Rosemary essential oil is an excellent ingredient in skin and hair care products because of its antiseptic properties but rosemary provides other even more significant benefits from which everyone can benefit including detoxification, anti-cancer behavior and better nutrient absorption. The implications for healthier, more radiant, clarified skin as a result of incorporating rosemary essential oil into skincare are enormous.
Rosemary has an antioxidant ORAC value* of 11,070 which is roughly equivalent to the free radical scavenging power of Himalayan goji berries. Antioxidants not only promote better overall health, they help to keep the body younger longer.
A bio-synthesized chemical compound found in rosemary known as carnosol is the primary factor contributing to rosemary’s incredible antioxidant action. Carnosol has additionally been found to be anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory.
The journal Cancer Letters, an international journal that considers full-length articles and Mini Reviews in the broad area of basic and translational oncology, writes,
“Carnosol has been evaluated for anti-cancer property in prostate, breast, skin, leukemia, and colon cancer with promising results.”
Carnosol is scientifically observed to selectively target cancer cells without damaging other neighboring cells. This is very unlike chemotherapy which kills most cells in its path regardless of whether they are cancerous or not.
In addition to reducing the risk of cancer, carnosol also targets cells contributing to inflammation. It has the ability to help balance androgen and estrogen levels in the body, heals nerve tissue, and improves prostate health and even the growth of hair.
As we’ve discussed in an earlier blog post:
“During Chinese medicine’s energetic Spring (February 5 to April 17), we focus on the Wood element and the liver and gall bladder organs and meridians.”
Rosemary essential oil actually promotes detoxification of the liver while improving gall bladder function therefore it is one of the most perfect and necessary essential oils in PHYTO5’s Wood element/Spring season skin and hair care products.
Research shows that supplementing with rosemary significantly enhances gall bladder’s function to promote proper flow of bile in the body which is so essential for the metabolism of fat as well as for detoxification. Rosemary also helps to reduce plasma liver enzymes, elevated levels of which have been linked to Diabetes mellitus type 2.
With bile flow better regulated, rosemary also encourages the healthy proliferation of microflora in the gut. Good peristaltic activity results, and in turn, so does better nutrient absorption and the reduction of toxic overload.
“The gut is the control center of the body, the place where health and death begins. Whatever happens in the gut will show up in the skin and dictate the health of your entire body… poor health within the gut starves the skin of the nutrients it needs to thrive; it causes an increase of inflammatory molecules in the body that directly and indirectly attack the skin, which causes faster aging and aggravates inflammatory skin conditions such as acne and rosacea. An imbalanced or unhealthy gut can also affect many of the hormones in the body which again has an effect on the skin.” —Nigma Talib, Younger Skin Starts in the Gut: 4-Week Program to Identify and Eliminate Your Skin-Aging Triggers - Gluten, Wine, Dairy, and Sugar
PHYTO5’s premium grade essential oil rich Wood element products reduce oiliness, detoxify and clear and lighten the skin. Rosemary essential oil is one of several essential oils proprietarily blended in optimum proportions to achieve the intended detoxifiying result.
* ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. It's a lab test that attempts to quantify the "total antioxidant capacity" (TAC) of a food by placing a sample of the food in a test tube, along with certain molecules that generate free radical activity and certain other molecules that are vulnerable to oxidation. – Scientific American
Sources:
Reinagel, Monica. “What Are ORAC Values?” Scientific American, 4 Aug. 2013, www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-are-orac-values/.
Talib, Nigma. Younger Skin Starts in the Gut: 4-Week Program to Identify and Eliminate Your Skin-Aging Triggers--Gluten, Wine, Dairy, and Sugar. Ulysses Press, 2016.