BLACK SPRUCE ESSENTIAL OIL (PICEA MARIANA) - ESSENTIAL OILS

Botanical Name: Picea mariana

Common Method of Extraction: Steam distillation

Part Typically Used: Needles and twigs

Color: Pale yellow

Consistency: Thin

Perfumery Note: Top / Middle

Strength of Initial Aroma: Fresh-balsamic, oily-sweet coniferous aroma, with a fruity-resinous undertone. Clean, with sweet hints of wood and earth.

Spruce Black essential oil is one of Canada’s best kept secrets. It is sweeter, and softer than most evergreen oils with a balsamic, resinous odor with green woody notes. Overall, the scent is very clean, fresh and pleasant.

Black Spruce essential oil has a much milder, sweeter scent compared to other oils from the evergreen family.

Picea mariana (black spruce) is a species of spruce native to northern North America, from Newfoundland to Alaska, and south to Pennsylvania, Minnesota and central British Columbia, in the biome known as taiga or boreal forest.

Picea mariana is a slow - growing, small upright evergreen coniferous tree, having a straight trunk with little taper, a scruffy habit, and a narrow, pointed crown of short, compact, drooping branches with upturned tips. Through much of its range it averages 5 - 15 m tall with a trunk 15 - 50 cm diameter at maturity, though occasional specimens can reach 30 m tall and 60 cm diameter.

The bark is thin, scaly, and grayish brown. The leaves are needle - like, 6 - 15 mm long, stiff, four-sided, dark bluish green on the upper sides, paler glaucous green below. The cones are the smallest of all of the spruces, 1,5 - 4 cm long and 1 - 2 cm broad, spindle - shaped to nearly round, dark purple ripening red - brown, produced in dense clusters in the upper crown, opening at maturity but persisting for several years.

The timber is of low value due to the small size of the trees, but it is an important source of pulpwood and the primary source of it in Canada. Fast - food chopsticks are often made from black spruce.

Black spruce is the provincial tree of Newfoundland and labrador. The black spruce tree grows along side other trees such as white spruce, red spruce, as well as larch (aka Tamarack). The forests in which they grow harbor safety of much wildlife such as deer, moose and elk. This symbiotic relationship adds much to its energetic properties.

Chemical structure:

In terms of its chemical constituents, the essential oil is rich in monoterpenes including alpha- and beta-pinene, delta-3-carene, camphene, l-alpha-phellandrene and esters including bornyl acetate.

Black spruce essential oil has a significant percentage of camphene. This monoterpene is known specifically to be a powerful mucolytic so it is quite beneficial for respiratory issues.

Black Spruce tree, a sense of rootedness and expansiveness occurs. Once feeling grounded, we can feel more connected to our breath, opening and expanding on many levels. Black Spruce essential oil allows us to recall memories. When we can feel more comfortable and grounded in our physical bodies, all things are possible.

It assists us in working with our shadow side thus allowing a higher vibration to occur.

The Native Americans used Spruce for spiritual and practical reasons. They used it for protection and capturing the universal energy here on earth the earth plane. The Lakota Indians used spruce to connect with the Great Spirit during spiritual ceremonies and rituals.

This essential oil is wonderful when working with the Root (1st chakra) and Heart (4th chakra). Black Spruce essential oil fits to the heart, Solar Plexus and Sacral Chakras.

There are over 40 species of Spruce some of which are not for medicinal use.

Black Spruce oil is anti-infectious, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, antiparasitic, antiseptic, cortisone like, hormone like, disinfectant, tonic and immune stimulant.

Black Spruce essential oil is rich in monoterpenes that give this oil its anti-inflammatory and analgesic therapeutic effects.

It also is high in camphene, a monoterpene known for its mucolytic and respiratory benefits. It is antiseptic and expectorant and therefore is ideally used for many respiratory issues. It is an ideal remedy for many lung ailments such as asthma and bronchitis especially when used in an inhalation blend.

Spruce essential oil has been used traditionally for infections and for supporting the immune system. It also very good for arthritis, rheumatic, sciatica and lower back pain. Arthritis and rheumatism, infections (respiratory and sinus), fungal infections (Candida), prostatitis, hyperthyroidism, immune depression, lumbago (back pain), sciatica and bone pain, stimulate thymus and adrenal glands.

According to Dr. Kurt Schnabelt, Black Spruce is also known to strengthen and support the adrenal glands during times of stress and fatigue. This supports the fact that Black Spruce is not only calming and sedating, but uplifting as well.

Black Spruce needle essential oil has a long history of use in saunas, steam baths, and as an additive to baths and massage products in spas. A particular strength of this essential oil is it's ability to target sore muscles and reenergize.