The essential oil of spruce comes from the Spruce tree, which is part of the Pinaceae plant family. As such, spruce is a close cousin of firs, pines and hemlocks. Black spruce is the species of Spruce that the essential oil is mainly derived from as that species is the one that offers the most therapeutic benefits.

The black spruce tree is an evergreen, coniferous tree that is indigenous to Canada and its sharp, needle-like leaves of the tree are where the essential oil is derived from, through a process of steam distillation. The oil has a very mild, soft and sweet scent, much sweeter when compared to other evergreen essential oils.

Spruce has been widely used by the native Americans for a variety of reasons as it is believed to have high medicinal, spiritual and practical value. This can be attributed to its ability to heal wounds and provide quick pain relief, as well as its purifying and cleansing properties. Read on to find out more on how such therapeutic benefits can serve to benefit the health of your body!

Health Benefits of Spruce Essential Oil:

1. Supports Emotional Healing

As mentioned above, spruce essential oil has been widely used by the native Americans for its spiritual value and ability to heal one’s emotional health. This is because spruce produces a grounding and stimulating effect on the mind that helps you get rid of physical and mental lethargy, exhaustion and stress.

It seeks to emotionally uplift your spirits and helps alleviate feelings of melancholy or depression. Its aromatic scent is able promote feelings of goodwill, thus helping to clear any emotional blocks.

With the presence of monoterpenes in the oil, spruce oil is perfect to be used for meditation and yoga since it supports emotional rejuvenation and seeks to renew your spiritual self by clearing feelings of self-doubt and low self-esteem, promoting mental clarity and focus instead.

How to Use it: You can add about 5-8 drops of the spruce essential oil into your diffuser or vaporizer to create a fresh, relaxing atmosphere in your house that supports emotional healing and rejuvenation.

2. Offers Respiratory Relief

Spruce oil also contains expectorant, decongestant and antitussive properties, meaning it effectively works to clear out congestion due to an excess buildup of mucus and phlegm found within the nasal and respiratory passageways. This helps to alleviate common respiratory ailments such as cough, flu, cold, bronchitis and asthma.

As such, spruce oil is an excellent natural remedy to facilitate a freer and unobstructed airflow, thus preventing difficulties in breathing and a tightening of the chest area.

Its antibacterial properties also makes it a potent antiseptic and antibiotic to grant a speedy recovery to these common ailments. And the presence of high levels of monoterpenes in spruce essential oil effectively boosts the immune system so that your body is not susceptible to these ailments any longer!

How to Use it: You can add about 2 drops of the oil into a bowl of hot water and proceed to inhale the steam vapors emanating out, while being careful to avoid the eyes area. Alternatively, you can diffuse the oil in a diffuser or vaporizer to clear nasal and bronchial congestion.

3. Offers Pain Relief

With potent analgesic properties, spruce essential oil offers a natural remedy for pain relief arising from muscular aches and sore joints. This is because it is able to facilitate an increased blood circulation and flow to these muscles and joints, therefore alleviating conditions of rheumatism, arthritis and painful, sore muscles brought about by a tough workout session.

How to Use it: You can add 5 drops of spruce oil and combine it with 1 tablespoon of a carrier oil (such as coconut, almond or jojoba oil) and proceed to massage onto the affected areas to soothe inflamed muscles.

4. Supports the Endocrine System

Spruce essential oil is also powerful in the sense that it supports your hormonal system as it contains hormone stimulating and cortisone-like properties. With the presence of polycyclic terpenoid constituents, it helps to stimulate the adrenal, thyroid and pituitary glands which hence serves to regulate and stabilize your hormone secretions and hormone levels.

Particularly, it supports the adrenal system well because it regulates the release of the adrenal hormones to help the body deal with stress and other fight or flight situations. It can even control cases of hyperthyroidism, which is a condition characterized by overactive thyroid glands which releases an excessive amount of thyroid hormones.

How to Use it: You can dilute a few drops of spruce essential oil with a carrier oil and proceed to massage it onto your lower back area.

5. Prevents Urinary Tract Infections

With its antibacterial and antimicrobial properties, spruce essential oil can effectively disinfect and prevent urinary tract infections, thus maintaining the hygiene of your excretory and genital system. It effectively kills off bacteria and various viruses as well as fungus that can potentially grow. As such, it effectively mitigates and prevents the spread of diseases and infections.

In fact, a 2011 study, found on ResearchGate, was conducted on one of the species of the spruce plant family and it found that spruce exhibited potent antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacterial and fungal strains.

How to Use it: Combine 5 drops of spruce oil with a tablespoon of carrier oil and gently massage onto the lower back and abdominal area.

Safety Precautions:

• When applying spruce oil topically, be sure to dilute it with a carrier oil first before using it onto your skin.

• Perform a skin patch test first to ensure that no sensitive, irritant or allergic reactions crop up.

• If you are pregnant or a nursing mother, do consult your doctor first and seek for professional medical advice before using essential oils.

• If you are taking any other prescribed medications or suffering from any medical condition, do consult your doctor first for professional medical advice as well.

Spruce oil blends well with cedarwood, clary sage, lavender, pine and rosemary essential oils.

References:

Valeria Radulescu, et al., “Chemical Composition and Antimicrobial Activity of Essential Oil from Shoots Spruce (Picea abies L)”, Revista de Chimie-Bucharest-Original Edition (2011); 62(1)