Wild Seville Lavender Essential Oil

Description

Lavandula stoechas sp Luisieri is a plant endemic to the Iberian Peninsula. In Spain, it is found mainly in Andalusia and Extremadura.
It is a subspecies of the plant known as Spanish lavender, which is abundant in many parts of the peninsula.
Its essential oil has only been extracted relatively recently. It has been named “Seville Lavender”, even though it is a close relative rather than true lavender. “Seville” refers to the area where it grows abundantly and where harvesting for distillation began.

It is a little-known essential oil. In 1992, the plant was chosen as the subject of a doctoral thesis, and its essential oil was analysed. Several batches were studied, and, for the first time in the plant kingdom, a group of cyclopentenic terpenoids was detected, represented by alpha-necrodo, which had been identified 10 years earlier in the defensive secretion of a Central American beetle called Necrodes surinamensis.

Christian Escriva has studied this essential oil most closely, particularly from an olfactory perspective. His meticulous “olfactory research” has helped reveal some of its therapeutic properties.

Seville lavender essential oil has a very unusual aroma: sweet, reminiscent of honey, fruit preserves or liquorice. It has somewhat rough medicinal and balsamic notes. It is nothing like the aroma of lavender essential oil, so its name should not cause confusion.

Appearance: Colourless liquid with an intense golden-yellow colour

Solubility: Soluble in alcohol and oil. Insoluble in water

Precautions

Do not use during the first three months of pregnancy or in children under 6 years of age.

Taxonomy

Botanical name: Lavandula stoechas ssp luisieri (Rozeira) - Family: Lamiaceae - Genus: Lavandula