Pretty Lavender Flowers Offer Effective Treatment for MRSA and Burns
Lavender blossoms are pretty flowers that serve more than one purpose of being a beautiful and aromatic decoration item only. For centuries, these flowers have been in use for reducing gastrointestinal illness, calming nerves and eliminating headaches and insomnia. However, several other medicinal uses of lavenders have been discovered in the recent times, which include balancing the symptoms of menopause and others.
About the Flower
Provence, France has been known as a rich source of these flowers. This is the main reason that has influenced many French Impressionists by the way they were cultivated in different colors across the rows in the rolling hills. Around 40 species have been discovered as of now, where English or common lavender, L. Angustifolia or Lavandula Angustifolia is the most common studied and used type. These flowers were restricted to be used for cosmetic use and mild medical applications only till the beginning of the 20th century.
Use of Lavender for Burns
Rene-Maurice Gattefosse, a French chemist discovered another aspect of their use when he got his hand burnt accidently around 1900 while working in his lab. He immediately pushed his hand into a container of lavender oil and observed an instant pain relief, followed by a quick restoration of his hand to normal health without any permanent damage to his skin.
Another Frenchman Dr. Jean Valnet, an army surgeon was forced to substitute lavenders for the limited medical supplies during the period of World War 1. He observed the use of lavender to be effective in the cure of burns and reduction of pain along with the prevention of skin from infections. However, several hospitals in France are known to use these flowers for the treatment of burns of first and second degree, while the use is not advised in the case of third degree burns by some naturalists.
Thus, it is essential to have some lavender oil of pure and high quality at home, where a mixture of aloe vera is considered to be quite effective in case of burns and all the lavender oils possess similar characteristics.
Effective against MRSA
MRSA is an infection that is caused by the strain of staph bacteria or staphylococcus that has developed a resistance to the commonly used antibiotics for its treatment. The discovery of its use began when MSRA turned into an epidemic due to an overuse of antibiotics and was termed as HA MRSA or Hospital Associated MRSA, which later evolved into CA MRSA or Community Associated MRSA. Since staph bacteria can transfer from one person to another by skin contact, thus the existence of untreated bacteria raised concerns because of its fatal results. However, lavender oils have proven to be reasonably successful in the elimination of MRSA.
Lavender teas or oils are used for numerous ailments, more often as aromatherapy agents or as a tea. Being an antifungal and antibiotic serving a broad spectrum, it is known to be used to relieve insomnia & menopause symptoms, eliminate skin infections & headaches and calm jangled nerves. However, no adverse reactions or side-effects have been observed with their use except for occasional allergic reactions.
