Rosemary essential oil has long been associated with memory and remembrance. For example in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Ophelia says to her brother Laertes, ‘There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray/ Love, remember’ (Act IV, Scene 5). Although let’s not forget that this is declaimed shortly before she kills herself after going insane following the death of her father. However, maybe Ophelia was actually on to something as recent research at Northumbria University has shown.
Professor Mark Moss and his research group having been looking at the effect that inhaling rosemary essential oil has on future memory. Future memory is one of three types of memory that we have. Past memory is that which focuses on past actions and experiences; present memory is that which is working minute to minute and future memory is focused on remembering things in the future such as remembering to post a letter, phone the garage, bank a cheque – something that many of us could probably do with a little help with!
Currently modern medicine has made some advances into helping to improve the past memory of people suffering from dementia, but its efficacy is limited and these drugs would do nothing to help the rest of us. But so far there is no accepted medicinal method of helping to increase our future memory. And it is here that rosemary essential oil comes in.
In Professor Moss’ study, groups of participants aged 60 plus were recruited and asked to complete a series of tasks that would test their future memory in rooms that either contained rosemary essential oil vapour, lavender essential oil vapour or no scent. The results showed that those who were in the rosemary scented room did statistically significantly better that those in the scentless room and those in the lavender scented room actually performed worse in the tests.
These results would then seem to confirm the age old belief that rosemary essential oil is good for the memory, whereas lavender essential oil is fantastic for calming and soothing and helping to induce sleep. So if you want to see of you can recreate these results yourself then why not order a bottle of our gorgeous lavender essential oil or rosemary essential oil today?
