Phew!  Are we under pressure?  Poor Tim has still not returned, and has been signed off for a further month. Tom, our imperturbable warehouse chief, who has been away for several weeks, sadly suffered a heart attack last night and is now under observation in Cheltenham General. Rebecca, at the centre of invoicing and telephone answering, has gone down with suspected glandular fever and is still awaiting the results of tests. The rest of the team has been falling prey to every passing bug with regularity but, happily, now seems to have developed some immunity.

Fortunately, although a virtual human resource wasteland, we have been able to secure the muscular assistance of Neil, fresh from the Grenadier Guards, and the office skills of his girlfriend Nicola. Meanwhile Karla and David have been towers of strength, working their weekends in an endeavour to catch up.

Jan, Justin and I are still not quite sure what day of the week it is, and I am regularly to be heard answering the phone with “Good afternoon” at 9 o’clock in the morning!  Still, as they say, it’s all good for the soul.  Our sincere thanks for your patience and understanding.

Finalizing the Foray.
Forgetting briefly the extramural delights of four days in the Land of the Midnight Sun, I travelled last week to London to meet with Ulla-Maija Grace to finalize the curriculum for her Three Day Advanced Aromatherapy Course whilst you are in Finland.  It promises to be an educative time.

In the introduction to her standard textbook for practitioners Ulla-Maija explains that she sees aromatherapy as: 1) a bond between orthodox medicine and homoeopathy in its chemistry and energetics, 2) a connector for psychiatric medicine and therapies assisting in the process of self awareness and understanding, and 3) a psychological link in the touch therapies where each form of manipulation can benefit from the use of essential oils.

Therefore it hardly surprised me that she will kick-off with an explanation of the general structure and composition of essential oils, and how the composition influences the oils.  Due to her close association with some of the world’s leading essential oil researchers, Ulla-Maija really does know a thing or two about the chemistry of essential oils and always explains it in a most practical and understandable way. Undoubtedly you will look most carefully at some of the essential oils most commonly used in aromatherapy, and learn why they are successful in treatments. Harmful essential oils, are there any? Let Ulla-Maija tell you, and she will!

One of her great specialities is the use of essential oils in the treatment of female hormonal problems: irregular periods, PMS, menopausal symptoms, etc. I am sure that all can learn much from her experiences.

Knowing also that she has studied closely the use of essential oils for memory and learning, I have requested that she expound upon their use for learning difficulties.

I have spoken with, and listened to, many aromatherapy educators around the world but Ulla-Maija Grace singularly impresses me as one who, in the words of Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400), gladly wolde [he] lerne and gladly teche. A rare opportunity, and not to be missed!

Australian Aromatherapeutic Advice.
Until now I have always recommended David Williams’ excellent The Chemistry of Essential Oils as an introduction to chemistry for aromatherapists, although appreciating that it is written somewhat from a perfumer’s viewpoint: excellent all the same.

Therefore I was truly delighted when I was approached recently by Joy Bowles, head of The Australian Aromatherapy Research Group which is dedicated to getting research done [and is currently involved in a trial using essential oils to improve the behaviour of dementia patients in nursing homes], offering me the opportunity to distribute the most recent edition of her book The Basic Chemistry of Aromatherapeutic Essential Oils. Of course I grabbed the chance!

Joy has been teaching the chemistry of essential oils to aromatherapists since 1991. Her passion was ignited in early life when her practical mother used natural remedies to cure childhood diseases when the family was living in Africa. Later at University, she developed a love of organic chemistry, from which background she developed her Essential Oil Chemistry course, in conjunction with Pamela Taylor from the International Federation of Aromatherapists.

Joy has written three books, the most recent 2000 edition of The Basic Chemistry of Aromatherapeutic Essential Oils being the one of which she is most proud.  As she says....If I do nothing else, this book is my gift to the aromatherapy world.  She is an enthusiastic speaker and teacher, and has lectured in New Zealand, Japan and most states in Australia.

Personally I think that this book will become a standard textbook, as it is already in Australia.

Pollutant Spread.
Have you ever noticed that when you come to butter your toast in the morning that it sometimes smells of garlic?  As I bit hungrily into a slice the other day, anticipating the aromatic taste of my favourite ginger marmalade, I was repelled by the overwhelming flavour of garlic. Investigating further, I discovered a little of the previous night’s salad residing in the fridge, liberally doused with a garlic vinaigrette: the low molecular sulphur compounds of the garlic had floated off and been absorbed by the butter.  
      
Butter may seem an unlikely material to use to check for pollution in the air but scientists at Lancaster University have found that it works.  Pollutants carried by the wind eventually fall to the ground on pastures where cows graze.  Persistent organic pollutants, such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), dioxins and some pesticides, then accumulate in the cows’ milk fat, which makes up approximately 80% of butter.  Margarine, which has less milk fat, is not as sensitive, according to the scientists.

These pollutants linger in the environment, accumulate through the food chain and pose a risk to human health. Comparing butter made in different regions could provide a useful guide to the kind of pollution occurring there.  The scientists took butter samples from 23 countries and found that European and North American butter had the highest PCB levels, while lower contamination levels occurred in Australia and New Zealand.

It would be interesting to compare butters from organic and non organic farms.

Foot-and-mouth, and Ministry madness.
As you can perhaps imagine, we have received several calls for oils to assist with the recent disastrous foot-and-mouth outbreaks.  To be honest it is outside my knowledge, and I prefer not to comment. However I could but not notice a letter to The Daily Telegraph from a gentleman in Somerset.

During the 1967 epidemic, homoeopathic borax was used to great effect on every farm that used it.  A couple of drops in the drinking water resulted in those farms not losing a single animal. It seems that although animals so treated may still become infectious and carry the virus for about three days, they show no symptoms and rapidly recover completely.  Why then are we not using it now?

The principal argument deployed by MAFF against the use of borax apparently is that its officials don’t believe in homoeopathic remedies, and only the slaughter of infected and suspect stock can hope to convince foreign importers that British meat is safe.  Obviously a fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees [William Blake 1757-1827]!

Meanwhile, if they close any more dog-walking routes, I may be forced to put the water wings on Mungu in preparation for a session in the hydrotherapy pool!

Muddled Myrtle.
Regarded by the ancient Persians as a holy plant, a symbol of love and peace to the Jews, sacred to Aphrodite and Venus, myrtle’s magic has been described in books and legends around the Mediterranean for centuries.
  
Myrtus communis L. is a well branched evergreen shrub which grows profusely on sunny hillsides of countries bordering the Mediterranean.  The branches are stiff, and young branches and twigs reddish.  The leaves are a dark glossy green. The flowers are fragrant and white or pinkish. The fruit is a round, reddish-blue to violet berry.  All plant parts are aromatic.  The leaves and flowers contain an essential oil which can be extracted by steam distillation.

Yield and quality of the oil depend greatly upon the region of production, the season of harvest, the nature of the plant material [oil yield using unselected material is 0.25-0.55%, but twice this when only fresh young leaves, flowering shoots and twiglets are used, which also yield the highest quality of oil], the method, and particularly the length, of distillation. The oils most appreciated for their quality are those originating from Corsica.

A constituent of myrtle oil is the unsaturated primary alcohol myrtenol, named by von Soden and Elze [Chem. Ztg. 29 (1905), 1031], occurring as the acetate. Myrtenol has a warm woody odour and is used in perfumery and toilet preparations. The main components are normally alpha-pinene, 1,8-cineole and myrtenyl acetate, but regional variations seem to commonly occur. Analysis of Russian material gave limonene, linalool, alpha-pinene and 1,8-cineole in that order as major components [Shikiev, A.S. et al. (1978) Composition of Myrtus communis essential oil. Chem. Abs. 89, 176379g].

Interestingly, when I analysed two samples of Lebanese product in 1999 they varied quite considerably.  Sample A contained 1,8-cineole, alpha-pinene, linalool, limonene and alpha-terpineol in that order as major components, and Sample B gave 1,8-cineole, beta-pinene, endo-borneol, camphor, camphene and alpha-pinene. Sample A had both myrtenyl acetate (2.228%) and myrtenol (1.342%), but Sample B had neither.

My recent analysis of a Moroccan oil gave 1,8-cineole (32.53%), alpha-pinene (20.28%), myrtenyl acetate (19.72%), limonene (10.37%) and myrtenol (1.52%). Corsican product, on the other hand, gave a large amount of alpha-pinene (55.774%) and1,8-cineole (23.961%), but no myrtenol or myrtenyl acetate; there were however small amounts of geranyl acetate (1.573%) and linalool (1.447%).

In 1992 researchers [J.C. Chalchat and P. Ph. Garry, Les huiles essentielles de Myrtle du pourtour Mediterraneen. Rivista Ital. EPPOS, (Numero Speciale), 522-532] compared the chemical composition of oils of myrtle from Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, the former Yugoslavia and Corsica.

They pointed out that the oils can be differentiated into two broad groups depending upon their alpha-pinene content. The first group in which alpha-pinene is found in levels above 50% includes the oils from Tunisia and Corsica.  These oils can be distinguished from each other by their bornyl acetate contents [Tunisian oil <0.5% while Corsican oil >1.0%].  The second group of oils, which are those in which the alpha-pinene level is less than 35%, are the oils from Morocco, Yugoslavia and Lebanon. Differentiation between these oils can be made based on their linalool and myrtenyl acetate contents.  For example the linalool content in Yugoslavian and Lebanese oil is greater than 6%, whereas it is less than 3% in the Moroccan oil.  Also in the Yugoslavian and Moroccan oils the myrtenyl acetate exceeds 12%, whereas in the Lebanese oil, it is present in less than 3%.     

All this stacks up pretty well with my own research, but I am still unsure where it leaves the Red (cineole type) and Green (myrtenyl acetate or linalool type) myrtles of aromatherapy.  Where on earth did these descriptions come from anyway? I would guess that so-called Red myrtle falls into the second group of oils, from Morocco, Yugoslavia and Lebanon, whilst Green is from Tunisia or Corsica.  Undoubtedly someone will put me right!

Therefore assuming, before I am corrected, that this month’s offer from Corsica is Green Myrtle, what’s it good for?

The Aromatherapy Practitioner Reference Manual, whilst pointing out that it is an untested oil and thus should be avoided on sensitive or damaged skin, suggests that it might be useful to combat acne.  This makes sense, as the leaves and flowers used to be used in skincare, and were a major ingredient of Eau d’ange (Angel’s Water), a popular 16th century skin lotion.  For the treatment of haemorrhoids the oil has an astringent effect, particularly when mixed with witch hazel cream and cypress oil. 

In Italy and Greece myrtle was used to make a cough syrup for children with colds. It is both an expectorant and an antiseptic. I have read that myrtle can help treat colds, bronchitis, and sinus infections.  It may also be used, in an aroma burner or as an air spray, for chronic chest disorders and as an aid for treating tuberculosis and other painful lung diseases.  

Sedative, it soothes anger, fear and despair and supports those who need to get through dark times and prepare themselves for brighter things ahead. The oil acts as a friend in life transitions.  Like rose, myrtle, which carries a deep inner wisdom, may serve as a companion for the dying [Fischer-Rizzi, S. Complete Aromatherapy Handbook].

After all that, I am off for a glass of my favourite tipple. You’ve guessed it! Mirto! A great myrtle liqueur, which I get from Sardinia.

Colloidal Silver questioned.
Several have drawn my attention to various articles on the internet which question the safety and effectiveness of colloidal silver [http://homepages.together.net/~rjstan/rose2.html and www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/PhonyAds/silverad.html].  Do read them.

As you probably gathered from the comments at the end of my last Newsletter, I still remain very cautious about the ingestion of colloidal silver, and continue to research.

Meanwhile testimonials for the product continue to flow in.  However specific documentation on the optimum potency or dosage for effective use is sparse.  It seems that a concentration of 3 to 5ppm, yielding 15mcg to 25mcg of silver per teaspoon, is sufficient concentration to be both effective and safe to consume on a regular basis. 

The term ‘ppm’ or ‘parts per million’ is confusing because it is not referring to the number of parts or particles, it is actually a different way to express total weight or total amount of silver
in the product.  However it is difficult to judge the quality of a product by simply knowing the ppm. For example, a product with a concentration of 5ppm with an average particle size of 0.005 microns would actually have 200 times more silver particles than another product of 25ppm with an average size of 0.05 microns and thus be safer and more effective.

Stability, especially long-term, is another important aspect of colloidal silver products. To avoid “fall out”[separation], some companies add a protein or chemical stabilizer, allowing a higher concentration of silver with a greater level of stability.  The downside is that most stabilizers bond to and therefore reduce the antimicrobial effect of the silver.  Such products contain higher levels of silver to compensate, and should be taken with caution because in all cases of silver toxicity, called Argyria [the permanent discoloration of the skin due to silver deposits], the product in question contained high concentrations of silver compounded with stabilizers such as silver nitrate or silver acetate. I can find no reports [thus far] of argyria from pure electro-colloidal silver free of protein or other stabilizers.

Our own product is free of protein and other stabilizers.

Too much Mother’s milk may not be best.
For years public health campaigners have tried to convince mothers to breast-feed their babies.  But scientists at the Institute of Child Health find that prolonged breast-feeding can have an adverse effect on cardiovascular health in adulthood.

They studied 330 people, born at the Cambridge Maternity Hospital in the early 1970s, and related their duration of breast-feeding then to the stiffness of their arterial walls today [an early marker of heart disease].  Those who were breast-fed for longer than four months had stiffer arteries than those who were fed for shorter periods or exclusively bottle-fed.

Breast-feeding gives many benefits, say the scientists, but too much may be harmful given a high-fat western diet.

Red wine helps herpes?
Researchers in the United States have found that a compound in red wine, called resveratrol, could help to prevent the spread of herpes.

The scientists have found that dabbing the infectious sores with red wine can stop the sufferer passing it on and could prevent the chances of sores developing fully.  The research also points to evidence that the compound could be used to prevent facial sores if rubbed onto the affected area before the sores developed.

Another use could be to put the compound in condoms and contraceptive foams in an attempt to prevent the spread of genital herpes. Good heavens, going to the off-licence will never be the same again!   
 
Clever little things.
Amoeba are single-celled animals, one of the simplest forms of life. Yet it seems that even these tiny creatures may be capable of social interaction and co-operation.

Scientists at the Weizmann Institute in Israel examined the process by which single-celled amoeba Entamoeba invadens reproduce by dividing into two, and reported their findings in a recent edition of Nature.  They discovered that in about a third of the cases, amoeba had difficulty in tearing itself apart.

On these occasions, other nearby amoeba would move in to act as midwives, severing the connection between the mother and daughter cells.  Thus, the researchers conclude even these organisms with no nervous systems have evolved ways to communicate with and assist each other.

Loony labelling?
Like Manchurian generals, labels Xi (irritant) and Xn (harmful) march relentlessly onwards and have recently occupied bottles and boxes in Germany. How long before they invade Britain? Some think it inevitable, which may force aromatherapy to go “underground”.  Are these the beginnings of an aromatherapy resistance movement? Certainly there is sporadic sniper fire from pressure groups such as EOTA (Essential Oils Trade Association) and NORA (Natural Oils Research Association) as they endeavour to rattle the AOC (Aromatherapy Organisations Council) and the ATC (Aromatherapy Trade Council) into action. 

Meanwhile I’m keeping my head down!
 

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