing muscles in the nasal passages and helping to clear out pollen from the respiratory tract.
It is especially invigorating for cases of low energy simply by gently inhaling its fragrance. Inhaling the scent can help keep you awake during the long periods when you need to stay awake because it energizes the mind. It can also help improve memory and mental alertness. Similarly, the oil’s fragrance can boost physical performance such as when you are training for an athletic event.
As a case in point, a study published in the Avicenna Journal of Phytomedicine investigated the effects of peppermint ingestion on exercise performance.
Thirty healthy male college students were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. All the men consumed a single oral dose of peppermint essential oil and their physiological parameters and performance were monitored.
The researchers noted remarkable improvements in all of the tested variables in the men who ingested the peppermint oil. They showed an incremental and significant increase in their grip force, standing vertical jump and standing long jump.
The peppermint oil group also showed a notable increase in the amount of air that is exhaled from the lungs, peak breathing flow rate and peak exhaling flow rate.
Peppermint essential oil helps to improve circulation to alleviate headaches. Simply apply two to three drops to temples, forehead and back of neck.
Digestive disorders can be attenuated with peppermint oil’s soothing effect on the gastric lining and the colon. Taken in capsule form or by taking one to two drops in water, peppermint oil has been shown to relieve irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) by reducing spasms in the colon, relaxing intestinal muscles and reducing bloating and gas.
Peppermint oil, of course, naturally freshens breath and supports oral health because it kills bacteria and fungus that leas to cavities and infection.
Peppermint oil also naturally thickens and nourishes damaged hair. It stimulates the scalp and improves the condition of thinning hair.
Itchiness, formally termed pruritus, can be relieved by peppermint essential oil.
Ants, spiders, cockroaches, mosquitos, mice and lice hate the smell of peppermint oil so it’s an excellent bug repellant.
Although research is still ongoing, studies are beginning to suggest that peppermint may be beneficial as an anticancer agent.
Peppermint is antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-tumor, analgesic, antioxidant, anti-nausea, and anti-inflammatory. It can prevent the spread of an existing infection. One of the best essential oils for colds, flu, cough, sinusitis, asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory conditions, it can unclog sinuses and provide relieve from a scratchy throat and it works as an expectorant to open airways, clear mucus and dispel congestion.
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Endnotes:
(1) Chronic pain in multiple myofascial trigger points (“knots" or as hyperirritable spots in the fascia (the thin sheath of fibrous tissue enclosing a muscle or other organ surrounding skeletal muscle.) and fascial (connective tissue) constrictions. It can appear in any body part.
Sources:
Meamarbashi, Abbas. “Instant Effects of Peppermint Essential Oil on the Physiological Parameters and Exercise Performance.” Avicenna Journal of Phytomedicine, Jan. 2014. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4103722/
Orchard, Ané et al. “Commercial Essential Oils as Potential Antimicrobials to Treat Skin Diseases.” Evidence Based Complementary Alternative Medicine, May 4, 2017. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5435909/
Keller, Erich. Aromatherapy Handbook for Beauty, Hair, and Skin Care. Healing Arts Press, 1999.
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