Lovage Essential Oil
Levisticum officinale is the Botanical name of Lovage. Lovage is a sweet smelling and calming herb. It has several common Folk names, some of which are: Old English Lovage, Smellage, Smallage, and Maggi Herb.
All parts of Lovage contain medicinal properties. The volatile oil of Lovage contains some well known substances which are used in cosmetics, such as: angelic acid, phthalides, glucoside, gum and resins.
Lovage oil also contains Ligulin which is a colourant, and it is this Ligulin colourant which is the magic ingredient in our water-purity test. I discovered this water test in Aubrey Hampton’s wonderful book “What’s In Your Cosmetics?” This book was published in 1995 by Organica Press, Florida, USA.
Aubrey says that he uses Lovage Oil to test the purity of water. He recommends dropping just one drop of lovage oil into the water to be tested. The Ligulin component will cause the water to turn a bright crimson red if the water is pure. If the water is impure at all, then the red will turn to blue.
I have not tried this formula out, but I should think that you would use only a small amount of water – say a quarter of a cup full. Otherwise the Ligulin in the Lovage Oil may be too diluted to have an effect at all.
Of course, it will be necessary to purchase a pure essential oil of Lovage. Any synthetic equivalent will not do. But having purchased your Pure Essential Oil of Lovage, you could entertain your children with this water-testing experiment.
Show them how it works yourself by dropping one drop into various types of water: Try sea water to see what happens. Try the water from a near-by stream. Try tap water, try rain water, and try bottled water. Use the same volume of water for each experiment so that you can judge the colour differences.
Note: Do not give the Lovage Oil to your children to play with, as Essential Oils can be very potent and should be kept away from children and guarded carefully.
Lovage is used in Folk Medicine as a diuretic, a stomachic and an expectorant. It is a common flavour enhancer in foods and drinks. Because of its soothing and non-irritating effect, it is useful as a de-sensitizing agent for certain skin conditions. It is supposed to be good for acne.
Its ability to soothe the skin make Lovage a valued cosmetic component.