Essential oils are used to formulate various ointments, massages, and to alleviate bruises and pain. They also function as remedies for colds, disinfectants, and digestive stimulants.
In addition to their medicinal properties, essential oils are also used in cosmetics, shampoos, and as flavorings in food technology. Essential oils are volatile liquids with pleasant fragrances, which can be extracted from various herbs.
Where are essential oils found?
Essential oils can be found in flowers such as: roses, pomelo flowers, star anise, and cloves.
Essential oils are present in the peels of fruits such as: oranges, tangerines, lemons, and pomelos.
Essential oils are found in leaves like mint, basil, eucalyptus, lemon balm, perilla, marjoram, angelica, chrysanthemum, tea tree, broom, lemongrass, camphor, orange, lemon, and tangerine.
Essential oils are located in bark such as cinnamon, and in wood like agarwood and camphor wood.
Essential oils can be found in roots and tubers such as ginger, galangal, onion, garlic, Chinese angelica, white peony, and dong quai.
Essential oils are present in fruits such as cardamom, Sichuan pepper, and buddha’s hand.
To extract essential oils, various methods are commonly employed, such as steam distillation or dry distillation, as essential oils are insoluble in water. Equipment is used to distill essential oils at different temperatures to obtain pure extracts.
Medicinal properties of some essential oils
Lemongrass oil: It has antiseptic properties in hospitals, can disinfect polluted areas, and acts as an appetite stimulant. Additionally, lemongrass oil is used to repel mosquitoes, in perfumes, fragrant soaps, and shampoos.
Cinnamon oil: It stimulates blood circulation and respiration, enhances secretion, promotes uterine contractions, and increases intestinal motility. Cinnamon oil can also be used for massages on painful areas and bruises from injuries, and it’s effective for treating colds.
Lemon oil: This light yellow liquid has a citrus fragrance. It is effective in flavoring medicines, lozenges, or powders for easier consumption (like lemon vitamin C). Moreover, it is used to create hair rinses.
Mint oil: Used as an antiseptic for massages on swollen or painful areas such as joints and headaches from sun exposure, it also helps relieve bloating and indigestion. Mint oil evaporates quickly, providing a cooling and numbing sensation locally. Mint candies are used to treat coughs and peripheral nerve pain. 
This oil should not be used for nasal drops or throat applications, as it can cause repression and potentially lead to sudden respiratory or cardiac arrest.
Basil oil: Both white and purple basil contain essential oils, with white basil having twice the oil content of purple basil. In Vietnam, basil is widely cultivated for essential oil extraction for export. The oil from basil is converted into eugenol, a compound essential in dentistry and for synthesizing vanillin.
Camphor oil: Fractionated camphor oil produces white camphor oil (used to create cineole). Red camphor oil contains saffron. Camphor oil can be used externally for massages instead of solid camphor to treat colds, reduce inflammation, and relieve swelling. It also serves as an insecticide and a solvent for dissolving resin.
Clove oil: Known for its insecticidal and antiseptic properties, clove oil is used in dentistry as a local anesthetic for tooth pulp. Currently, Vietnam does not cultivate cloves, so they must be imported.
