Hydrosols

Cupressus sempervirens/ Cypress-pH3.5-3.7

Aroma and Taste:

The aroma is quite delicate, somehow dry and warm smelling. Taste is bitter and dry, more green than woody, almost a little soapy when undiluted.

Stability and Shelf Life

Moderately stable, usually good for up to fourteen months but can last longer.

Properties and Applications:

Very diuretic both topically and internally; use for treating water retention in tissues and joints. Moderately astringent and stypic, it has a tightening effect on tissue and is useful in skin care for some acenic conditions, thread veins, and couperose skin.

Cypress supports the venous system and improves circulation, both in topic and internal use, and may be applied to varicose veins, used undiluted in a compress, or diluted in a sitz bathfor hemorrhoids in combination with witch hazel and/ or chamomile .

Combine with rosemary CT cincole or sage and spray on tired or heavy legs for relief and energy or add to a foot bath to reduce swollen ankles. It seems to have a balancing effecton on blood pressure, but this may be due to its ability to balance fluid levels in the body as a whole.

Cypress and juniper berry are two of the most important hydrosols for cleansing and detoxifying the system and will greatly iincrease the excretion of urine.

If you do a three-week course of water, be prepared to run to the bathroom mant times a day, particularly in the first week, as the body will release lots of retained fluid.

Stimulating to the liver and kidneys, cypress is useful for gout, arthritis pain, cystitis, edema, phlebitis, and the effects of overindulgence .

Fot these conditions, both topical and internal applications should be combined on a daily basis for at least one three week-cycle, after which time the condition should be reassessed and the protocol repeated only if necessary.

I have one client who found her psoriasis improved dramatically after a three-week course of 50 percent cypres and 50 percent juniper berry hydrolates taken internally, however this requires more testing.

Women may find that drinking cypress in the week before their period helps prevent some of the hormone-related water retention and moddoiness associated with PMS.

The respiratory sustem will benefit ftom cypress's antitussive and expectorant qualities. even more when it is used in combination with Inula (elecampane).

Use when there is much fluid or mucus in the system, in unhalations, internally, and by sniffing a few drops ata time into each nostril, then blowing it out. It is mildly analgesic undiluted, but for nasal use dilute it 50 percent in distilled water.

In the kitchen, use cypress in recipes and sauces for venison, game, and lamb or in marinades, where it adds a flavor better than any hickory smoke.

AVOID in the first trimester of pregnancy or in case of kidney disease,because of its diuretic and detoxifying properties.

Reference: Hydrosols: The Next Aromatherapy: Suzanne Catty