Good heavens....Number 120....Have I really been writing the Newsletter for ten years?

In fact my archives reveal that I launched our first tentative Special Offers a little earlier, in May 1991. The response was instantaneous.  I suppose that 5ml of Jasmin for £15 and 5ml of Rose Absolute for £13.50 seemed quite tempting, and yet I note that we were offering the same amount of Jasmin for only £12.75 in January this year. So much for inflation.

Buoyed by this success, the following month I boldly announced....We intend to “special” a few oils every month but, due to the high cost of postage, we will not be able to circulate all of you....Not smart: I got a lot of stick from several.  I quickly decided to circulate everybody in the future.

By the end of the year I was really getting into the swing of things and offered Two for One. It was a sell-out and, after the previous six years of hard slog, I really began to feel that we were getting somewhere.  I hinted that we might start supplying base creams and lotions.

In March 1992 I started writing the Newsletter, and took the unprecedented step of enlisting some part-time assistance. I also took the precaution of asking the respected essential oils educator Martin Watt to write the Essential Oil Safety Guide for the back of our Order Form. 

A Certified Phytotherapist, Martin had recently spent a year investigating worldwide research on the effects of essential oils, absolutes, and other fragrance compounds. His results were published in the “never-be-without” Plant Aromatics 1-3, which was our first foray into selling books. 

However we didn’t always get it right. An attempt to adopt a more trendy image, by changing our name to AromaCare, fell upon very stony ground and was firmly rejected by many of you as being far too gimmicky. Essentially Oils returned to the masthead within two months.

Jan returned to the fold in late 1992, after two years slogging it out in the motor industry, and restored much needed administrative support. In April 1993, whilst still at Oxford, our son Justin tragically broke his neck.  The support from you all was overwhelming, and will never be forgotten. Showing immense inner strength and resolve, he was quickly back on his feet and, after a further spell in academia, joined the business in October 1995. Rebecca, who is still with us, had added glamour and youth to the team a few months earlier.  Another Wells by the way, but no relation.

Our unique domain name www.essentiallyoils.com was launched in May 1996 and, most annoyingly, has been copied by several since.  Unfortunately it is completely legal for anyone to register any available domain name on the Internet, but it is quite illegal to use it for passing off as ourselves. It needs careful watching and, if need be, immediate legal action.

I see that I got myself into a little hot water in November 1997 whilst defending essential oil suppliers, who were under attack from the greatly-missed journal Aromatherapy Quarterly, a wistful mix of the scientific and metaphysical. However it is worth remembering what Editor Seza Eccles wrote at the time.....The aromatherapy community is one international family. Like all families, we cannot choose who will be a member - however, we do all have to live  together. It is important to realise that the actions of one member of the family profoundly affects all others.  How true.
All for one, one for all.
It is always best on these occasions to do what the mob do.  But suppose there are two mobs? suggested Mr. Snodgrass. Shout with the largest, replied Mr. Pickwick. [Charles Dickens: Pickwick Papers (1837)]. 

Perhaps now is an appropriate time to remind ourselves of The Government Response to the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology’s Report on Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

We recommend that, in order to protect the public, professions with more than one regulatory body make a concerted effort to bring their various bodies together and to develop a clear professional structure.
      
The Government believes self-regulation works best when it operates as an open and transparent partnership between the profession, patients and the wider public. These stakeholders clearly deserve better than the current fragmented regulation of certain CAM therapies. The Government therefore strongly encourages the regulating bodies within each therapy to unite to form a single body to regulate each profession. We believe this approach will be in the best interests of patients and the wider public, as well as potentially enhancing the status of individual professions.

I would have thought that the message is pretty clear: there should be a single regulatory body for the aromatherapy profession. However this may not be easy. 

Although the Aromatherapy Organisations Council (AOC) is to be congratulated for having ‘taken the lead’ in endeavouring to unify aromatherapy, in the hope that others will follow, it seems that it may have caused offence, not to mention confusion, by describing itself as the lead body for aromatherapy and by giving the impression that if your individual association is not a member of the AOC you might be denied statutory registration. 
Clearly this is not correct as the AOC does not have the undivided support of the regulating bodies within the profession and therefore lacks the unanimity to qualify as the single body to regulate the profession, as recommended by the Government.  Still this could be easily remedied, if there was the necessary will and commitment to compromise: it should not abandon lightly a decade’s effort and achievement.

Now is the time for all regulating bodies within the therapy to lay down their arms and to get stuck into working together to resolve their differences so as to reach an agreed position from which aromatherapy can move forward with confidence, and the clearest evidence of this will be a voluntary single body that is indisputably recognised as the regulator for the whole discipline.

Once there is one register for all aromatherapy practitioners, the Government will surely be more willing to consider the question of statutory self-regulation for the profession.  To do so at present would be pointless, for there is still much bridge-building to be done.

It might not be a bad idea to make peace with the FHT (The Federation of HolisticTherapists) for a start......We will shed no tears for an organisation [AOC] that has done all it can to exclude us from discussions and has failed to recognise the 6,000 Qualified Aromatherapists who are Members of the FHT [International Therapist (2002); 44: 9]. 

However, what has all this to do with me anyway? Nothing much except that I am concerned about your future, which impacts upon my own.  It all seems so simple, but there is none as queer as folk.

Meanwhile all should mark well the words of Benjamin Franklin at the Signing of the Declaration of Independence on 4th July 1776.....
We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.
Ginger by another name.
Plai, Zingiber cassumunar Roxb., which is synonymous with Zingiber purpureum Roscoe, has long been regarded by Thai massage therapists as one of those oils necessary to have in their kit to combat joint and muscle problems. Plai is of the same family as ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) but has different properties and more intense actions.

Native to Thailand, Indonesia and India, the pale amber oil is steam distilled from the fresh rhizome. It has a cool, green peppery aroma (not unlike Tea Tree) with a touch of bite.  The main active chemical constituents of the oil are sabinene (27-34%), g-terpinene (6-8%), a-terpinene (4-5%), terpinen-4-ol (30-35%), and (E)-1-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)butadiene (DMPBD) (12-19%).

Considered analgesic, anti-neuralgic, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, antispasmodic, antitoxic, anti-viral, carminative, digestive, diuretic, febrifugal, laxative, rubefacient, stimulant, tonic and vermifuge, it has been used for aches and pains, asthma, catarrh, chronic colds, colic, constipation, diarrhoea, fevers, flatulence, heartburn, immune problems, inflammation, influenza, joint problems, muscle spasms, nausea, respiratory problems, sprains and strains, torn muscles and ligaments.

Proof for Plai.
The essential oil exhibited a topical antiinflammatory effect when tested. Individual assessment of the topical antiinflammatory activity of the 5 major components of the oil demonstrated that DMPBD, terpinen-4-ol and a-terpinene significantly inhibited oedema formation, whereas sabinene and g-terpinene were inactive. The most active compound, DMPBD, was twice as potent as the reference drug Diclofenac [Pongprayoon, U. et al. Topical antiinflammatory activity of the major lipophilic constituents of the rhizome of Zingiber cassumunar. Part I: The essential oil. Phytomedicine (1997) 3 (4) 319-322].

Diclofenac discussed.
Diclofenac (or Voltarol as it is probably better known), a phenylacetic acid derivative, is a Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drug (NSAID). It is used mainly as the sodium salt for the relief of pain and inflammation in various conditions: musculoskeletal and joint disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis; peri-articular disorders such as bursitis and tendinitis; soft-tissue disorders such as sprains and strains; and other painful conditions such as renal colic, acute gout, dysmenorrhoea, and following some surgical procedures.  It has also been used in some countries for the management of fever.

Diclofenac diethylamine is used topically as a gel containing the equivalent of 1% diclofenac sodium for the local symptomatic relief of pain and inflammation.

Voltarol is presently one of the strongest known antiinflammatory drugs available, but several adverse effects have been reported [Wilkens, RF. Worldwide clinical safety with diclofenac. Semin. Arthritis Rheum. 1985; 15 (suppl. 1): 105-10].

Praise for Plai.
Plai, while being of the ginger family, does not possess the classic heat that is common to the rhizomes.  It has a cooling action on inflamed areas, be they joints and muscles or kidneys and lungs. Clients in Vancouver, Canada, have found that using Plai for asthma, with either tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus L.) or rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) and cypress (Cupressus sempervirens L.), causes the attacks to diminish greatly in intensity.  The types of asthma thus far targeted have been exercise and allergy induced.  Although clients report that the aroma is a little overwhelming at first, even just smelling the blend causes the attack to reduce.

On inflamed joints, undiluted Plai has been found to ease pain for upwards of 18 hours, which is impressive when compared with other oils. On joints inflamed due to injury, Plai was best combined with oils such as black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) and lemon (Citrus limon (L.) Burm. f.) or neroli (Citrus aurantium L. ssp. amara L.), Himalayan cedarwood (Cedrus deodora G. Don. f.) and orange (Citrus aurantifolia Swingle).  These combinations worked to take the swelling down, eased the pain and considerably speeded up the healing time.  Used in a small rollette bottle, the 10% dilution in a vegetable oil is probably higher than that to which we are used in the UK. The oils were blended in equal parts.

For digestive upsets, Plai, together with black pepper, orange and tarragon, has been used to counter irritable bowel syndrome.  This blend was applied across the abdomen and across the rectal tissue after each bowel movement or anytime there was any cramping or pain in the abdominal area.  After three applications, all symptoms receded.

Menstrual cramping has also been relieved with a blend of Plai, linden blossom (Tilia cordata Mill.), sweet marjoram (Origanum majorana L.) and orange.  This was applied across the lower back and front abdomen every 15 minutes until pain subsided.  It was found that after three applications all cramps ceased and blood clots diminished.

Plai, nutmeg (Myristica fragrans Houtt.) and lemon were used in California as a post operative blend on knee surgery. The 10% dilution in vegetable oil was applied by rollette bottle above and below the surgical area.  Tissue inflammation and swelling was significantly lower than in an area that had had the same surgery without the use of the blend. With the Plai blend, no normal narcotics were required to control the post surgical pain.

No side effects were recorded in any of the treatments.

A sweeter-smelling Tea Tree.
Native to Australia, Swamp Paperbark (Melaleuca ericifolia Smith) is a tall, bushy shrub, 6-9 metres high with a bushy top and greyish papery bark.  It has soft, alternate, glabrous and narrow linear leaves. Similar to Melaleuca alternifolia Cheel [Tea Tree], it ratoons readily after severe cutting.

It grows in low lying swamps, along creeks and behind sand dunes in Northern Tasmania, Bass Strait Islands, Southern Victoria and along the eastern coast to northern New South Wales.

The essential oil, which can be clear pale straw to golden yellow in colour, is extracted by steam distillation of the leaves and small stems.  The aroma, whilst similar to that of Tea Tree, is more pleasant because its major chemical component is linalool rather than terpinen-4-ol: hence the common name Lavender Tea Tree.  In Australia, it is also widely known as Rosalina.

When I last analysed a sample of M. ericifolia it contained 37% linalool, 18% 1,8-cineole, 8.5% a-pinene, and 5.5% aromadendrene amongst its constituents, but not a trace of terpinen-4-ol.

Mark Webb, author of Bush Sense [the first book on Australian essential oils and their uses in aromatherapy], comments that it was not until M. ericifolia was made popular by the work of Daniel Penoel, in his book Natural Home Care Using Essential Oils, that this oil was seriously noticed by the aromatherapy community.

A wonderful oil for upper respiratory tract congestion and infections, particularly in small children.  The oil has been found beneficial for the treatment of bronchitis, asthma, respiratory infection, sinusitis, and sinus infection. Rosalina oil is also a general expectorant with good anti-infectious properties.  It can be used topically on acne, boils, tinea, and herpes.

However, despite the build-up, I have neither the books nor the oil in stock!  I shall let you know when I do.

Kangaroos, Lamoids, and Whales.
Years ago, having recently returned from living in Australia, I became involved with alternative enterprises for agriculture in the UK. Do you know anything about kangaroos? enquired the Centre for Agricultural Strategy. Might it not be a good idea to farm them here?

Whilst my primary interests in Australia had been South Devon cattle and Tea Tree Oil, I had accumulated a more-than-passing knowledge of kangaroos because we had an estimated 40,000 of them on the property.  They were a real bind, competing for forage with livestock.

In their natural habitat, they occupy the ecological niche held by grazing and browsing animals, and breed like mad. In the female Grey Kangaroo, the gestation period is variable (29-38 days). The young remain in the pouch for about 10 months, and then suckle for a further 6 months. Meanwhile she is pregnant yet again. With few natural predators, they proliferate at an alarming rate.

Although kangaroo meat contains polyunsaturated and saturated acids in the ratio of 1:1 and the total lipid content of the meat appears remarkably low (12.3mg/g net weight), making it undoubtedly attractive to those seeking a low fat diet, I feared a British countryside denuded by giant Macropodidae. Did they not know that kangaroos jump and move rather well, an adult Grey clearing 9 metres at a bound and attaining a speed in excess of the National Limit?  I thought Lamoids more my bag.

Llama, Alpaca, Guanaco and Vicuna are all South American members of the Camel family, but do not have the characteristic hump, and are collectively known as lamoids.  I rather like them although, when annoyed, they spit cud into the faces of their handlers.  At the time there was a buoyant export market in the United States for Llama and other lamoids as pets. However I was out of luck as others had already formed the Llama Owners’ Association, which sadly folded shortly afterwards owing to insufficient support, and I was given snails to tend.  But that’s another story.

Meanwhile I was becoming increasingly drawn to alternative crops for use by the flavour, perfumery and pharmaceutical industries. Several factors suggested that a substantial increase in UK production might be possible. Indeed, comment by farmers and professional agriculturalists suggested that herb growing had already increased, but firm information on its extent and the species used was lacking; farmers were less willing than previously to discuss the innovations they found profitable. Amongst the medicinal plants, control of quality was becoming more rigorous at the same time as quality in the gathered crops of eastern Europe was declining; much of the material was gathered near to urban areas and industrialisation which was leading to an increase in heavy metal content. Controlled cultivation in rural areas of the UK could avoid this.

One or two new UK crops had been in process of development in recent years . There had been considerable publicity about them although the area required for their production was still small.  Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis L.) and Borage (Borago officinalis L.), both sources of GLA, a precursor of prostaglandins which have a regulatory role in human metabolism, were rarely out of the headlines.  It was estimated that some 240 hectares of borage was grown in 1985 and that it could be in excess of 10,000 hectares within 7-10 years.
Heady stuff!

Another specialised oil requirement was for certain types of long-chain fatty acid oils for industrial and cosmetic purposes.  Sperm whale oil and Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis (Link) C. Schneider) were current sources of spermaceti for which demand was foreseen to increase.

Technically, spermaceti is neither an oil nor a fat, but a solid wax obtained from the mixed ‘oils’ derived from the head and blubber of the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and bottle-nosed whale (Hyperoodon rostratus), which frequent the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans.

This gruesome extract was a common ingredient in many mass-market moisturisers as it does have superb skin-softening properties.  It was also used to thicken skin creams and give them a glossy shine.  Both cheap and highly emollient, spermaceti has featured in skincare since 1785. Fortunately, spermaceti and other whale imports were banned in many countries in the 1970s, and Jojoba was developed as a vegetable alternative. 

A similar oil is produced by the annual Meadowfoam (Limnanthes alba Hartweg ex Benth.).  It is native to the cooler areas of the Pacific coast of North America and was then being grown on a few hectares in Oregon. It was thought that the crop was probably adaptable to the UK, but low yield and uncertain price suggested that the economics of cultivation were doubtful. I, therefore, gave it no further thought until the other day, when someone asked if we stocked it.

A quick glance at Meadowfoam.
I reached for my copy of Carrier Oils for Aromatherapy and Massage by Len & Shirley Price and Ian Smith. It is still the best quick reference on the subject.

Limnanthes comes from two Greek words, limne meaning marsh and anthos meaning a flower; alba is Latin for white.

The oil consists of fatty acids which are chains of 20 or more carbon atoms (more than rapeseed oil), and is very stable due to the presence of a-, b-, and g-tocopherols.

The oil is extracted from the seeds, which are about 2-3mm in length and contain 25-30% oil by weight.

The principal constituents are ecosenoic acid (60-65%) [Limnanthes douglasii var. rosea tends to contain more], erucic acid (8-11%) and (5Z,13Z)-docosadienoic acid (15-23%).

It remains liquid at room temperature despite its high molecular weight and is one of the most stable lipids known.  In fact meadowfoam is so stable that it actually confers stability to other oils, and is therefore useful in applications where less stable oils such as sweet almond, kukui nut, evening primrose, borage, hemp, etc. are being used.  It makes a good moisturising soap, and may be used as a binder to better hold fragrances in bath salts, soaps, massage oils, etc.

Meadowfoam oil is reported to moisturize the skin and hair better than most oils and to help prevent moisture loss.  In shampoos and hair care products, it helps add shine and moisture to the hair and scalp.  It provides good slip in massage oils and creams and is valued as a lubricant in both cosmetic and machinery industries. It has a high tolerance for heat and is suitable for a wide range of applications.

Although not cheap, I think it well worth a try. However, despite attempts to grow it here, our product still comes from the United States!

Finally.....
I am sure that most have heard of Echinacea, or Purple coneflower, for it must be one of the best researched plants of recent times.  The genus Echinacea has nine indigenous North American herbaceous perennial species.

Echinacea angustifolia DC grows to 60cm high, with lanceolate leaves and purple flowers, and is found in barrens and dry prairies from Minnesota to Texas, west to eastern Colorado and Montana.  The taproot is wild dug and there is little cultivation.

Echinacea pallida (Nutt.) Nutt., or pale purple coneflower, grows to twice the height of E. angustifolia and occurs in glades and on the prairies of Wisconsin to Arkansas, and eastern Texas to Iowa. The taproot is also wild dug,  but the plant is cultivated in the United States and Europe.

Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench. fits neatly between the two at 90cm, with ovate leaves, coarsely toothed, the basal ones often cordate.  The root is fibrous.  The plant is widely distributed throughout the Midwestern United States, but the entire market supply is cultivated in Europe, North America, and Australia.    

Commercial supplies involve the roots of these species, dried tops of fresh flowering herbage of E. purpurea, and to a lesser extent, dried tops of E. angustifolia and E. pallida.  Endemic or rare species, including E. atrorubens, E. paradoxa, and E. stimulata, which are sometimes mentioned in commercial supplies, are vicariously harvested and either misidentified or intentionally substituted.

It is worth noting that misidentification of source plants involved in chemical analysis before 1986, except for authenticated cultivated E. purpurea, render earlier chemical studies unreliable.

Essential oil components common to the aerial parts of the ‘Big Three’ include borneol, bornylacetate, pentadeca-8-en-2-one, germacrene D, caryophyllene, caryophyllene epoxide and palmitic acid [R. Bauer and H. Wagner: Economic and Medicinal Plant Research, Vol. 5, Academic Press, New York, 1991, p. 253].

Numerous studies report on the wound-healing ability of a preparation of the expressed juice of fresh flowering E. purpurea on local tissues. Bacteriostatic and fungistatic activity of isolated compounds and/or plant extracts are reported against Staphylococcus aureus (weak), Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Trichomonas vaginalis (weak), and Epidermophyton interdigitale.  E. purpurea extracts have shown indirect antiviral activity against cephalomyocarditis, vesicular stomatitis, influenza, herpes, and poliovirus.

Echinacea preparations are used for the external treatment of hard-to-heal wounds, eczema, burns, psoriasis, herpes simplex, etc.

What might the essential oil do? Honestly I don’t know, but I have some to try!        

charles@essentiallyoils.com
 

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