Make Own Antifungal Mix of Essential Oils

This article is just for informational purposes only. I DO NOT recommend to anybody to ingest the essential oils which are not intended and marketed by the producers for human consumption!

The essential oils contain the fat soluble chemicals which are meant to be the plant’s defense against the pathogenic viruses, bacteria and fungi. That’s the reason why herbs and plants create those chemicals; plants do not have the immune systems to fight off the microbes so the only other solution for them is to synthesize the antimicrobial chemicals.

Today I am not going to describe the essential oils in detailed overview rather than sharing what the best information from the studies.

The best essential oils which can be used as natural antifungals:

  • oregano oil
  • thyme oil
  • cinnamon oil
  • cassia oil
  • lemongrass oil
  • clove oil

These essential oils proved to be very effective against the broad spectrum of fungi and yeasts. But naturally those oils are effective also against the bacteria, viruses and other pathogens like mycoplasma or intestinal parasites.

Another advantage of these essential oils is that they are not very expensive. The most expensive of those essential oils listed above are oregano oil, cinnamon oil and thyme oil.

Even though there are other effective essential oils which cost even less they may get contaminated with pesticides. Orange essential oil is an effective natural antimicrobial product which is not expensive but there is a concern about its pesticide content. Exotic fruits like oranges and lemons are sprayed with chemicals that are fat-soluble and will get into the essential oils extracted from those fruits.

Orange oil is extracted by cold pressing of orange peels and the yield is about 0.3% – 0.5% of orange peel weight.[1] After doing some math we get the numbers: 200 – 300 grams of orange peels is needed to get 1 ml of orange essential oil.

So if you ingested 1 ml of orange essential oil it would be like eating 300 grams of orange peels with all the pesticides in them.

That’s the only reason why I do not recommend ingestion of essential oils extracted from citruses unless they are produced from organic pesticide-free fruits.

How to dilute the essential oils?

Usually the ratio used in essential oil supplements is 1:3 or 1:4. So you take like 60 ml of 100% oregano essential oil and 240ml of olive oil or coconut oil which will serve as a carrier oil. You get 300ml of diluted oregano essential oil which can be used without feeling too much irritation.

However, you can also dilute the essential oils more (like 1:5 or 1:10) since it is not so much about the concentration of the essential oil in carrier oil. Having to take 1 teaspoon of oil mix or 2 teaspoons as a serving is just a matter of convenience. The effective antimicrobial chemicals found in the essential oils get distributed throughout the body the same way.

The point of making own essential oil formula is the price obviously. You spend less because you will make more of the essential oil mix than you would buy in the supplement store.

oregano_essential_oilsVarious brands produce a lot of different 100% essential oils which are either distilled or cold pressed. However, not every oil is 100% essential oil! A lot of vendors produce already diluted oils containing various chemicals and these oils are TOXIC and NOT intended for consumption! Another problem is that some oils are also chemically extracted with a solvent so check the label of every essential oil you would want to buy.

Another advantage is creating your own unique blend of antimicrobial essential oils which is more effective since the antimicrobial substances from each essential oil will complement each other.

How to take essential oils?

First – do not forget to dilute the essential oils properly!

It is great if the essential oils are taken at least 2x a day but ideally 3 times daily.

Some people can take them on empty stomach but for most it is advised to take them with a little bit of fat containing meal. This way the essential oils don’t bother the stomach and their assimilation may be substantially improved since the liver and gallbladder is stimulated to release more bile which helps with fat digestion.

This is important mostly if you aim at systemic fungal and yeast infections in the blood and tissues not just in the intestines.

How much essential oils should I take?

The more does not always bring the better results. For chronic (fungal) infection the more important factor may be the duration and consistency of taking the natural antimicrobials rather than taking high dosages of essential oils.

The calculation of the dosage of safe daily intake of essential oils is not easy. Essential oils generally are not intended for human consumption (usually used just as a flavors) so we have to find the toxicity data of each essential oil and compare them somehow with other substances we ingest on a daily basis.

One of them is salt – NaCl. Its LD50 (lethal dose which kills 50% of tested subjects) is 3 grams / kg in rats when taken orally. The RDA (Recommended Dietary/Daily Allowance) limit for humans is set to 2.3 grams per day.

So the RDA for humans is about the 80% of LD50 per kg in rats.

If we translated this to essential oils the “RDA” would be somewhere between 1-4 ml of 100% essential oil. The toxicity of different essential oils varies so it is not possible to universally pinpoint the exact numbers.

The best way is to check the LD50 data for each essential oil or the main chemicals found in each of the individual essential oils. The LD50 data of carvacrol and thymol which are the major constituents of oregano essential oil, cinnamaldehyde which is found abundantly in cinnamon essential oil, citral (geraniol) and neral found in lemongrass oil and so on.

We are talking about the acute toxicity here so keep that in mind. The toxicity of (not just) essential oils when taken long-term may develop even at substantially lower dosages. Everybody is different so it is impossible to tell how much essential oil is safe for everybody.

Some people may take 2 ml of essential oils 3 times daily and feel well. And the others may throw up and feel sick after taking just 0.1 ml of essential oil.

I am not going to tell you how much to take, but surely there is no need to go over 5-6 ml of essential oils daily. Those amounts of oils can be found in the fresh harvested herbs weighing about 2 pounds (almost 1 kg) so it is not something you would want to underrate.

lemongrass_cloveIn case of oregano oil the yield of essential oil distilled from dried leaves varies a lot; one scientific reference states getting up to 2.3% of essential oil after 4 hours of distillation. However, the other paper states 3,6ml of oil with carvacrol content of 85.5% per 100g of dried leaves. That means 3,6 ml of essential oil can be found in 100g of dried oregano leaves (1 ml of oil is not exactly 1 gram but for our reference the actual difference is not important). The differences in essential oil content of different batches of dried oregano leaves is normal.

Generally, if we assumed the water content of fresh oregano leaves to be about 75% we would get 100g of dried leaves from 400 grams of fresh herb.

So if you took 3.6 ml of oregano essential oil daily it would be like eating about the 400 g of fresh herb. I say at least because distillation is more effective than chewing so eating the plant material will never be as effective as the distillation is.

Listen to your body

It is always important to listen to your body. If you feel awful when taking ANY supplement then do not take it or if you think it is because of high dosage, try taking less.

Psoriasis healing should not be a painful or negative experience. In very most cases there is no reason for feeling bad during the healing. So called “Herx” reactions are not the true signs of improvement in most cases. Many people experience some “herx” reactions as a negative response to supplement or diet rather than as a real sign of detoxification or killing off the microbes.

The acute toxicity of essential oils is not particularly high so many people can take a few milliliters of essential oil on a daily basis.

The chronic toxicity is not well researched since essential oils are not the most popular supplement for oral intake. However, it is similar as with the other natural products – it depends on everyone’s individual detoxification capabilities of liver and detoxification enzymes in the cells.

There may be some interactions with OTC drugs, prescription drugs as well as other herbal supplements so that’s why I don’t recommend to anybody to combine the herbal products with any drugs or other herbs if one is not sure what is he doing.

Anthony C. Dweck compiled an extensive paper about essential oils and their toxicity so you could use it as a reference if you would decide to make own blend of essential oils. You can also download one of his articles about essential oils toxicity here.

References:

1) Mikaela Nichkova, Xun Fu, Zheng Yang, Ping Zhong, James R. Sanborn, Dan Chang, Shirley J. Gee, and Bruce D. Hammock. Immunochemical Screening of Pesticides (Simazine and Cypermethrin) in Orange Oil. J Agric Food Chem. 2009 Jul 8; 57(13): 5673–5679.

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