Essential Branch

Spicy essential oil

Ginger

Zingiber officinale

Fresh ginger roots and slices on a round wooden board, with limes and a bowl of ground ginger on a pale table.
Fresh ginger roots and slices on a round wooden board, with limes and a bowl of ground ginger on a pale table. Photo: Khlshnuramalina, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ginger oil is distilled from the rhizome of Zingiber officinale and smells warm, peppery and slightly lemony, without the bite of the fresh root. It is often chosen for warming massage blends, for cold-weather diffuser blends with citrus and as a middle note that adds body to fresh mixes. Ginger has a long history in traditional remedies for a queasy stomach, though that research is mostly about eating the root, not smelling the oil. Safety references list no particular hazards for the distilled oil, which makes it one of the easier spice oils to use well.

Safety at a glance

  • Pregnancy Generally well tolerated
  • Children From age 2
  • Dogs Generally well tolerated
  • Cats Use with caution
  • Sunlight Not phototoxic
  • On skin No published maximum

Reference

Botanical name Zingiber officinale
Plant family Zingiberaceae
Plant part Rhizome
Extraction steam distillation
Main origins India, China and Nigeria
Aroma family Spicy
Note Middle note
Aroma Warm, peppery root with a lemony freshness
Main constituents alpha-zingiberene, ar-curcumene, beta-sesquiphellandrene, beta-bisabolene and camphene
Common uses warming, muscle rub, seasonal and focus
Suggested maximum on skin No published maximum
Phototoxic No
Shelf life once opened 2 to 3 years
Pregnancy Generally well tolerated
Children From age 2
Dogs Generally well tolerated
Cats Use with caution
Safety notes Tisserand and Young list no particular hazards for the distilled oil and consider the slight phototoxic effect sometimes reported to be insignificant. It is on the IFPA list of oils used in pregnancy. Pet poison lines do not flag it.

Blends well with

Used in: Essential Oil Blends for Focus, Essential Oil Blends for a Fresh Home, Essential Oil Blends for Seasonal Comfort

Sources

  1. Essential Oil Safety: A Guide for Health Care Professionals, 2nd edition (Tisserand & Young), Churchill Livingstone / Elsevier
  2. Bioactive compounds and bioactivities of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) (Mao et al., 2019), PubMed Central (NIH)
  3. Aromatherapy and pregnancy guidelines, International Federation of Professional Aromatherapists (hosted by NAHA)