Lavender, cedarwood, and vetiver balms work as an anti-stress treatment by reducing plasma cortisol levels

Prolonged stress has a negative impact on health. Stress stimulates hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis leading to increased cortisol hormone level. Excessive cortisol causes immunity suppression, sleep disturbance, and metabolic imbalance. Essential oils have been often used to stimulate relaxation. Lavender, cedarwood, and vetiver have a relaxation effect and they are useful for anxiety and depression. Common applications are aromatherapy inhalation and topical/massage. The aim of this study was to find the effect of lavender, cedarwood, and vetiver balms of reducing plasma cortisol levels. The study design was experimental with post-test-only control group that used 4 control (negative, positive, diazepam 2 mg/kg BW, balm vehicle) and 9 treatment (lavender 10%, 20%, 30%; cedarwood 10%, 20%, 30%; vetiver 10%, 20%, 30%) groups with 9 male Wistar rats in each group. Swim test was applied daily as a stress stimulus and the balms were applied daily on the shaved back for 30 days. Data were shown as mean ± SD and analyzed using Kruskal Wallis and Spearman correlation test with a significant value of p