Often primarily thought of as a key ingredient in cooking, black pepper may be turned into essential oil so that individuals can enjoy the topical and aromatherapy benefits of this spicy dried berry. Black pepper essential oil isn’t as common as many other types of essential oil sold today, but it does have a few interesting benefits that make it valuable when used in massage oil or diffusers.
Below, we give you important information on how black pepper essential oil is obtained, the many benefits of black pepper essential oil, and how you can add this oil into your daily routines to take advantage of its unique properties.
How Is Black Pepper Essential Oil Obtained?
We commonly recognize black peppers by the small, dried peppercorns we see in spice racks or other ingredient blends. These peppercorns are created by drying the berries of the vine Piper nigrum, a plant native to India, China, and other Asian regions. In this form, black pepper has a spicy, biting, almost woody flavor, and many individuals describe pepper as sharp, stimulating, and hot.
Black pepper essential oil is obtained in a high-pressured steam environment, like other essential oils. At the end of the distillation process, the essential oil produced by black pepper is a pale green to yellow color. It has a warm, spicy aroma with hints of sweetness and earthiness. The aroma of black pepper essential oil is often thought to be invigorating and overall peppery, in every sense of the word.
Black pepper essential oil is typically stored in an amber glass bottle, as this preserves the oil for as long as possible. It’s recommended to use black pepper essential oil sparingly because of its spiciness and the heat that it brings with its use.
Benefits of Black Pepper Essential Oil
While black pepper essential isn’t the most commonly used oil, that doesn’t mean it’s not full of benefits (and while it can be hard to track down, you can buy the oil online from specialized suppliers). Below, we list some of the most useful black pepper oil benefits to learn why you might want to add black pepper essential oil into your routine.
Anti-Inflammatory
Black pepper is known as an anti-inflammatory, and black pepper essential oil can help to soothe aches and pains when applied topically. Black pepper also has anti-spasmodic properties that help to soothe cramps, and the warmth or heat found in this spicy oil increases circulation leading to relief from aches and relaxation in muscles.
You can add black pepper essential oil to a massage oil blend or a lotion to fully take advantage of its benefits.
Aids Digestion
Black pepper helps to aid digestion due to the stimulating and anti-spasmodic effects it possesses. Historical uses of black pepper include relieving indigestion, nausea, constipation, and gas. The warm heat of this oil may also help to stimulate digestive enzymes, making your digestive process more efficient.
It’s important that you only ingest black pepper essential oil that is considered food grade and that you take this oil in very low doses, as excess ingestion of black pepper may lead to unpleasant health symptoms.
Lowers Blood Pressure
The warming effect of black pepper essential oil is known to increase circulation and even lower high blood pressure. Black pepper has traditionally been used for this in Eastern medicine, and the key component of black pepper, piperine, is linked to better heart and circulatory health.
Aids Aromatherapy Blends
The invigorating aroma of black pepper may be somewhat overpowering when inhaled alone, but this spicy, woody scent is often a powerful component of aromatherapy blends designed to encourage focus and energy. Black pepper essential oil blends well with other aromas such as cinnamon and cloves for a comforting spicy aroma, or oils like bergamot and rosemary for a relaxing, mind-focusing scent.
How Do I Use Black Pepper Essential Oil?
Black pepper essential oil is best used topically, as aromatherapy, or ingested when a food-safe essential oil is used. You can create a blend of essential oils for aromatherapy by adding your favorite scents into your diffuser – we suggest warm scents or even citrus essential oils to create an invigorating and uplifting blend.
You can add a few drops of black pepper essential oil into your favorite lotion or a carrier oil such as coconut or jojoba to be used topically on the skin. Use this blend as a massage oil or as a topical treatment for muscle aches, pains, and cramps.
When using a food-grade black pepper essential oil, you can add a few drops of this oil into soups, dressings, or virtually any dish to give it a hint of warmth and spiciness, and to take advantage of the digestion and circulatory benefits that black pepper essential oil brings.
Johnford Hillarrio is a health and fitness advocate contributing to My Healthy Living and Strategies, where he shares his passion for promoting physical and mental well-being. With a background in exercise science and nutrition, Johnford focuses on helping readers find sustainable ways to improve their overall health. His content offers actionable tips on fitness routines, healthy eating habits, and maintaining mental clarity.