[Impact of essential oil vapors inhalation on blood pressure in patients with hypertension].

Increase of patients with hypertension in the world determines the search for new, accessible, easily applicable and mildly effective antihypertensive agents, particularly essential oils (EO). Currently available studies of the EO impact on blood pressure do not allow to assess the efficiency of such therapy.

Objective: To perform the comparative study of antihypertensive effects of inhalation with EO vapors of various composition.

Material and methods: The investigation included 849 women aged 55-89 years with hypertension. Two examination series were done: 10- and 20-minute duration procedures. Trial subjects were divided into control (psychorelaxation procedure) and experimental (psychorelaxation procedure combined with the EO inhalation of common basil, Italian immortelle, clove tree, common hyssop, cardamom, coriander, Caucasian nepeta, nepeta cataria, spicate lavender, bay laurel, the sort «Oxamitov» of brook-mint, the sorts «Prilutskaya», «Udaichanka», «Ukrainian» of pepper mint, the Siberian fir, Tauric wormwood, the sort «Crimean red» of rose, rosmarinus officinalis, Scotch pine, fennel, mountain savory, garden savory and clary sage; EO concentration in air - 1 mg/m³) groups. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate were measured, as well as the coefficient of blood circulation efficiency and Robinson index were calculated before and after the examination in trial subjects.

Results: It has been established that the EO of clary sage, bay laurel, Caucasian nepeta and the sort «Oxamitov» of brook-mint have antihypertensive action at both 10-minute and 20-minute exposure. The antihypertensive action of EO of common basil, clove tree, coriander, nepeta cataria, the sort «Crimean red» of rose, rosmarinus officinalis, garden savory was found after 10-minute exposure. There was no antihypertensive action in EO application of Italian immortelle, common hyssop, spicate lavender, the sorts «Prilutskaya», «Ukrainian», «Udaichanka» of pepper mint, Siberian fir, tauric wormwood, Scotch pine and fennel.

Conclusion: The EO vapors' inhalation of clary sage, bay laurel, Caucasian nepeta, the sort «Oxamitov» of brook-mint, common basil, clove tree, coriander, nepeta cataria, the sort «Crimean red» of rose, rosmarinus officinalis and garden savory can be a promising method to reduce blood pressure in patients with hypertension.