Lavender Essential Oil Vs Eucalyptus Essential Oi: Which Has Higher Anti-Microbial Activity?

If you see online; there are so many websites stating the benefits of essential oils and when you read further; most of it has almost the same benefit.

It's like lavender itself you will see a long list of benefits from curing insomnia, to curing 'cancer'. Then you checkout Jasmine Essential Oil; its similar, and the same goes to other essential oil like Geranium Rose, eucalyptus and so on.

If one essential oil is so good for all conditions; then why would anyone buy all the others? Makes sense to just use one for all and just save money la right? Besides the scent; whats the difference?

So anyways; i've decided to dedicate this rainy evening to studying the phytochemistry (components) of these essential oils and just to spice it up, let's do a clinical comparison between two essential oils instead of just one EO that 'cures' all.

So i've been reading some studies and bear in mind this is my own research thats done comparing clinical evidence from published journals ya. Not something thats presented in a blog or website and hear-say from generations to generations.

If you are not interested in the studies and evidence just because your friends or aunty said so and so then i suggest you stop reading right now because you may not like the findings.

So the comparison I'll be doing today is on anti-microbial activity between lavender and Eucalyptus.
Yes lavender got so many species but this can be categorised together. Example in SoapLab we have Lavender Flower, Lavender, and French Lavender. All smells different but the components inside do not vary that much between species.

So back to this. It is believed that when someone has 'flu' or 'bacterial infections' on skin; using essential oil like lavender or eucalyptus can 'cure' the problem.

So this study is to compare its efficacy and strength.
Now..Anti-microbial effect.

What is anti microbial effect?

Anti microbial means when we use these product on our body; it have the 'strength' to kill or 'retard' the growth of microbes (bacteria, virus, fungus). It doesnt mean that use it as preservatives ya. Thats not the same. Use real tested preservatives; not these essential oil! Click Here To read More on that

So what most studies did was they put different bacteria stains (gram positive and negative), yeast and virus into a petri dish or nutrient broth, and they added these essential oils and then they compare the 'anti-microbial effect' with a known 'medicine' like vancomycin, amoxycillin (antibiotics) etc.

They leave it for a day or two and after that; the results is compared.

So the verdict..

It turns out; when used in higher concentration (more than 1%); both lavender EO and Eucalyptus potrays the same anti microbial inhabitation to gram positive bacterias. Almost similar to antibiotics when in high dosage.

But they are not effective at all for gram negative bacterias. For fungal infections; it turns out the lavender essential oil do not help in reducing the growth but eucalyptus do.

So what does this mean? 

So it means that if you have minor skin injuries that has chances of getting infected by gram positive bacteria strain; you can use these EO while if its gonna be by gram negative bacteria strain; get an antibiotic prescription.

Gram positive bacteria are mostly are already on our skin and by having even a small 'cut' on our skin; we can be 'infected' by them. I would recommend generally that if you have minor bruise and cuts or inflammation; you may go ahead and apply 1% diluted EO on the cuts (you may feel burn).

But if after 2 days it didn't subside; it's time to meet the medical professionals since it may need stronger treatment. Do not try to do this for major cuts and burns as it wont help (those may be infected by gram negative bacterias that these EO cant 'kill' or retard)

As for fungal infections; especially in minor vaginal infections; you can use the eucalyptus essential oil but if it gets severe; do consult medical specialist. For me; it now makes sense to make vaginal wash using eucalyptus essential oil to prevent the fungus infections instead of using it only during treatment.

So here we go; thats the findings i found and i hope its not too scientific for you. Do let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you for reading..

Nisha

References:

• Ertürk Ö. Antibacterial and antifungal activity of ethanolic extracts from eleven spice plants. Biologia 2006; 61(3): 275-8
• Ashour HM. Antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer activities of volatile oils and extracts from stems, leaves, and flowers of Eucalyptus sideroxylon and Eucalyptus torquata. Cancer Biol Therap 2008; 7(3): 399-403.
• Benbelaid A, Bendahou F, Khadir MAea. Antimicrobial activity of EO of Lavandula multifida L. J Micro Biotech Res 2012; 2(2): 244-7.
• Ramezani H, Singh HP, Batish DRea. Antifungal activity of the volatile oil of Eucalyptus citriodora. Phytoterap 2002; 73(3): 261-2.
• Jianu C, Pop GT, Gruia Aea. Chemical Composition and Antimicrobial Activity of EOs of Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) and Lavandin(Lavandula x intermedia) Grown in Western Romania. Int J Agric and Bio 2013; 15: 772-6.
• Soghra Valizadeh. Phytochemical and antimicrobial properties of Lavender angustifolia andEucalyptus camaldulensis essential oils. Journal of Food Safety and Hygiene 2015