ผลของการสูดดมกลิ่นน้ำมันเปปเปอร์มินต์ต่อระบบประสาทอัตโนมัติ และความสามารถใน ด้านมิติสัมพันธ์

บทคัดย่อ

Background: Peppermint, in medical text, are known to stimulate, refreshing, strengthen and improve concentration which presently lack of clinical information about its effects on the nervous system and spatial abilities.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effects of peppermint oil inhalation on autonomic nervous system and spatial abilities.

Materials and methods: 60 participants were separated into 2 groups of 30 volunteers for each group. The control group inhaled scent of almond oil. The intervention group inhaled scent of peppermint oil. Analysis of autonomic nervous system change included blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate and spatial abilities. Deary-Liewald Reaction time tester program was applied to monitor spatial abilities. Pre and post results within the group were compared using paired t-test whereas independent sample t-test was used to compare the results between two groups.

Results: It was found that inhalation of peppermint oil contributed the increase in blood pressure and respiratory rate at the significant level of 0.05. In addition, spatial abilities which were measured by test time showed that the test time decreased after almond scent inhalation at the significant level of 0.05.

Conclusion: Peppermint oil had effects on autonomic nervous system that it could increase blood pressure, and respiratory rate as well as spatial abilities which could be seen as increasing sensitivity to response.