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Swiss Pine
Swiss pine Like all coniferous trees, the essential oil of Swiss pine is a useful remedy for bronchial problems. Everybody knows the effect that coniferous forests have on people, especially when they arrive from the city after a long drive. It takes just one deep breath to feel its benefits. The essential oil’s fragrance seems to float in the air and reach our lungs with every breath.

The quality of our breathing is deepened and intensified where Swiss pine trees grow. Blood circulation is stimulated, which in turn increases the oxygen supply in the blood. Its antiseptic and expectorant properties affect the whole respiratory tract and that makes the essential oil a good remedy for colds, flu, coughs, bronchitis, smoker’s cough, and sinusitis. Swiss pine has been used to aid treatment during a bout with pneumonia and tuberculosis in an aroma lamp, as a room spray, or as an inhalant. It may also be used as an additive to a salve for chest rubs. The oil may be used here in combination with hyssop, eucalyptus, cypress, or myrtle. With eucalyptus, mint, and lemon it makes for an excellent oil for the sauna. People who have given up smoking could periodically add the oil to an aroma lamp, mixed with myrtle and eucaly~itus, perhaps, since the oil aids detoxification of the bronchial tubes.

The oil also helps support the skin’s detoxifying process. When added to a massage oil it increases blood circulation and reduces muscle spasms. The oil has proven beneficial for rheumatic pain and neuralgia when used in massage oil, for compresses, and for liniments. For these uses, the oil may be mixed with juniper, queen of the meadow, chamomile, and birch.

The oil is an effective insect repellent. The addition of Swiss pine oil and orange oil will improve oils used for treating wood. Orange oil is a natural solvent that penetrates deep into the wood; that’s what makes this combination ideal for fine furniture. For a moth-repellent in your closet, add a few drops of Swiss pine oil on a cotton ball and put it on the closet floor in a little box designed for this purpose. This also keeps annoying insects out of dry goods stored in the pantry or kitchen.
Swiss pine trees are under protection in the Alps. Only trees that have been uprooted or cut down through natural means, like a storm, lightning, or landslide, may be harvested for distillation of their essential oil. The trees are often lifted from hard-to-reach regions by helicopters. The essential oil is produced by steam distillation. Pure Swiss pine oil is rarely available in stores.

Usually the oil sold comes from mountain pine which is also used to stretch Swiss pine oil. Many oils on the market are stretched with turpentine, camphor, or even petroleum. The wood, rich in resin, is much in demand because of its warm reddish color and its pleasant fragrance. Insects want no part of it. Household items, furniture, and panels made from this wood give off a wonderful scent for a long time. Guesthouses in the Alps, called Zirbelstub’n (the German name for Swiss pine is Zirbelkiefer) are paneled with this wood, which gives them a special, cozy atmosphere. A velvety resinous fragrance fills the room, in contrast to other guesthouses, with wood paneling that has for years absorbed various smells— smoke, food, and odors given off by guests.

The resinous fragrances from the wood of the Swiss pine keeps air in a room fresh and clean for a long time, a fact well known in the Alps. Using the oil in an aroma lamp will duplicate this effect in any room in your house. The tree’s radiant healing power has made it a favorite tree of the people of the Alps. The tree is a symbol of an uncompromising will to live, endurance, strength, and a free spirit that refuses to conform or live in servitude. Its essential oil is a precious gift, that comes to us from the highest mountain ranges. The essential oil seems to carry within all the strength and character of the tree. Added to an aroma lamp, this fragrance helps clean a room of smoke, food odors, and even heavy air—a by-product of arguments and uncomfortable feelings that seems to fill a room like a dark cloud. Since the oil has antibacterial properties, it is suitable for cleaning and disinfecting physicians’ consulting or waiting rooms. Here the oil may be combined with other essential oils, like lemon, lemon verbena, eucalyptus, lemongrass, or mint, which lighten the strongly resinous fragrance of Swiss pine oil.

The oil awakens life’s spirit, apparently having received it from the trees’ strong will to live. Swiss pine oil is good for people who lack courage, perseverance, self-confidence, and patience. Here it may be mixed with angelica and lemon.
Swiss pine, also called “arve,” one of the toughest, most stubborn trees in the mountains, grows at an altitude of about 6,000 to 8,300 fret. Up high, in this battle zone where only the most rugged trees survive, the Swiss pine resists destructive natural fbrces that rage in high mountains. No other tree in the Alps can withstand the extreme temperatures of summer and winter. Branches break under heavy snow, the tree’s crown may he hit by lightning, trunks are often split in half, exposing wood to biting cold. But the Swiss pine remains steadfast. With unbroken determination, new branches sprout from its side. Nature’s pressures seem to draw out its survival instincts. The tree bravely battles the elements life-long. After all, the Swiss pine survived the last Ice Age in the Alps.

The Swiss pine hungers for light, that’s why it loves uncluttered high mountain ranges. The tree could not survive in the dark, confined valley. It often clings, breathtakingly, above a steep cliff or at the edge of a deep ravine. The few remaining Swiss pine forests in the Alps represent a community of free-spirited tree “personalities.” Their often bizarre shapes and forms suggest the ancient woods in folktales, filled with kices and figures of giants and gnomes.

Many fllountain legends and fblktales abound with adventures of exhausted hikers rescued from a dangerous cliff or nourished by the arve spirit. ‘Fle tree trunks are covered from the tip to the base with dense needle growth. At (luSk they look like tree giants, like those J.R.R. Tolkien described in The Lord of the Rings. Looking at the trees from a distance in bright sunshine, the Swiss pine appears surrounded by a blue green aura. Its dense needle growth is of a deep blue green color. Ancient healers read from this aura the healing power that each tree possessed.

The Swiss pine tree seems to have time on its side; during the deep snow of winter months it rests. Its active growing period is only two to three months. For the first twenty years the tree may be only 3 or 4 feet tall. Its maximum height is reached after 200 years, when the trunk’s circumference may be only 16 inches. Then, for the next 800 years, the trunk only gains in width.