Jasmine is famous primarily for its scent, which is considered an erotic scent. There is a legend that Cleopatra sailed to Mark Antony on a ship with sails scented with jasmine oil (although there is a version that it was still a rose). Modern research has confirmed this feature of jasmine - its aroma affects the nervous system, the thalamus, as a result of which encephalins are released and a relaxed-contented state sets in.
Jasmine essential oil
The aroma of jasmine is one of the most popular in perfumery, for example, it is one of the important components of Chanel # 5. Therefore, the essential oil is obtained by many countries - Egypt, India, China, Morocco and, of course, France. Moreover, in Asian countries, and fragrant jasmine(JasminumodoratissimumL.), and jasmine arabic, or jasmine sambac (Jasminum sambac Ait). This is a very time-consuming process, since flowers must be picked daily and always early in the morning. The strongest aroma is felt at night, by 10 in the morning the content of essential oil practically tends to zero.
By extraction with petroleum ether from the flowers, concrete is obtained - a red-brown, waxy mass with a pure jasmine smell, with a pour point of about + 50 ° C. The absolute is extracted by dissolving the concrete in heated ethyl alcohol, and then cooling and filtering. Absolu is a viscous, yellow-brown liquid with a smell characteristic of fresh flowers and suitable for perfumery production. From 1000 kg of flowers, 2.3-2.5 kg of concrete are obtained and only 1 kg of absolute). The oil contains benzyl alcohol - 2.2%, linalool - 11%, methyl benzoate - 4%, benzyl acetate - 15%, indole - 0.6%, eugenol - 0.3%, methyl anthranilate 0.5%, cis-jasmon - 3.4%, vanillin - 0.3%, nerolidol - 2.4%, benzyl benzoate - 29%, geranylinalool - 7.8%, methyl linoleate - 1.4%, phytol - 11%. The absolute contains up to 60% benzyl acetate and is practically free of non-volatile fractions.
Arabian jasmine oil contains a large amount of linalool (15-20%), farnesol (5-10%) and methyl anthranilate (3-6%) and very little benzyl acetate (5-8%), cis-jasmon (0 , 1-0.3%) and methyl jasmonate (0.2-0.5%).
Essential oil, above all jasmine large-flowered(Jasminum grandiflorum L.), used in aromatherapy for stress, nervousness, depression.
At home, aromatherapy lovers use essential oil as a treatment for dry, oily and sensitive skin, adding it to creams, lotions and ointments. It improves blood circulation, and helps diseases of the respiratory, genitourinary and endocrine systems. Helps stabilize the state in case of nervous exhaustion, chronic stress. But remember that the scent of jasmine is quite intrusive and not everyone loves it. This is why it is best not to put jasmine in the bedroom.
Jasmine tea
In China, jasmine flowers are harvested, dried and added to flavor tea. By the way, you can try. For this, multi-flowered jasmine, sambac and other types are suitable. Only you need to dry them, hiding them from direct sunlight, and at a temperature not higher than +30 ... + 35 ° C, otherwise you will lose their aroma.
And one of the types of jasmine - jasmine officinalis (Jasminum officinale L) - widely used in medicine for hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and dysentery. Flowers are used to make drugs for the treatment of conjunctivitis, dysentery, ulcers and tumors, and from the roots - remedies for headaches, insomnia, rheumatism.
In the West, jasmine has been used in childbirth, coughs, shortness of breath, colds, nervous diseases and infertility. But, probably, first of all, he is interesting to us as a very beautiful and fragrant houseplant.
