January 30, 2023
If you are suffering from troubling aches in your muscles and joints, then no doubt wintergreen oil can be beneficial for you. Some drops of wintergreen oil and a regular massage on the aching area can do a lot better in reducing your pain.The Gaultheria procumbens wintergreen plant is a member of the Ericaceae plant family. Native to North America, especially cooler parts of the Northeast United States and Canada, wintergreen trees that produce bright red berries can be found growing freely throughout forests.
Wintergreen essential oil is extracted from the leaves of the Gaultheria procumbens evergreen plant. Once steeped in in warm water, beneficial enzymes within wintergreen leaves called methyl salicylates are released, which are then concentrated into an easy-to-use extract formula using steam distillation.
Sometimes wintergreen oil is called eastern teaberry, checkerberry or gaultheria oil. Native Americans chewed the leaves of wintergreen in order to increase respiratory capacity when they ran long distances and performed difficult labor. Settlers in early America had their children chew the leaves for several weeks each spring to prevent tooth decay. Wintergreen was used as a substitute for black tea during the Revolutionary War. Wintergreen tea has been used to relieve cold symptoms and muscle aches. Native American medicine men used to prescribe wintergreen infusions for fever. Without knowing it, they were using aspirin in its natural form. Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) provides the same secondary metabolite as the methyl salicylate in wintergreen, namely salicylic acid. A scientific publication stated that 1g of wintergreen essential has a pharmacological effect that is identical to 1.4g of aspirin! We should not forget that a great number of drugs have their origin in nature and were not just completely made up by humans.
