Reggio di Calabria, at the tip of Italy’s “boot,” is recognized as the only town surrounded by bergamot trees in the world. People have attempted to cultivate the bergamot tree in other places, like the South of France and the Ivory Coast, but with little success. Bergamot essential oil of unsurpassed quality comes exclusively from Reggio di Calabria. Sadly enough, an interstate highway and airport built in the 1980s has limited growing space for these trees. Surrounding the city are steep, bare rocks that alternate with luscious, gentle meadows. On a clear day you can see Mount Etna. In a few fertile segments the bergamot tree thrives. At bergamot harvest time, from November through February, narcissus and Christmas cactus bloom. The landscape around Reggio di Calabria then seems like paradise.

What the bergamot really is and why it flourishes in this place, but few others are occasional subjects of wild speculation. The most likely story seems to be that somebody once brought the bergamot to the Canary Islands where Christopher Columbus is said to have discovered the tree and transported it to Reggio di Calabria.

The bergamot tree belongs to the citrus genus. Like orange and lemon trees, it is a product of cultivation—a hybrid of bitter orange and lemon. The trees grow to about 16 feet and seem to be more fragile than orange or lemon trees. Like these more familiar trees, bergamot trees have strong, lush green leaves, but the star-shaped, white flowers with a sweet fragrance are smaller than those of other citrus trees. When ripe, the round, somewhat pear-shaped fruit is yellow.

The essential oil of bergamot is usually made from the very bitter and sour, inedible green fruit. Hidden in the skin of the green fruit, in small oil glands, is the treasure of the bergamot tree—the emerald green essential oil. The oil is extracted by a combination of methods, cold pressing and the centrifuge. This oil, highly valued by the perfume industry, is an important ingredient in every good cologne.

Aromatherapy also values bergamot oil. This essential oil is used as often by beginners as by experts. Nearly everyone loves its fruity, refreshing, and lively but gentle, flowery fragrance. Paoli Rovesti, at the University of Milan (one of the first people who taught aromatherapy at a university), has conducted research at several psychiatric clinics. His experiments with essential oils have shown their benefits for depression, anxiety, and hysteria. He has described the important psychological effects of bergamot oil in relieving fear and calming anxiety.

Aromatherapists have confirmed his conclusions and now use bergamot oil for depression and anxiety. As very recent studies have shown, bergamot oil effectively balances the activity of the hypothalamus. In addition, the pleasant, fresh, warm fragrance helps balance unstable emotions. While this essential oil has a calming and relaxing influence, it also acts as a stimulant and tonic, depending on the situation and needs of the patient. This makes bergamot one of the most versatile essential oils. Bergamot also complements other essential oils. When used in combination with rosemary, lemongrass, or verbena, it is mentally stimulating and has a refreshing, uplifting effect. With ylang-ylang and jasmine, its effects are physical, and with Swiss pine or juniper, medicinal.

With its many-layered effects, bergamot oil remains uplifting. For exhaustion when convalescing from physical or psychological illnesses or for fatigue due to constant stress, this essential oil stimulates and helps rebuild strength. It helps calm people under stress or who feel nervous and anxious. Thanks to bergamot’s sunny disposition, the oil helps people regain self-confidence, and it uplifts and refreshes the spirit. The gentle fragrance, like a bouquet of flowers, evokes joy and warms the heart.

For all these conditions, bergamot oil can be used in the aroma lamp, mixed with body or massage oil, or added to the bath. Why not pamper yourself—when feeling down—with a relaxing bergamot bath. Bergamot oil in the aroma lamp always seems appropriate. It is particularly suited for beginners who have a new aroma lamp. Bergamot combined with myrtle and lemon or lemongrass, cleanses and freshens a smoke-filled room. Rovesti has recommended bergamot oil for people who want to quit smoking.

The essential oil of bergamot is enhanced by other citrus oils, since they work synergistically. A combination of different essential oils (not simply citrus oils) tends to be more attractive to our sense of smell than a single oil alone. We usually prefer many-layered fragrances. The more interesting the scent our brain registers, the greater its chances for psychological impact. A fragrance that an aromatherapist considers appropriate for a particular therapeutic situation remains useless if the client finds the smell unpleasant. In these instances, the Aromatherapists may attempt to cover up the oil’s unpleasantness by adding other essential oils or choosing a quite different oil that promises similar results.

For helping treat anxiety, depression, or emotional imbalances, bergamot oil may be mixed with other essential oils. Depending on the condition to be treated, these oils make good companions to bergamot oil: lavender, neroli, petitgrain, rose, angelica, cedar, clary, balm, and marjoram. Bergamot is also useful for altering or balancing those oils with good psychological effects but with an odor that some people consider too strong or unpleasant: cypress, rockrose, immortelle, yarrow, frankincense, and pine.

Combining different essential oils makes it possible to totally individualize every oil according to the patient’s needs—a facet of aromatherapy preparations unparalleled in traditional psychopharmacy. To understand this phenomenon we need to realize that when individual essential oils are used in combination, the chemical reaction breaks up their original molecular chain(s) and they recombine to form entirely new molecules. Robert Tisserand illustrates aromatherapy’s diverse possibilities with this example—if a repertoire of twenty-five essential oils were available and two or four of those were combined at once, 15,000 different products could be created.
Bergamot oil has been long used in Italy for many different physical illnesses. Its strong antiseptic properties make it possible to use this oil for a wide variety of applications. The oil is effective against staphylococcus, gonococcus, and meningococcus, as well as diphtheria and other infectious bacteria. For mouth infections, the oil can be used as a mouthwash; for skin infections and respiratory problems, inhale the oil as steam.

Bergamot oil is particularly effective in treating bladder infections. Here the oil may be used orally in a propolis infusion. A sitz bath, salt free diet, and drinking herbal teas (like golden seal, yarrow, bearberry, buchu, and birch leaf) complement treatment.

For lost appetite, bergamot oil is given orally (2 drops on a sugar cube or in honey). Anorexia has been successfully treated with bergamot oil combined with grapefruit juice (use equal amounts of oil and juice) as a massage oil. In addition, the oil can be used in a bath or aroma lamp. Bergamot oil, taken orally, will relieve stomach and intestinal cramps and flatulence, when combined with coriander, fennel, or anise. Bergamot was once used to help treat malaria. Since the oil reduces fever, it is very effective in fighting high fever when applied as leg compresses, with lemon.

Bergamot is also one of the best essential oils for treating eczemas and psoriasis. Here the oil is mixed with rockrose and immortelle for a more pleasant, lighter fragrance. For cold sores that usually erupt with stress, bergamot oil can be an alternative to true balm oil, which is rarely available. Both oils are effective against the virus and help calm patients under stress.

The essential oil of the bergamot fruit helps decrease sensitivity to sunlight. Many suntan lotion manufacturers use this oil in their products. It not only offers protection from the sun’s ultraviolet rays but encourages better, faster tanning. Since the pure oil, undiluted or in lotion form with just a .5 to 1 percent bergamot oil content, can cause blotching, allergies, or skin infections, only bergamot oil free of furocumarin is used today.

These reactions are thought to result from the 5 percent furocumarin contained in the essential oil, a substance also found in other essential oils and citrus oils. When mixed in the proper ratio for people who are not allergic, bergamot oil is a welcome addition to suntan lotion. For people with sensitive skin, other essential oils not properly diluted also may cause skin blotches: lemon verbena, tagetes, angelica, cassia, cinnamon, and citrus oils.

Pure essential bergamot oil used in combination with neroli, lavender, and petitgrain is in demand because it is an important ingredient in good eau de cologne or cologne water. This demand has pressured the market, and that is why bergamot oil is usually stretched with terpinylacetate, ester, or a ho-oil, a camphor-like oil. Industry has even begun manufacturing a special “bergamot green” coloring that lends imitations the appearance of the real thing.

The essential oil of bergamot is a well-kept culinary secret. It will give any cheese or angel food cake that something special. Mix 1 to 2 drops of bergamot oil with cream or honey and add to the cake batter. In addition, this oil gives Earl Grey tea its exquisite aroma. You can make your own exotic tea by adding bergamot oil to ordinary black tea.

The cosmetic industry is also fond of bergamot oil. It not only supplies body lotions, facial masks, and creams with a pleasant fragrance, but it also helps heal dry, chapped, and infected skin due to its antiseptic properties. (Here, use bergamot in combination with chamomile.) When combined with other essential oils (such as ylang-ylang), bergamot oil makes a pleasant, relaxing facial massage oil. When properly diluted, the oil is particularly good for so-called combination skin that’s both dry and oily.