Updated 16 January 2024
Botanical characteristics
- Kingdom: Plantae
- Division: Spermatophita
- Class: Angiospermae
- Order: Asterales
- Family: Asteraceae
- Genus: Artemisia
- Part used: Aerial parts of flowers
- Country of origin: Metropolitan France
Precautions for use
Caution! Tarragon essential oil should not be used by pregnant or breastfeeding women or by children under 3 years of age, except by diffusion.
However, all routes of administration are permitted for adults, adolescents and children over 3 years of age.
However, it should be noted that inhalation may be irritating to some sensitive people.
Finally, it contains two biochemical allergenic components, but at low doses.
Other precautions
Cutaneous use:
- It can be used purely topically.
- If you are using it on the skin for a long time and over a large area, you should dilute it to 20% vegetable oil (20% essential oil and 80% vegetable oil).
Ingestion:
- Oral use should always be short term.
Diffusion:
- Pregnant women and babies can use this essential oil in air diffusers.
Contraindications:
- Do not use on anticoagulant treatment due to high methylchavicol content.
Allergenic components:
Tarragon essential oil contains three allergenic biochemicals:
- limonene (≤ 5%)
- eugenol (≤ 1%)
- linalool (≤ 0.5%)
Note: It is best to test the essential oil before use (two drops on the crease of the elbow for at least 24 hours to check for a reaction).
Authorised users
How to use
Risks of use
Properties
- Powerful neuromuscular antispasmodic, particularly effective against hiccups and hepato-biliary spasms
- Digestive tonic: stomachic, aperitive, carminative
- Anti-inflammatory
- Anti-allergic
- Intestinal antiparasitic, antifermentative
- Neurovegetative dystonia: nervousness, spasmophilia
- Mental tonic
Indications
- Hiccups
- Nervousness
- Painful menstruation
- Aerophagia
- Abdominal swelling
- Flatulence
- Slow digestion
- Dyspepsia
- Gastritis
- Colitis
- Allergic asthma
- Hay fever
- Allergy to pollen
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Travel sickness
- Muscle cramps
Directions for use/usual dosage
- Motion sickness, vomiting, nausea, allergies, spasmophilia, cystitis, indigestion, colitis, bronchitis and rhinitis: take orally diluted in a spoonful of honey or vegetable oil.
- Fermentation of food, accumulation of gas in the intestines, slow digestion: taken orally diluted in a spoonful of honey or vegetable oil before meals.
- Skin inflammation, eczema, urticaria: local application diluted in vegetable oil.
- Painful menstruation and premenstrual pain: on the lower abdomen diluted in a vegetable oil.
- Anxiety, fear, lack of concentration, mental and physical tension, mental fatigue, stress, overwork: by olfaction or diffusion.
- Blocked solar plexus: apply a light trace under the nose before bed or in the bath (5 drops mixed with soap).
Find out more
- You need 1.5 to 2 kg of flowering plants to make 10 ml of Tarragon essential oil.
- For many uses, especially for antispasmodic purposes, Tarragon essential oil can be replaced by Tropical Basil essential oil. Their biochemical composition is similar.