Lignum Vitae Essential Oil (Bulnesia sarmentii) is often confused and sometimes sold as Holy Wood or Palo Santo – This is quite incorrect. Palo Santo is Bursea graveolens and smells quite distinctly different. In its purest form (this product) the oil is solid at room temperature due to its high fat content. Warming gently will return it to a liquid state for blending ( as with many absolutes )

Permanently liquid versions of the oil are sold by some outlets however these are the essential oil blended with up to 75% alcohol and should say so on the label and by the seller (not always so) which is fine by many users but cannot be claimed to be pure 100% essential oil.

Reported Attributes of Lignum Vitae Essential Oil:-

Traditional and Emotional uses reportedly include:-

Lignum Vitae Essential Oil is most often used in perfumes as a base or fixative. It can be quite viscous and thick at room temperature and in order to make it more usable simply warm the bottle before use. A hair dryer will do the job or simply hold the bottle in your hand for a few minutes.

History:-

It is also and sometimes known as Guaiacum Wood or simply Guaiac. Lignum Vitae means “tree of life”. The tree contains rich supplies of fats and resins which make it hard and impervious to water. It has been used for ornamental carving and was once medicinally used to treat syphilis and gout (with, no doubt, rare effect.) It has bark which is hard, flat, a few lines thick, of a greenish-black colour, with yellowish and greyish spots and is very acrid. The wood and bark, used for medicinal purposes, consists of turnings from the workshop of the turner, and is a uniform mixture of the alburnum and duramen, but that used in medicine should really only consist only of the latter. The alburnum or sap-wood is of a yellow colour, that of the duramen or heartwood, greenish-brown. Lignum vitae is only odorous when burned or rasped.