BERGAMOT - essential oil

The bergamot orange is a fragrant fruit the size of an orange with a yellow colour similar to a lemon. Research into its ancestral origins reveal it is a hybrid of the sour orange and the lemon. Extracts have been used to scent food, perfumes, and cosmetics, and the oil is taken from the peel of the fruit and used to make medicine. The juice of the fruit has been used in Calabrian indigenous medicine to treat malaria. Bergamot is now listed as 'critically endangered'.

Health benefits
• Improves: blood circulation, hormonal secretions (including insulin), bile production and digestion
• Mosquito repellent
• Antiseptic: Antibacterial, anti-fungal (E. Coli, urinary tract infections (UTI's), bacteraemia, endocarditis, meningitis, malaria, typhoid, influenza, intestinal worms, candida)
• Analgesic: headaches, muscle aches
• Expectorant: congestion
• Anti-spasmodic: muscles
• Anti-pyretic: cools fevers
• Lowers cholesterol
• Skin: cold sores, ulcers, shingles, scars, blemishes
• Anxiety, stress, depression
• Use with chamomile for gas
• Use with Lavender for Urinary tract infections (UTI's)

Warnings: Use on the skin can increase photo sensitivity, resulting in damage from sun exposure. Consuming large amounts of bergamot oil can be toxic, therefore take caution with oral administration to children and during pregnancy. Ingestion can also decrease potassium levels and therefore can induce muscle cramps and twitching.