Peppermint Essential Oil

Due to its richness in menthol, Peppermint Essential Oil has a highly refreshing action and remarkable analgesic properties, which give it a place of first choice in the first aid kit for families or athletes: Peppermint is indeed a essential oil essential during shocks, blows or painful stings. It is also used to relieve headaches and migraines, improve digestion, unclog the nose, counter nausea and fight bad breath.

Whatever the use of Peppermint Essential Oil, it is preferable to dilute it in a vegetable oil to limit the risk of skin irritation, reduce the smell which can be heady and avoid an excessive cold effect.


History of Peppermint Essential Oil

Peppermint is a hybrid plant, that is to say the result of a cross between water mint and another species of mint. Its origin dates back to ancient times: it would probably have emerged in a vast region encompassing northern Africa, the Mediterranean basin and western Asia. The Egyptians, Hebrews and ancient Greeks already knew it and used it for its therapeutic properties.

Today, like spearmint, peppermint is grown on a large scale, but other more marginal varieties such as pineapple mint or lemon mint (Bergamot) are also enjoying some success.


Properties of Peppermint Essential Oil

When to use Peppermint Essential Oil?

-Pain relieved by cold (trauma, blows, bruises, sprains, strains, punctures)
-Migraines and headaches
-Nausea, motion sickness
-Digestive disorders (spasms, dyspepsia, bloating, irritable bowel, colitis, bad breath)
-Heavy or swollen legs
-Concentration, fatigue

Pain and itching

Menthol gives Peppermint Essential Oil great pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory properties. Just like the cold, menthol indeed activates the thermo receptors of the skin, which leads to deep analgesia (relief of pain). The thermo receptors implicated are the TRPM8 receptors sensitive to cold temperatures and involved in the processes of inflammation, pain and itching (pruritus). This analgesic (anti-pain) property has been verified experimentally on a model of chronic neuropathic pain.

As soon as there is pain, redness, heat or itching (pruritus), Peppermint Essential Oil will relieve you.

Headaches and migraines

Whatever the origin of the headaches (hepatic, vascular, infectious origin), Peppermint Essential Oil can reduce or even relieve pain.


In the case of migraines and headaches, the essential oil of Peppermint is used in local application (ideally diluted, max 10%), on the areas of the forehead, the temples, the sinuses. After application, massage these areas insistently with your fingertips, ideally on acupuncture points.

Digestive disorders

With regard to digestive disorders, peppermint first of all promotes gastric emptying: the stomach empties more quickly, which relieves the feelings of distension of the stomach and can be useful in case of gastric sourness.