Juniper EO Organic
Origin: France

• Details and product description

  Introduction:

  The tree adapts morphologically to the climatic conditions of the place where it lives: itadopts a slender shape on the plains, and in the mountains it grows low to the groundand spreads wide. The juniper is a shrub that is found on hillsides, in woods, heaths and clearings. It is a slow-growing evergreen with many branches from 1 to 3 meters high, sometimes reaching a height of 5 meters The shrub has narrow, pointed and needle-like green-blue leaves in bundles of 3. Its needles have a single white stripe on top, unlike Juniperus oxycedrus, which has two stripes. It has small, yellow, barely-visible, dioecious flowers (April / May) grouped into small catkins in the leaf axils. Its fruit is purple to black globular berries each containing 3 triangular seeds, which appear only on female plants after 3 years. A plant can bear several generations of berries, which are at different stages of maturity. The tree is covered with sharp-pointed needles and flowers in spring. This bushy shrub grows spontaneously in poor, dry soil, forming bushes that often do not exceed four meters in height. Its charming flowers in shades of purple and white, will produce green, globular and fleshy fruits, with the characteristic stellate scar, turning purple to black when ripe. Their pulp is floury, sweet and turpentine. The berries and leaves of common juniper are used. The berry is harvested in the autumn of its third year: its pulp is floury, sweet and terpenic.

  History:

  Juniperus is the name used by Virgil to designate juniper, from the Celtic juneprus meaning harsh because of the fruit’s taste. The shrub is sacred throughout the northern hemisphere. In ancient Greece, it was dedicated to the Eumenides, formidable deities, and the smoke of the green branches was offered as incense to the gods of the underworld. According to Pliny, Hannibal ordered that the roof beams of the temple of Diana at Ephesus be made of juniper to render it favorable to her. Burning juniper is said to purify the air and disperse evil spirits. In the 5th century, Italian sorceresses used juniper as a fumigant on earthen hills to repel barbarian invaders. If children became ill in the district of Walreck in Prussia, their parents brought wool and bread in a juniper bouquet to entice the evil spirits to eat and spin and forget about the child. Frau Wachholder, who personifies the juniper and its spirit, was invoked so that thieves would return everything they had carried away. In Limousin and in Auvergne (France), the door where a marriage took place was always flanked by two protective junipers wrapped in ribbons of many colors. Since its smell repelled serpents, branches were hung from the doors of houses to kept snakes away. Juniper’s properties were certainly known by northern prehistoric peoples. In the Middle Ages, it was considered a panacea against plague and epidemics. Its use is mentioned in France in the 17th century. The smoke from the wood and the berries was believed to protect from plague and major epidemics. Its balsamic, expectorant and sedative properties were used to calm coughs and treat bronchitis. In the past, the Scots made formidable but effective mixtures of alcohol and juniper berries to prevent influenza. Juniper was used in fumigations to treat head colds. In veterinary medicine, juniper berries are used to increase milk production among other things.

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