A cracking day, albeit with a slight chill in the air. With this, and dampness creeping up from the soil, autumn provides some super scents.  Fruit and ripeness are the key to a powerful mix of plenty and decay.  The scent of apples is quite distinctive. Nothing else captures the feel of the autumn season so well.

On my daily drive to work I pass several Crab or Wild Apple trees (Malus domestica Borkh.), which is native to Britain and is probably the wild ancestor of all cultivated varieties of apple trees.  In most respects it resembles closely the cultivated apple, differing chiefly only in the size and flavour of the fruit.

The blossoms, because of their delightful fragrance and store of nectar, attract myriads of bees during April and May, and as a result the fruit develops and becomes in the autumn the attractive Crab Apple, which when ripe is yellow or red in colour and measures about an inch across. It has a very acid juice and, therefore, cannot be eaten in the raw state, but a delicious jelly is made from it.

Still, it is interesting that Cider should have become such a fashionable drink recently. Cider apples can be considered as a step in development from the Wild Apple to the Dessert Apple. Formerly, every farmhouse made its own cider. I can remember when every autumn apples were tipped in heaps on the floor of the nearby pound house, in which stood the pounder (a machine which crushed the apples between two toothed rollers), the press and the vats.  It was a time of great excitement and considerable activity. 

Although my family were brewers, my father always preferred cider: it was the first alcoholic beverage to which I was introduced as a youth. I recollect that it was always extremely dry in taste, because this was popular with sufferers from rheumatism and gout. I did not like it very much and obtained instead a barrel of the family brew for my own delectation!

An apple a day keeps the doctor away was a rhyme that my mother would quote endlessly  when I was a child, which probably explains why I am not that keen on apples to this day. Still, there was undoubtedly genuine wisdom in her words.

The chief dietetic value of apples lies in the malic and tartaric acids. These acids are of great benefit to persons of sedentary habits, who are liable to liver derangements, because they neutralize the acid products of gout and indigestion, but was I such a couch potato?!

The acids of the apple not only make the fruit itself digestible, but even make it helpful in digesting other foods. We used to have lashings of apple sauce with rich foods like pork and goose, and an apple was always offered with the cheese.

I understand now that a ripe apple is one of the easiest vegetable substances for the stomach to deal with, the whole process of its digestion being completed in eighty-five minutes. The sugar of a sweet apple is practically a predigested food, and is soon ready to pass into the blood to provide energy and warmth for the body.  The juice of apples, without sugar, will often reduce stomach acidity as it becomes changed into alkaline carbonates, and thus corrects sour fermentation.

I believe that in countries where unsweetened cider is a common beverage, stones or calculus are unknown.  In fact, a series of inquiries made of doctors in Normandy, where cider is the principal drink (and very good it is, with pancakes), brought to light the fact that not a single case of stones had been detected during forty years.

To eat an apple going to bed will make the doctor beg his bread is another old saying. A ripe, juicy apple eaten every night at bedtime will cure apparently some of the worst forms of constipation. It seems, however, that sour apples are the best for this purpose and, what is more, they may also cure sleeplessness in this manner. 

I am not so sure about the old Lincolnshire remedy for sore eyes, a poultice of rotten apples, or that the bacillus of typhoid fever cannot live long in apple juice. Nevertheless, it has been suggested by some that doubtful drinking water should be mixed with cider to make it more potable but, given the circumstances, I think that I would drink the cider and give the water a miss!

Still, there seems little doubt that the habitual use of apples will do much to prolong life and ameliorate its conditions. In the Edda, the old Scandinavian saga, Iduna kept in a box, apples that she gave to the gods to eat, thereby to renew youth.  Be this true, I should revise perhaps my view of apples before it’s too late.

Pondering pinks.  
My very first pet was a tortoise, Joey.  I learned quickly that he was particularly partial to the brightly coloured flowers of dandelions (Taraxacum officinale Weber ex F.H. Wigg. group) and nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus L.), but what really turned him on were pinks.  He would decimate borders of them, and his appetite was such that during the summer months he was rarely to be seen without one in his mouth.  It drove my mother wild. 

Pinks and carnations belong to the plant genus Dianthus, which comprises about 300 species of perennial, biennial and annual flowers that can be found in Europe, Asia and Africa.  They  are hardy plants of the northern temperate zone and among them are found some of the most scented and pretty garden flowers.

Dianthus caryophyllus L., or carnation, is the most important member of the genus, especially in the fragrance industry because of its absolute with a rich clove-like aroma.

The ancient Greeks named the plant dianthos, or flower of Jove, and it was used to make garlands and coronets. This is probably where the name carnation came from. The colour range is confined to white, cream, pink and red but within this there is a fantastic variety and subtlety of shades.  Dianthus or pinks are basically the perennial, hardy, low-growing plants with mats of blue-grey spiky foliage that generally flower in mid-summer.  Carnations have longer flower stems and larger flower-heads and some types are less hardy than pinks.

Dianthus caryophyllus probably reached England from France around the time of the Norman Conquest and was the plant from which hardy border carnations were derived. The French called the flower ‘giroflier’ because it had a clove-like perfume.  This term came to be used later for many other flowers with a clove scent so that the name ‘gillyflower’ was widely used for differing flowers [e.g., white stock (Matthiola incana (L.) R. Br.) and the wallflower (Erysimum cheiri (L.) Crantz)], but it usually meant carnation or pink to most people. Today, interestingly, the French word carnation means complexion or flesh tint and the French word for the flower is oeillet.

In Tudor times, some types were used to flavour wine.  The name sops-in-wine was invented for a particularly strong-smelling, dark-red clove pink.  The spicy scent of carnations and pinks is a delight in the garden, especially on warm, still days.

Seventy-five years ago, up to 200 metric tons of carnation flowers were processed yearly in the Grasse region of France for the extraction of their flower oil.  Cultivated on the French and Italian Rivieras, chiefly for the cut flower trade, surplus flowers which could not be sold to florists, particularly at the end of the flowering season, were taken to Grasse for extraction with petroleum ether, yielding the so-called concrete and absolute of carnation. The flowers give such a poor yield of oil on steam distillation that the process cannot be applied. Since then, I know of only occasional production in France and we get our carnation absolute from Egypt.

Concrete of carnation is a solid, waxy mass of light green colour: the odour is “green”, not characteristic of the flowers. Absolute of carnation is a viscous, dark brown oil, with a pleasant scent reminiscent of the live flowers.  However, in the old days, and I’m not so sure that it does not still happen today (!), the concretes and absolutes of carnation were often adulterated with synthetic aromatics, such as eugenol and phenylethyl alcohol both of which occur naturally in the oil anyway. These, when skilfully applied, impart a more true-to-nature character to the concrete and the absolute than they actually possess.

In aromatherapy, carnation is indicated for muscle spasms, indigestion, anxiety and other stress-related disorders.  Furthermore, Valerie Ann Worwood, in her pioneering book The Fragrant Mind, which looks at the emotional, psychological and mood-changing effects of essential oils, comments that carnation is a comforting, yet sensual personality which makes one feel euphoric, as if sitting in a sanctified place with a sense of inner calm, expectant of the pleasures life has yet to provide and suggests that it could be used to counteract disregard, neglect, detachment, cynicism, disorientation, doubt, mental loneliness, aloneness, emotional domination, emotional solitude, and self-criticism.

Although it appears safe, and tortoise Joey survived for at least 30 years, it has been reported that oil of carnation has caused dermatitis in dentists [Watt, M. 1996. Plant Aromatics, p.29]. Why dentists in particular I’m not sure, but I would suspect that it is because of the eugenol connection with clove oil (Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. & L.M. Perry).

Khat?
I have been asked to identify a substance one of our patients is taking. He is from Somalia and his family bring him a twig which he chews - known as khat.  I think this might be an illegal substance but whatever it is it is impeding his recovery.  Do you know of this? I was asked recently by a therapist working in the hospital environment.

I know it well - khat, miraa, qat, cafta - Catha edulis (Vahl) Forssk. ex Endl.  It is cultivated   in Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, etc. for its leaves which are chewed fresh by Moslems as a daily stimulant.  In fact, I believe that fresh supplies are airfreighted regularly from East Africa to other Moslem countries.

There appear to be a number of different varieties of the plant varying in ‘khatamine’ content between 0.1% and 0.5%. It is widely employed in African and Arab countries, for chewing, and its misuse has been surveyed by WHO (World Health Organization).  Its traditional use is similar to that of coca (Erythroxylum coca Lam.) in that the fresh leaves, when chewed, have a stimulatory effect with the alleviation of depression and of the sensations of hunger and fatigue.

Although I do not know that the ‘twig’ is pharmacologically active like the leaves, but I think it possible, on a dry weight basis the leaves contain about 1.0% of norpseudoephedrine, and for many years this was thought to be the principle responsible for the stimulant effect of the drug.  In 1975 another phenylpropane, cathinone, was isolated and is considered the principal CNS stimulant of the fresh plant. Cathinone has similar pharmacological properties to those of amphetamine.

Traditionally, the leaves are chewed one by one, kept in the mouth for a while, then spat out; during a khat-session, one person will typically consume from 100 to 200g of leaves in 3 to 4 hours. Abusers experience hyperactivity and insomnia. Soon they become compulsive users, display aggressive and paranoid behaviour, and develop personality problems.  Dependency induced by khat is similar to that caused by D-amphetamine, except for the fact that the sheer volume of leaves limits the quantities ingested!

The practice of chewing khat in the UK, and the possible medical sequelae, were discussed in correspondence in the Lancet during 1987 and 1988.  Concern had been expressed about the incidence of carcinoma of the oral cavity in khat users, and about the likely psychological symptoms. However, in the UK, although I think that the active principles, cathinone and norpseudoephedrine, may be controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations, I don’t think that khat itself is controlled unless it is prepared for use by crushing, infusing or by extraction of the active principles. It would be worth checking, however.

Lavender reaps Kashmir peace dividend!
Imagine my surprise to read in a feature article in the Financial Times that Sami Shawl, our host in Kashmir, got an unexpected fillip when he sought a loan from Jammu and Kashmir Bank (J&K) to set up a business extracting oils from the lavender that blossoms in the valleys of Kashmir.

J&K rejected Dr. Shawl’s request for a loan but offered instead to invest in the start-up, a first for the bank and a rare instance of venture capital at work in Kashmir where a thaw in the hostilities between India and Pakistan is creating business opportunities.

The bank’s reaction was genuinely surprising, said Dr. Shawl.  I’ll say it was!

A matter of opinion.
Am trying to find a source of Bayberry Oil - can you help? I know you do Bog Myrtle and I think it may be the same.

Bayberry Oil (Myrica cerifera L.) and Bog Myrtle (Myrica gale L.) are not the same.  Bog Myrtle is widespread in Europe, in Siberia and in North America. The biocidal properties of of its leaf  have long been known, and its use as a preservative, especially for beer, is ancient. In Scandinavia, I understand that it is still used as a soporific, as a preservative in alcoholic beverages, as a mosquito repellent (for which we primarily supply it), and also sometimes as an antibacterial and antifungal for preserving fruit.

On the other hand, I would think that Bayberry is better known for its root bark, which is stated to possess antipyretic, circulatory stimulant, emetic and mild diaphoretic properties.  The powdered bark, or a liquid extract of the bark, is used in herbal medicine, but I have not come across an essential oil. Still, I did peruse many years ago an analysis of the chemical composition of a Bayberry leaf oil from Cuba.

Nevertheless, for what do you wish to use it? 

I want to use it in incense. Any suggestions as to where to go from here?

Now that you mention incense, have you considered Elemi (Canarium luzonicum (Blume) A. Gray), which contains elemene, and Guaiacwood (Bulnesia sarmienti Lorentz ex Griseb.), which has guaiene, both chemical compounds in the Bayberry leaf oil which I think you seek.  In any event, I would think Elemi and Guaiacwood better incense ingredients.

Thanks.  I have Elemi as a resin and an oil and hadn’t considered it as an alternative.  Still, just to push my luck a bit, can I ask why you think Elemi better for incense than Bayberry?  Maybe I should just buy some myrtle (sic) from you anyway.

I suppose that I am a traditionalist of sorts and consider oil of Bayberry neither gum nor spice: most incense ingredients are the resinous or gummy exudates from the bark of trees and other plants.  Still, if I may also push my luck a bit, the Syrian scholar Arnobius had an interesting point of view.....

What is this sign of respect which comes from the smell of gum of a tree burning in a fire?  Does this, do you suppose, give honour to the heavenly magnates? Or if their displeasure has been aroused at any time, is it really soothed and dissipated by incense smoke?  But if it is smoke the gods want, why must it only be incense? If you answer that incense has a nice smell while other substances have not, tell me if the gods have nostrils and can smell with them? But if the gods are incorporeal, odours and perfumes can have no effect at all upon them, since corporeal substances cannot affect incorporeal beings. [Atchley, E.G.C.F. (1909) A History of Uses of Incense in Divine Worship].

Maybe some myrtle would do just fine!

Berry seed oils to consider.
I just wish to mention a couple of interesting vegetable oils which I have read about on the internet - Cranberry Seed oil and Raspberry Seed oil.  Are you familiar with these oils, or have you ever been offered samples of them? e-mailed Paul Kennedy.

We have been offered both from time to time, but I have never stocked them because I have not had sufficient information about them However, I always take particular note when Paul is in touch, because he is invariably better researched than me. Sure enough, he attached bags of information for me to get my teeth into. Thanks Paul!

The seed oil of Cranberries (Vaccinium macrocarpon Aiton), which to my surprise were first commercially grown here by Joseph Banks in 1808 [commercial growing in the United States did not start until the 1840s], is relatively new to the skin care industry, although it has a unique natural balance of omega 3, 6 and 9 essential fatty acids (EFAs), reportedly not found in any other oil [I’m not so sure about this, because another member of the Ericaceae - Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) - has a similar fatty acid profile], and has a high content of natural tocotrienol antioxidants, which protect the skin from environmental pollutants.  Because of these properties, Cranberry Seed Oil is probably particularly useful in products for psoriasis and eczema.  It is light and non-greasy, emollient and moisturizing, and penetrates the skin easily.  This cold-pressed oil has a useful shelf-life of a couple of years.

Recent research has suggested that the seed oil of Raspberries (Rubus idaeus L.) contains bioactive properties which will assist the skin, because it contains very high levels of  Vit. E. Clinical studies have shown that the oil provides natural protection from damaging UV-A and UV-B rays, and has a sun protection factor (SPF) of 25-50.

However, the use of raspberry seed oil on the skin should not be considered the equivalent of using a properly formulated SPF product, because many factors are involved in how a product works as a sunscreen, including absorption rate and the viscosity of the formulation. The oil is reported also to have significant anti-inflammatory activity.

There are so many so-called “new” vegetable oils being offered at the moment that it is very difficult to keep up but, on the face ot it, these two seem to warrant more consideration than many, particularly by those seeking alternative anti-agers.

We have taken small quantities of both into stock. Give them a try, and let me know what you think.

Dipping into Davana.
When people started phoning for information, I realized that I had put Davana (Artemisia pallens Wall ex DC.) on offer last month without telling you anything about it.  That was probably because I don’t know that much anyway!

I recollect that I came across it first many years ago when a national bakery requested some for flavouring purposes: I believe that it is also used in some soft drinks.  As it turned out, I was unable to help because the oil was available only in fairly small quantities and the bakery was seeking tonnage. However, I did discover that the oil is highly prized because of its deep, mellow, persistent, characteristically fruity odour.  Many people feel that it has an interesting strawberry-like undertone, and I would not disagree.

The herb from which the oil is obtained has traditionally been used in Southern India for many years for decoration purposes.  It is reputed that the characteristic bluish-green leaves lend an element of freshness to a floral arrangement while the rich odour has made it popular at folk festivals.

Very little was known about the chemistry of the oil until the late 1960s, when researchers reported the presence of a new sesquiterpene ketone which they named davanone.  Two years later, other researchers isolated another new sesquiterpene ketone from davana and, because of its structural similarities to the monoterpene artemisia ketone, they named it artemone.

Although it is indicated in aromatherapy for the treatment of coughing attacks with thick mucus, and is reputed to ease anxiety, it is perceived as moderately toxic because of the ketones. In India, however, it is used in many pancha karma clinics for ovarian and uterine cysts, both as a compress and a douche.  It is considered also excellent for menopausal women and useful in regulating and balancing menstruation.  In fact, it has a reputation for the treatment of any female disturbance.  However, it is a very strong-smelling oil and should always be used in small amounts, well diluted.

Devil’s dung.
Writing of strong-smelling oils reminds me that I had a most pleasant surprise the other day. I had requested a sample of Asafoetida, which has the reputation for possessing a most powerful, pungent, and obnoxious alliaceous odour; hence its common name devil’s dung. The smell is due to the large amounts of sulphur compounds in the essential oil; there are no such compounds in the non-volatile part of the extract.

Asafoetida is the dried latex or gum oleoresin obtained by incision from the living rhizome and taproot of several Ferula species, notably Ferula assa-foetida L., Ferula foetida (Bunge) Regel and Ferula narthex Boiss.  The plants are native to Iran and Afghanistan, where they cover the otherwise arid and barren plains of the high plateaus.  The large cabbage-like tops of the plants are eaten raw by people in the region. The gum is collected, from plants about four years old, between the middle of April to the end of July.

For this purpose, the roots of plants which have not flowered are exposed and slashed, then shaded from the sun for five to six weeks and left for the gummy oleoresin to leak out and harden.  It is then scraped off. Certain plants will yield as much as a kilo of asafoetida.

Asafoetida is used in the production of Asafoetida Resinoid by hydrocarbon extraction, Asafoetida Absolute or Asafoetida Tincture by alcohol extraction, and Asafoetida Oil by steam distillation.

The essential oil is a pale yellow or orange-yellow coloured liquid. The odour is usually sharp and acrid, with more than a hint of onion and garlic, but my sample was most pleasant and well-rounded. In fact, our supplier of davana, who was visiting from India at the time, and is a distiller of asafoetida himself, was genuinely surprised by this English-distilled oil. He urged me to buy some!

Oil of asafoetida may be used most sparingly (<0.004%) for the flavouring of all kinds of food products, particularly table sauces.  It is reported to be an ingredient of Worcestershire sauce.  In India and Iran the gum, as such, is widely used as a condiment, and it is thought to exercise a stimulant action on the brain.  It is also a local stimulant to the mucous membrane, especially to the alimentary tract, and therefore is a remedy of great value as a carminative in flatulent colic and a useful addition to laxative medicine.

There is evidence that the essential oil is eliminated through the lungs, therefore it could be considered good for asthma, bronchitis, whooping cough, etc. In aromatherapy, it is used also for fatigue, nervous exhaustion, hysteria, convulsions, and stress-related problems.

Asafoetida gum oleoresin is reported to be relatively non-toxic - ingestion of 15g produced no untoward effects - but it has a folkloric reputation as an abortifacient and emmenagogue. Also, a report of methaemoglobinaemia (a pigment in the blood which is unable to transport oxygen) has been associated with the administration of glycerited asafoetida (in milk) to a five-week-old infant for the treatment of colic. Further, asafoetida has been found to exert an oxidizing effect on foetal haemoglobin, but not on that of adults.  In view of the toxic effect to infants, it would be wise not to use the essential oil during pregnancy and lactation.

Asafoetida is a complex gum oleoresin consisting of many constituents that vary according to the different species used, and the gum of some Ferula species is reported to be irritant.  It  would be prudent, therefore, to patch test before use.   

As it has been suggested that excessive doses of the gum may interfere with anticoagulant therapy and with hypertensive and hypotensive therapy, it may be best to avoid the oil in these conditions.

Finally.....
My apologies to those who were unable to secure a place at our Open Day. It was almost fully booked within a fortnight!  Hopefully we shall see you next year.





charles@essentiallyoils.com

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