You surely will have heard a thing or two about aromatherapy, the art of using aroma-rich essential oils to achieve mental and physical health. Aromatherapy has come a long way from its past. Nowadays, aromatherapy experts can readily boast of using their art to relief stress, treat depression and to improve mental health.

However, what is new in the field and study of aromatherapy seems to be its new found effect on diseases causing pathogens, especially viruses. Not more than twenty years back, a German scientist discovered more than a hundred different specie of a particular plant family, known as Lamiacea, to be particularly effective in attacking viral infections. This lead to a surge in the study of how well some plant extracts can help the human body fight pathogenic diseases.

With the increased research in this area, several plants' essential oils have now been shown to be antiviral in effect, although, there are some limitations in this respect. First, studies on the application of these oils to specific viral diseases are difficult to come by, since it is not easy to infect a subject in a lab with a particular virus and then apply the oils to gauge the results. Secondly, it is relatively difficult to ascertain the exact virus type involved in a disease, making a specific application of the relevant oil more difficult.

Nevertheless, a good number of plant essential oils have been shown to exhibit anti viral properties. It is noteworthy, however, that most of these known oils vary in their effectiveness depending on the virus type. The different oils are made up of different molecular units and structures making them different in their strengths and mode of action.

The effectiveness of these oils in fighting viral infections is in part due to the ease with which they can penetrate the human body cells and tissues. Most of these plants' oils are known to be lipophilic i.e. attracted towards fat/lipid tissues, which is perhaps why they can penetrate cell membranes with so much ease. It is even said that through the use of some aromatic oils, normal body cells tend to become resistant to viral penetration.

Several different oils can be seen to exert similar antiviral effects, due to the fact that they contain similar amounts of a particular component. Essential oils are only effective against viral strains depending on their components. The number of known oils that exhibit antiviral properties is quite extensive, but a few examples will do.

The Melissa plant, a member of the Lamiaceae plant family studied, has been shown to be particularly useful in treating the Herpes virus infection. It is said that a one time application of the Melissa oil can lead to a complete remission of the virus and that further infection can be prevented by applying the oil to the area about three to four times, when one starts getting the feelings and signs that foretell an imminent outbreak of the infection.

Also, the eucalyptus and tea tree are said to be effective in treating infections of the respiratory tract. In such cases, the essentials oils could be applied through massaging, diluted in a carrier oil or in a diffuser to achieve this desired result. Some other notable oils that are known to be efficacious in fighting viral infections include thyme, palmarosa, lavender, rosemary, clove, laurel, cinnamon bark, anise, rose, lemongrass, geranium, neroli, bergamot, clary sage, and dill. Lavender oil is particularly known to work very well in relieving stress and soothing aches in the body, besides its antiviral properties.