Before they will allow me to skive off for a few days in Paris, where I shall spend many happy hours sifting through automobilia at the old car show Retromobile, I have to review painstakingly our new Price List.  I loathe the task: it takes me hours and I invariably overlook the most obvious error. I apologise in advance!

However, on this occasion, I must exercise more-than-usual diligence because we have increased prices across the board for the first time in several years. Why? I had become increasingly frustrated, as I am sure had several of you, with couriers and the Royal Mail: parcels are late, do not arrive, or are simply pummelled to a pulp.  I’d had it!

By sheer chance I happened to be searching for a copy of Green Pharmacy by Barabara Griggs when one of our customers suggested that I try Amazon Books (www.amazon.com).  Ordered on-line at 5p.m., the book was on my desk by 10a.m. the following morning! Most impressed, I checked who had delivered it: Royal Mail Special Delivery.

I am not saying that we can match Amazon’s service, but I am always prepared to give it a go.  However I was soon to discover that anything special costs more!  Still, bearing in mind that postal charges are due to go up by an average 8.9% anyway at the beginning of April, I was up for it. I then checked our year-end figures and discovered that almost everything had gone up: staff numbers, packaging costs, bottle prices, the odd oil, and above all the demand for information.     

Because I so enjoy information myself I tend to forget that it costs money.  I do believe that you and I need to know the chemical composition of every oil we buy and, therefore, I have each and every oil analyzed: perhaps I shouldn’t? Many now require Material Safety Data Sheets, which have tended to be cobbled together from a variety of sources: not ideal and consequently I have commissioned a specialist to prepare them.  More cost, I know, but I prefer that all are as well informed as possible when it comes to chemical handling. Okay, I am indirectly spending your money but I hope that you will consider it worth it.
Called to account.
I was concerned to see in Feb. 2000 Newsletter a couple of references to animal testing (rats and mice) with essential oils. I was under the impression that Essentially Oils were a cruelty-free supplier of goods.  I would appreciate your comments on this as it is something that concerns me greatly, wrote Kerry Riddleston. 

I must admit that I receive letters in similar vein every time that I refer to tests on animals in my Newsletters. As a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London and an active animal conservationist for more than forty years, may I assure one and all that I am opposed to any cruelty to animals. However I would imagine that, at some time or another, most essential oils have been tested on animals, if only for toxicity testing purposes.  As a company we have never been involved in such tests, and never will be, but should I deny people knowledge, and perhaps assurance, by not mentioning such tests? Comments please.

Safety Issues.
Love her or loathe her, I always think any article by Dr. Maria Lis-Balchin worthy of consideration. Although it is rarely what we would like to read, it is invariably meticulously researched and coherently written.

On this occasion (The Journal of The Royal Society for the Promotion Of Health: 1999, (4), 240-243) she is writing about novel plant essential oils, extracts and phytols which are being introduced by some aromatherapists into their massage routine, many of which have no odour and are potentially toxic. She concludes: Novel essential oils and various herbal oils which have not been toxicologically evaluated or adequately tested on patients are potentially dangerous......Many of these new products are introduced by people with no scientific knowledge, nor pharmacognostic, pharmacological or medical training......There is no justification in introducing these products, as many have no odour, which is after all the basis of aromatherapy......The main reason for their introduction into a discipline which encompasses mainly massage with aromatics must be financial gain.  Fighting talk!

Amongst those essential oils which come under close scrutiny are one or two of my old favourites: Ravensara (Ravensara aromatica Sonnerat), Manuka (Leptospermum scoparium Forster & Forster), Kanuka (Kunzea ericoides J. Thompson) and Tea Tree (Melaleuca alternifolia Cheel).

She quotes her own research on Manuka and Kanuka (Lis-Balchin et al., 1997, Bioactivity of New Zealand Medicinal Plants. Acta Hort., 426, 13-30).....The two have completely different bioactivities as well as chemical composition.....and there is also a difference in their antimicrobial activity.....There are also substantial differences in bioactivity between the Manuka essential oil from plants grown in different parts of New Zealand.....There is therefore a possibility of substantial differences in the aromatherapeutic activity.   I would hope that many aromatherapists already know this as I have been spelling it out since late 1994, when I first had the opportunity to review some unpublished New Zealand research.

She mentions.....This variability was also shown by Tea Tree oil plants in Australia.....and it is only recently that this industry has established firm standards for the essential oil composition.....mainly due to the medicinal usage of this oil as an antimicrobial. Maybe it is only quite recently that something has been published (Carson, C.F. and Riley, T.V., 1995, J. Appl. Bacteriol., 78, 264-269), but I would mention that I worked with major pharmaceutical companies, who are clandestine at the best of times, on such research in the early 1980s. They have moved on: just because research is not published it does not mean necessarily that it has not been done.  Industry is smarter than that.

Also I believe that we were the first in the world to commission toxicity testing of East Cape Manuka oil, which contained among other chemical components 18% leptospermone.  For these purposes, we used normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEK) obtained from Clonetics Corporation in the United States.  The use of NHEK cultures affords advantages over other cell types used to determine toxicity.  First, the system uses a serum-free medium which eliminates the possibility of serum protein and test article interaction. Secondly, the target cells are epithelial in origin and derived from human skin.

The latest biochemical and tissue culture models offer increased sensitivity over many traditional in vivo assays.  Biochemical and biological endpoints provide quantitative results quickly under controlled and standardized conditions.  These in vitro assays can provide the toxicology data we need to make informed product safety decisions without recourse to animal testing.  The overall mean NRR50 which provides a measure of cytotoxicity and the results obtained in this experiment allowed us to confirm that East Cape Manuka essential oil was mild. 

She comments further that....The use of Ravensara aromatica from Madagascar, introduced by a French aromatherapist, in an unrefereed book (Franchomme, P. and Penoel, D., 1990, Aromatherapie exactement) is unfounded, as the oil had a similar composition to that of the less costly Eucalyptus globulus, containing mainly 1,8-cineole....Scientists from Madagascar found only one species (dispelling the myth regarding two different species of Ravensara) containing methyl eugenol, a composition distinctly different to that of Eucalyptus globulus. As discussed at some length in my January 2000 Newsletter, I am distinctly unsure that she is justified in making this comment.
Uneducated though we may be in science, pharmacognosy, pharmacology and medicine there is no such restraint upon our knowledge [awareness or familiarity gained by experience]!

Carrier Oils Clarified.
I was truly delighted to receive a copy of Len Price’s new book Carrier Oils for Aromatherapy & Massage.  For too long there has been no replacement for Liz Earle’s invaluable Vital Oils. At last here is a book worthy to fill the gap, and to relieve me from the tedium of knocking out factsheets on the more esoteric carrier oils! Len’s book covers most. There are omissions but as he says in his foreword....It is not intended to be definitive, but a stepping stone along the way, since in  the reawakening field of aromatherapy there is a vast amount of research and discovery before us. Highly recommended!

Much Ado About Nothing?
A couple of months ago Kenna Longson sent me a copy of a letter that had been circulating the internet.  Purporting to come from an Executive Secretary in the Office of Legal Affairs at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, it claimed that there is a link between cancer and sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), an ingredient used in shampoos and toothpastes. Others subsequently phoned to voice their concerns.  Some of our base products contain it.  I was more than a little disturbed and searched high and low for some evidence.

Health Canada has looked into the matter and has found no scientific evidence to suggest that SLS causes cancer.  It has a history of some use in Canada. Upon further investigation it was discovered that this e-mail was a hoax. Health Canada contacted the University of Pennsylvania Health System and found that it was not the author of the SLS warning and does not endorse any link between SLS and cancer.  Health Canada considers SLS safe for use in cosmetics. Anyone know otherwise?

Cheers for Clay.
Whenever I mention one of the less well known therapies - magnet therapy was the last instance - I seem to strike a note with many.  The response to my piece on clay has been overwhelming.

I have just read with complete excitement and glee your article on clay, writes Penny Clark. It is something I have been using for many years and wish it was more widely available and recognised.  I was told whenever I measured clay powder only ever use plastic or wooden utensils, never metal ones - has anyone else mentioned this? Rosemary Ypma in Aroma- & Clay Therapy states exactly this but Maree Mansour, in the second part of her article on Aromatherapy and Clay (Aromatherapy Today, Vol. 5, March 1998), says that active clays should not be stored in plastic containers and plastic utensils should not be used when preparing clays as they can absorb impurities.  She suggests that clays should be stored in glass or porcelain containers, and preparations should be mixed using wooden or porcelain spatulas or spoons.

Kenna Longson mentioned that she had been using clay for approximately ten years and could only report that she found it invaluable.....I only take a teaspoon at a time and usually not more than three times a month.....In my experience it is brilliant as a revitaliser.....I use it mainly just before my period as I find it helps tremendously to absorb toxins which seem to be floating around in the bloodstream at this time, easing pre-menstrual symptoms.               

Clay Caution.
However Rosemary Ypma cautions that clay is a very volatile substance which sets off a chain reaction in the body, starting in a specific area. This in turn sends signals to all other organs which are directly involved, these latter organs sending messages to deeper tissues and glands.  It is quite possible that treatments will trigger strong reactions as the detoxifying process starts, such as headaches, vomiting, constipation, a temporary worsening of existing symptoms, depressions and a heightening of pain. This is normal, although unpleasant. If the reactions become too strong, you should decrease the dosage or frequency of the treatments. In exceptional cases, it may be necessary to stop treatment altogether.

Absinthe aids Alzheimer’s?!
A fascinating article, which appeared originally in Journal of Ethnopharmacology, Vol. 69, p.105, suggests that Hippocrates who recommended wormwood (Artemisia absinthium L.) and Elizabethan apothecaries who used sage (?Salvia officinalis L.) and melissa (Melissa officinalis L.) to treat memory loss in the elderly may have been on to something - all these herbs have similar effects to drugs used to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

The brains of Alzheimer’s patients lose nicotinic receptors, one of the two types of receptor for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Increasing the levels of acetylcholine in the brain can help alleviate cognitive problems. Several drug companies are now testing drugs that stimulate nicotinic receptors, which not only simulates a boost in acetylcholine levels but can also lead to the production of new receptors.

Elaine Perry of the University of Newcastle wondered if the herbal remedies exploited the same mechanism.  Making up various ethanol extracts of various species of sage, the related herb melissa and wormwood, they tested the extracts to see if they contained compounds that bound to acetylcholine receptors in the human brain.  Wormwood contained chemicals that bound strongly to both types of acetylcholine receptors, the nicotinic and the muscarinic.  Melissa bound to either or both, depending on the variety.  Pineapple sage (Salvia elegans Vahl.) bound strongly to the muscarinic receptors.  Only common sage (S. officinalis L.) did not bind strongly to either receptor.

Even before the results of Perry’s work were known, varieties of sage and melissa were in the first stage of clinical trials at Newcastle. Melissa is being administered to volunteers as aromatherapy. The active compounds are volatile, so that it is an effective way to deliver the drug , says Perry. But she warns...Absinthe contains lots of toxic substances...It’s not the best way to get your wormwood! I should think not too.  Vincent van Gogh, the celebrated artist, was believed to have been addicted to absinthe. His well-known erratic behaviour, resulting in self mutilation of his left ear and, finally, suicide, has been attributed to congenital psychosis exacerbated by consumption of high levels of absinthe near the end of his life.

Back to Black!
In thousands of garages across the country it is likely that there is lurking a can of a wonder product called Back to Black, which restores the fading exterior trim of automobiles. Now it seems that our old friends Shiseido, Japan’s leading cosmetics maker, may have something similar in mind for the fading exterior trim of humans.

As John Woodruff points out in the current edition of Manufacturing Chemist, hair is a marvellous material. It is highly visible, there is usually (if you are so fortunate!) much of it; it needs daily attention, it is non-living and yet it constantly replaces itself.  Also, whatever a person’s natural hair, they seem to want to change it; from straight to wavy, from curly to straight; from brown to blonde, from red to black - and no-one wants grey!

According to the United Nations, Japan’s life expectancy has increased from 62.1 to 76.8 years for men and from 65.9 to 82.9 years for women over the past 50 years.  It estimates that 38% of Japan’s population will be aged 60 or over by the year 2050. That is more than 39m people and an awful lot of grey hair.

Bayan Rahman writes in a recent edition of the Financial Times that Japanese diners tucking into unagi, or grilled eel, usually season the dish with sansho, Japanese black pepper (or Hua jiao as mentioned in last month’s Newsletter).  Now scientists are reaching for the pepper in their search for an ingredient they believe helps revive the original colour of greying hair. Shiseido’s team of researchers has discovered the mechanism by which hair turns grey and how to prevent it occurring.  It has also found that sansho could hold the key to restoring the hair’s original colour.  In the majority of cases, when the old black hair dies and a new one starts to grow in its place, it is grey. The question was how to reactivate the melanocytes at that stage, says Dr. Ohji Ifuku of Shiseido.  Melanocytes?

Hair growth begins at the dermal papilla at the centre of the bulbous part of the hair root and supplies nourishment to the matrix cells that eventually grow into hair. In normal growth, cells known as melanocytes produce melanin, a dark pigment, and supply it to the matrix, determining the hair colour. When hair begins to fall out in the natural cycle, it separates from the dermal papillae, pulling the melanocytes with it.  As the sprouting process begins all over again, new melanocytes are activated, leading to the growth of black, blonde or red hair. Dr. Ifuku’s team found that where there were not enough melanocytes left behind, or they were inactive, the next hair to sprout would be deprived of pigment and would thus be grey.

The team also discovered that extract of Zanthoxylum piperitum D.C., or sansho, was effective in activating melanocytes when a new hair sprouts, reducing the incidence of grey hair. Dr. Ifuku envisages developing a lotion that would permeate the scalp, reactivating pigment-producing melanocytes.  Fascinating stuff but, of course, he does not tell us how or why!  Still, unless grey becomes the new black, the company could be laughing all the way to the bank, speculates Bayan Rahman.

All of which reminds me of the old schoolboy question: how many hairs on our head? A typical growth rate for human scalp hair is 0.3-0.5 millimetres per day. A healthy scalp (the top of the head extending from one inch above the ear) supports something of the order of 100,000 hair follicles, according to one account (Szabo, G. (1967) Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc.  B 252, p.447), but another considers the number to be nearer 150,000 (Mottram, F.J. (1990) Consensus of experimental and published data.  Reviewed by the author and used in text (unpublished elsewhere)).  The tendency in such an experiment is to underestimate the count rather than to exaggerate it, I would have thought.

Savory Surveyed.
Had I not been leafing through the pages of the Brand New Edition of Varro Tyler’s Honest Herbal, and Tim not asked me to write a little about Cretan winter savory (S. thymbra L.), I doubt that I would have given Savory (Satureja spp.) a second thought as it is generally considered a “no-no” for use in aromatherapy.  Although it is a moderate dermal irritant and a strong mucous membrane irritant, I am never really sure whether this reputation is entirely justified as it enjoyed great prestige in antiquity and is often included as an ingredient in many digestive liqueurs and certain healing remedies.

The celebrated Dr. Jean Valnet, in The Practice of Aromatherapy, mentions the then just recently published study by researchers at the Pharmacological Faculty at Montpellier on the antibacterial and antifungal powers of essential oil of savory (Place de l’essence de Satureja montana dans l’arsenal therapeutique: J. Pellecuer et al. in Plantes medicinales et Phytotherapie, 1975, T. IX, No.2).  They compared it with other essential oils of the same family currently used in medicine: Thymus vulgaris L., Rosmarinus officinalis L., Lavandula vera D.C., Lavandula latifolia Medik and Lavandula hybrida Rev.

They were able to demonstrate the net superiority of the antimicrobial properties of essential oil of savory in respect of the microbe colonies they used: ten types of Staphylococcus, 14 other micro-organisms and 11 funguses including Candida albicans, C. tropicalis, Trichophyton interdigitalis. Essential oil of savory remained active at concentrations from 2 to 20 times weaker than the others.  Only thyme produced equal results on more than one occasion, surpassing it in the case of Candida pelliculosa. Dr. Valnet suggests that these facts are worth bearing in mind in the treatment of numerous infections. 

Valnet considered summer savory (Satureja hortensis L.) to have similar properties to winter savory (Satureja montana L.), but to a lesser degree. In the old days a decoction of savory in wine was one of the medications used to treat mouth and throat ulcers, and toothache was relieved by rubbing the decayed tooth with the essential oil while at the same time putting a drop in the ear. Valnet even suggested treating deafness with 3 or 4 drops of juice of savory in the ear, three times a day and again on retiring. Mrs. Grieve in A Modern Herbal considers such a suggestion so far-fetched that it is not worth repeating!

These two aromatic members of the mint (Lamiaceae) family are small, widely cultivated garden plants with narrow leaves and pale lavender, pink, or white flowers.  Summer savory, which is more highly prized as a spice and as a folk medicine, is an annual; winter savory is a perennial. For hundreds of years, both have enjoyed a reputation as sex drugs (M.S. Keller. Mysterious Herbs and Roots. Peace Press, Culver City, California, 1978, pp. 316-325).  Summer savory was believed to increase desire (act as an aphrodisiac), and winter savory was believed to decrease the sex drive (anaphrodisiac).  It is easy to see why summer savory became the more popular herb!

Summer savory (S. hortensis) contains about 1% volatile oil consisting mostly of carvacrol and monoterpene hydrocarbons (b-pinene, p-cymene, b-phellandrene, limonene, camphene, etc.), with borneol, cineole, camphor, and others also present.  Other constituents present include labiatic acid, proteins, vitamins (especially A), and minerals (especially Ca and K), among others.

Winter savory (S. montana) contains 1.6% volatile oil composed mainly of carvacrol, p-cymene, and thymol (total phenols ca. 50%), with lesser amounts of a- and b-pinenes, limonene, cineole, borneol, and a-terpineol. It also contains triterpenic acids (ursolic and oleanolic acids).  Flavonoids include apigenin, apigenin-4’-methyl ether, scutellarein-6, 7-dimethyl ether, and others.

However it should be noted that substantial variations in relative concentrations of individual components can occur. Variability is evident even within a single population found in a restricted area (Kustrak, D. et al.: Comparison of the Essential Oil Composition of Two Subspecies of Satureja montana. J. Essent. Oil Res., 8, 7-13, 1996). Studies suggest that essential oil composition is not a useful chemotaxonomic character to partition between subspecies.

Amongst Mediterranean endemics is Satureja thymbra L., also trivially called winter savory. It attains a height of 30-40cm. and grows spontaneously around the Mediterranean basin. In Crete it is widespread and a common plant.  The plants growing at low levels are softer both in appearance and in aroma than plants growing at higher altitudes.

Our Cretan savory is harvested from several populations growing along riverbeds close to the sea in the south western part of Crete, Sfakia.  The new branches with leaves and flowers are clipped leaving the main body and a few branches to regenerate, and distilled immediately. Cretan plants have a high oil content, and the yield from a 2 hour distillation can be as high as 3%.  The oil has a hot and burning odour.

The oil of S. thymbra is composed mainly of carvacrol (45%), g-terpinene (29%), p-cymene (6%), caryophyllene (3.5%), a-terpinene (3%), borneol (0.9%), thymol (3%), a- and b-pinene (1.7% and 0.8%), a-thujene (1.5%), b-myrcene (1.9%), limonene (0.5%), camphene (0.6%), linalool (0.73%), tricyclene (0.4%), L-a-phellandrene (0.25%), b-phellandrene (0.24%), and small amounts of the sabinene hydrate isomers (trans-0.3% and cis-0.15%) along with traces <0.1% of sabinene, d-3-carene, octanol, and a-terpineol.

S. Thymbra is Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS) but irritant and hepatotoxic in long term use.  It should not be used on children and NEVER used undiluted. It is a very potent oil and should not be used for inhalations.

Considered antibacterial, anti-infectious, antifungal and warming, it is a useful additive in treatments of any kind of infectious or fungal skin diseases.  The oil acts well in low concentration (1%) in massage oils to warm muscles, and is beneficial for arthritis and rheumatism.

Early Warning.
A report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Skin has called for a Government enquiry into fraudulent practice relating to the treatment of skin diseases.

The report highlights dangerous products including several so-called herbal or natural creams containing undeclared prescription-only medication, treatments sold at inflated prices, and practitioners who are inadequately qualified or fraudulent.

The report concludes with a call for tighter enforcement of existing regulations.
  
Across “the pond”, Scentsitivity (The Quarterly Journal of the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy) draws attention to the fact that unwary and inexperienced manufacturers of aromatherapy products may not be aware that they are subject to regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), especially in regard to the manufacture and distribution of products intended to repel insects.

When a manufacturer creates an insect repellent product or identifies his product as insect repellent, the product is then considered by the EPA to be a pesticide. Insect repellent aromatherapy products and the facilities in which they are made must be registered with the EPA. Failure to do so may result in stiff fines being levied by the agency.

Finally.
For those interested in the Applications of Aromatherapy in Veterinary Medicine, there are some useful pointers, by luminaries Caroline Ingraham, Crosby Roper, Nelly Grosjean and Joan Clark, in the latest copy of Scentsitivity (Winter 1999-2000).

 

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