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I suppose that it was bound to happen sometime, but I was unprepared all the same. On the Friday before the Open Day, Jane Buckle
phoned to say that she was out of sorts and would not be able to speak on the Sunday. Cripes! That would put me firmly in the frame for the first time in 12 years! Still, if the worst came to the worst, I could probably struggle through. Nevertheless, it was with some doom and gloom that I headed to the Mill House on Saturday evening to greet
Peter Wilde and Chrissie Stacey. Meanwhile, aware of my predicament, Maurene Charlwood was pulling out all the stops to find someone to fill the gap.
Bless her! At precisely 2130 Jan’s mobile buzzed. I’ll come, if you want. Deliverance!
Julie Kingston
qualified as a British Wheel of Yoga tutor in 1994. Interested in health and wellbeing issues, she qualified later in various types of Massage, Anatomy and Physiology, Craniosacral Therapy, and Life Coaching. Inspired by a television programme featuring the beneficial effects of Dr. Milton Trager’s unique techniques of bodywork, Julie attended a
Trager introductory workshop. This was her first step on an ongoing and fulfilling journey.
Born with a congenital spinal deformity, Milton Trager
overcame a weak and rather sickly childhood through practice and patience, until he achieved the athletic body of a dancer and gymnast. In his late teens, whilst training as a boxer, he had his first experience of having intuitively accessed a bodywork technique which produced lasting results. He then spent the next fifty years as a lay practitioner, and later as a medical doctor, refining and expanding his discovery.
Trager work has been described as one of the least invasive forms of bodywork, using gentle rocking and bouncing motions to induce states of deep, pleasant relaxation.
It helps facilitate the nervous system’s communication with the muscles, and can be used by people suffering with emphysema, asthma, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, polio, painful back, and other neuromuscular problems.
I had never heard of the Trager Approach before, but the demonstration of the technique by Julie’s partner Harry Dalford certainly had the Open Day audience standing on their seats.
Chrissie
delivered a punchy and controversial presentation, which had several raising their eyebrows, but it was a clear indication of where education in CAM is headed in the future. Maurene then calmed us down with a most amusing
and informative chat about perfumery raw materials of the past, but it took some time to rid my nostrils of the scent of civet, musk and beaver.
Peter was his usual inimitable self - absolutely splendid. All in all, an excellent day which some considered the best yet!
I was equally unprepared for the overwhelming response to A day with Lotte Rose.
We sold out within 24 hours. My very sincere apologies to all. I shall try to arrange some other days during next year. Meanwhile......
REVITALISE YOUR PRACTICE!
An inspirational creative weekend
of Essential Oils and Bodywork.
- Have you been feeling lately that your practice is in the doldrums?
- Do you wish you had more bodywork techniques to use with clients?
- Are you keen to use the latest and most effective essential oils available?
- Have you been out of aromatherapy for a while and want to start up again?
- Do you have an accredited aromatherapy qualification and require CPD?
This course is for you!
Had not Jennie Harding and John Kennett suggested it, I would never have thought of a Continuing Professional Development Course exclusively for qualified aromatherapists.
Still, the suggestions
of Jennie Harding, formerly Senior Essential Oil Therapeutics Tutor at the Tisserand Institute for thirteen years and author of fourteen books on different aspects of aromatherapy, health and well-being, and Johnnie Kennett, a
successful Sports Therapist treating professional dancers and sports people using physical therapy, rehabilitation and motivational strategies, and author of The Resistance Band Workout Book, could not be ignored.
Come
to Churchill for a wonderful weekend that will revitalise you and your aromatherapy practice. Jennie will teach sessions on essential oils and Johnnie will teach the bodywork.
Explore new and interesting essential
oils to add to the practitioner’s kit, as well as revisiting and refreshing your understanding of old favourites. Refresh your massage routine, adding in effective techniques to improve your own technique, as well as
learning some useful skills to improve your client interaction.
The weekend will build your confidence, revitalise your enthusiasm for aromatherapy and send you back to your clients with a host of practical and useful
techniques.
Weekend Course Dates, 2007.
Weekend, 20-21 January, 2007.
Weekend, 10-11 February, 2007.
Weekend, 17-18 March, 2007.
Cost: £200 inclusive.
Second thoughts.
Following my recent decision to discontinue supplying Cedarwood Atlas, Justin, who visited the region recently, brought the following to my attention.
Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica (Endl.) Carriere) is the principal species in Moroccan forests used for production of timber. It is essentially encountered at a high altitude with a surface distribution area of 132,000 hectares between Rif, middle and high Atlas. Moroccan cedar plantations account for the production of 100,000 cubic metres of timber per year.
The machining waste, often under-valued, is estimated to be 30%; thus sawdust production is estimated to be 18,000 tonnes. This raw material would be important for the production of essential oil to be used for medicinal purposes and perfumery. Indeed, oil isolation from the Atlas sawdust would allow a more profitable cedar planting and would offer socio-economic benefits such as foreign exchange and job creation.
The production of compounds with added value by hemi-synthesis, such as himachalene epoxides needed in perfumery, would constitute a better added value of this raw material whose production potential has been estimated at approximately 700 tonnes per annum.
Justin makes a valid point. Maybe I have been too hasty to accede to the arguments of the environmental lobby, before first considering the socio-economic ramifications.
Pop a cork!
There are 2.7 million hectares of cork oak forest around the Mediterranean. The forests are biodiversity hotspots, with up to 135 species of plants per square metre, and are also havens for creatures such as boars, snakes, wild cats and migratory birds. I recollect that I was very proud of my cork trees in Spain.
However, a report from the Worldwide Fund for Nature [Cork Screwed? Environmental and economic impacts of the cork stoppers market (WWF, May 2006)] warns that 2 million hectares of forest could become desert within the next ten years because corks in wine bottles are increasingly being replaced by screw caps and plastic stoppers (I loathe them!). Although wine in bottles with corks occasionally becomes tainted or goes off, hence the switch to other closures, without the wine market the cork industry and the cork oak habitat couldn’t survive.
Cork is the outer layer of the cork oak’s bark, and takes 9-12 years to become thick enough to make a cork. It is stripped off in late spring, when it can be removed without harming the tissue underneath, and quickly regenerates a protective outer layer. It is a lasting regret that I never saw the bark from our own trees harvested.
Wine corks are the backbone of the cork industry, and account for two-thirds of sales. They fetch 46 euros per kilo, whereas cork for flooring, walls and insulation makes only 2-3 euros per kilo because cork for these purposes is a by-product of the wine cork production process.
To depend upon sales of insulation material alone would be unthinkable.
Still, like all trees, cork oaks absorb carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. Planting trees helps to offset the carbon produced by human activity. Because a regularly harvested cork oak has to regenerate its bark, it absorbs three to five times as much carbon dioxide as an unharvested tree. So carbon-offset schemes could sensibly support the cork industry.
Muhuhu.
Recently, whilst browsing through Steffen Arctander’s informative Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin, I stumbled across Muhuhu (Brachylaena huillensis O. Hoffm. syn: Brachylaena hutchinsii Hutch.).
Writing in 1960, Arctander reckoned that muhuhu oil had been known for about 30 years outside East Africa. In the group of sandalwood-amyris-cedarwood type of essential oils, the oil is steam distilled from the strongly fragrant wood of B. huillensis, a member of the Compositae, which grows in Kenya and Tanzania from the coastal regions right up into the highlands. In the various dialects it is called muhuhu, muhugwe, ol-magogo, or muhugu. The durable hardwood is widely used in making parquet floors and other wood products, and the sawdust from this process is used for production of the essential oil.
Arctander describes the oil as a viscous, amber-coloured or brownish-yellow liquid of a soft, balsamic-woody, sweet and faintly floral odour, reminiscent of vetiver, sandalwood and tail fractions of Atlas cedarwood. Fresh oils, however, show a strong topnote of styrene-cadinene type and a dry, somewhat harsh caryophyllene-like bodynote.
According to Arctander, the odour characteristics of this oil vary quite considerably since distillation of the oil demands extensive experience in order to achieve a uniform product. A significant amount of the oil consists of partly water-soluble sesquiterpene alcohols or related materials, and the percentage of sesquiterpenes is largely dependent upon the time taken for distillation, steam pressure, etc.
Researchers first looked at muhuhu oil more than 50 years ago [Naves, Y.R. and Ardizio, P., Perfum. Essent. Oil Rec., 46, 144 (1955)], but the first defined constituents were isolated from a wood extract, and not from the essential oil [Brooks, C.J.W. and Campbell, M.M., Chem. Commun., 630 (1969)]. These substances, referred to as brachylaenalon A and B, are two tricyclic keto aldehydes deriving from the sesquiterpenes copaene and ylangene.
Two years later, other researchers did a detailed study of the oil [Klein, E. and Schmidt, W., Dragoco Report, 1971, No. 1, p. 3; (Chem. Abstr., 74, 42506c (1971) )], and showed that practically all constituents belong to the sequiterpene series. The main component of the oil proved to be a-amorphene, a relatively rare sesquiterpene which is distinguished mainly by the fact that it belongs to the “antipodal series” of sesquiterpenes. The “antipodal series” is that group of sesquiterpene compounds whose configuration is enantiomorphous in relation to the sesquiterpenes “normally” found in nature. Substances of this kind are rare.
They also determined that the oil contained g-amorphene, ylangenal, copaenal, ylangenol, copaenol and brachyl oxide. The two aldehydes ylangenal and copaenal and the alcohols ylangenol and copaenol are probably the progenitors of the brachylaenalones A and B. An interesting oil, but where to find some?
We used to distil Muhuhu Oil in the 1960s and 1970s and export it to the U.S. We have recently invested in building a new distillation plant and have been extracting the oil for
the past year and a half. Do you want a sample? I can barely wait!
All of which got me around to thinking about East African sandalwood oil.
What is East African sandalwood oil?
A number of oils called African sandalwood or East African sandalwood have been described in the literature, but there is much uncertainty about their botanical origin. Most were thought to be from Osyris tenuifolia Engl., native to Tanzania and known locally as sandali or bastard sandalwood. However, in Kenya, Osyris compressa (Berg.) A. DC., which is more correctly defined now as Colpoon compressum Berg., is known as East African sandalwood, but as Cape sumach in South Africa where its leaves and bark are used to produce a tanning extract. Nevertheless, there is little evidence that an essential oil is produced from the wood and thus it is unlikely that C. compressum is the origin of East African or African sandalwood oil, and that O. tenuifolia is the source.
Osyris tenuifolia is a densely-branched, medium-sized tree growing to about 15 metres high. It reaches full maturity in 60 to 80 years, which is when the centre of the slender trunk has its greatest oil content. The heartwood and roots are aromatic, whereas the bark and sapwood are odourless. The oil is steam-distilled from wood chips, yielding a pale yellow to lightish brown viscous liquid having a soft, sweet, woody odour not unlike that of oil of Australian plumbush (Santalum lanceolatum R. Br.). Very crude and dark oils, or freshly distilled oils, tend to smell dry and tar-like.
In Tanzania, the oil is used in aromatherapy and for making expensive perfumes, quality lotions, soaps and candles. When mashed into paste it is used in folk medicine as a remedy for acne and to improve the complexion. However, the oil is not an alternative nor substitute for sandalwood oil as the main component of the oil is lanceol.
Nevertheless I was mildly surprised to be offered some to try, because I had thought that the commercial production of East African sandalwood and timber exports had ceased with the demise of the traditional dhow trade between East African and Persian Gulf ports in the mid 1970s. If only to recapture memories of my days in the Gulf, I think that I shall stock a little East African sandalwood oil.
Spying out the land.
When I first visited the Gulf almost 43 years ago my main preoccupation, apart from work, was to discover more about the region’s fauna and flora. I recollect that there was very little enthusiasm for my quest, despite the fact that the British political officer H. St. John Philby (1885-1960), the explorer and later advisor to the King of Saudi Arabia, determined to excel in all phases of Arabian knowledge, had made biological specimen collecting an essential part of all his major expeditions. Perhaps Harry St. John Bridger Philby was better remembered then as the father and mentor of the notorious spy Kim Philby . All the same this ambition, coupled with a personal bent for natural history dating back to his boyhood, led to significant advances in knowledge of the biology of Arabia. Although his contribution to botany was not as significant as that to zoology, particularly ornithology, his plant collections in 1931 and 1936 provided some of the earliest data for the regions of Rub’al-Khali and Asir mountains.
Modern botanical exploration in northeastern Arabia had tentative beginnings in that golden age of Asian species description celebrated in 1867 with the first volume of Boissier’s Flora Orientalis. Plant collecting began here as an incidental pursuit of British travellers who were exploring and describing the fringes of the Indian Empire. English thus became the language of east-Arabian botany, and London was for long its principal herbarium.
Lt. Col. Lewis Perry , who as British Political Resident for the Gulf crossed into what is now the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia from Kuwait territory in February 1865, was the first to bring plant specimens from this region to European plant herbaria. This was secondary to his diplomatic mission to Riyadh, but he had been charged to study the geography of the area, ‘collecting at the same time, such natural specimens as one might be able, en route.’ The collection totalled about 60 specimens, which were deposited at Kew, and Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911), the most important botanist of the nineteenth century, provided a list of names.
It was not until 58 years later, when R.E. Cheesman undertook his expedition to al-Hasa and Yabrin, that there were any records of further botanical collecting in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. Although the earlier 1900s saw the first systematic exploration of the area by Europeans, precedence in this was given to mapping, and political conditions made scientific work extremely difficult.
In early 1912, while al-Hasa province was still under Ottoman occupation though soon to be reunited with the Saudi state, the young Danish geographer Barclay Raunkiaer crossed eastern Arabia from Kuwait to Riyadh and then back to al-Uqayr. His father was Christen Raunkiaer (1860-1938), an internationally recognized botanist still well known today to ecology students for his ‘life form’ classification of vegetation, and during his Arabian trip the son carried plant collecting equipment provided by the Botanical Gardens at Copenhagen University. The suspicions of his escorts, however, prevented his collecting any specimens, and his contribution to botany at that troubled moment in Arabian history was limited to a few general remarks on the vegetation contained in his account of the trip.
It is difficult, in these mechanized times, to appreciate how knowledge of a land’s plant life was once intelligence of high significance to the animal transport of armies. To the practical desert mind of that period, such surveys raised only visions of colonialist ventures. Today it is all done from space!
Do aromas enhance work performance?
I always feel a little guilty sloping off early in the afternoon to spend a couple of hours with Mung and Mick but, in mitigation, I never take a break during the day for fear of not being able to get started again! The staff, on the other hand, have three breaks per day, but always return from their beverages and comestibles with vigour, even after the mid-afternoon recess. Around this time I have usually had enough, especially if I have spent the previous six hours fixated on my laptop. What’s my problem? A recent study may have answered my question.
Unlike the others, I am not so exposed to essential oils during my working day: the odd sniff here and there, and that’s about it. The recent study investigated whether exposure to aromas during recess periods affects work performance. Thirty-six healthy male students were split randomly into three groups: control group, not exposed to aromas during recesses; jasmine group, exposed to jasmine aroma during recesses; and lavender group, exposed to lavender during recesses.
All the participants completed five work sessions performing a task requiring concentration on a computer monitor, with each session lasting one hour. Recess periods of thirty minutes were provided between each session. To clarify the time at which work concentration was lowest, work performance for the control group were analysed. Concentration was lowest in the afternoon period, when afternoon drowsiness is strongest (they’re telling me!).
Comparison of the three groups for this time period indicated significantly higher levels of concentration for the lavender group than for the control group. No such effect, however, was noted for the jasmine group. Although lavender is a sedative-type aroma, use during recess periods after accumulation of fatigue seems to prevent deterioration of performance in subsequent work sessions [Sakamoto, R. et al. Effectiveness of aroma on work efficiency: lavender aroma during recess prevents deterioration of work performance. Chemical Senses (2005), 30(8), 683-691].
Be this the case, I had better crank up the desktop diffuser. Mind you, I rather like going home early anyway!
Surprising results.
If someone had asked me if Kukui (Aleurites moluccana (L.) Willd.) could assist psoriasis I would probably have said yes, because most aromatherapy textbooks suggest it does, but a recently reported double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial has me thinking [Brown, A.C. et al. Effectiveness of kukui nut oil as a topical treatment for psoriasis. International Journal of Dermatology (2005), 44(8), 684-687].
It seems that no cure for psoriasis exists for the 1-3% of the American population who suffer from it. However, anecdotal reports from patients with psoriasis who purchased kukui nut oil when visiting Hawaii claimed the oil helped reduce the severity of their lesions.
Thirty adults were recruited from the community for a 12-week pilot study, and agreed to abstain from other treatments during the course of the study. They were randomized into a treatment group (15 subjects using kukui nut oil) or a control group (15 applying the mineral oil placebo).
Although both groups improved, no significant difference was noted between the treatment and the placebo among the 24 out of 30 who completed the study. It was concluded that the kukui nut oil did not significantly reduce symptoms of psoriasis, but the trial was very small and probably warrants further research.
Similarly, if asked to suggest a single oil to repel mosquitoes I would probably recommend Citronella (Cymbopogon nardus L.), but is this the most effective?
The mosquito repellent activity of 38 essential oils from plants at three concentrations was screened against the mosquito Aedes aegypti under laboratory conditions using humans. On a volunteer’s forearm, 0.1 millilitre of oil was applied per 30 square centimetres of exposed skin [Trongtokit, Y. et al. Comparative repellency of 38 essential oils against mosquito bites. Phytotherapy Research (2005), 19(4), 303-309].
When the tested oils were applied at a 10% or 50% concentration, not one of them stopped mosquito bites for as long as two hours, but the undiluted oils of citronella, clove (Syzygium aromaticum), patchouli (Pogostemon cablin) and Thai makaen (Zanthoxylum limonella) were the most effective and provided 2 hours of complete repellency.
From these initial results, three concentrations (10%, 50% and undiluted) of citronella, clove, patchouli and makaen were selected for repellency tests against Culex quinquefasciatus and Anopheles dirus. As expected, the undiluted oil showed the highest protection in each case, but what did surprise me was that Clove oil gave the longest duration of 100% repellency (2 to 4 hours) against all three species of mosquito. Worth a thought, when next you travel.
Just one out of 13 drugs recommended by health shops to tackle depression actually has sound scientific backing, experts found.
St. John’s Wort is the only alternative medicine proven to have an effect, a study published last month found [Reed, J. & Trigwell, P. Psychiatric Bulletin.] Others, including ginseng, liquid tonic, cat’s claw, ginkgo biloba and royal jelly have no firm evidence base and “have potentially serious drug interactions”. Would you agree?
Finally.....
A question from Marlene Plimley. Have you ever encountered anyone who has suffered from any external, primarily facial, allergies to Aloe Vera Gel - even in the purest form?
Marlene has been using a very pure, organic form of gel thickened with xanthan gum, with potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate and citric acid added as preservatives. Only two so far have experienced a reddening of the face after application. This feels and looks like a mild sunburn and usually disappears after half an hour or so. There is no blistering or other damage to the skin, just a reddening where the gel was applied. This occurs only on the face and not on any other part of the body. Marlene herself had a similar experience many years ago using a commercial brand of aloe vera gel.
The clients in question have used Marlene’s formula before without any problem, and then suddenly one day the skin flares up. Skin sensitization, contact dermatitis, hypersensitivity - but from which ingredient in the aloe vera gel?
Aloe vera has a pretty exemplary record, and its chemistry has been investigated on and off during the past several decades, but few studies take into consideration seasonal, climatic and soil variations which may strongly affect the composition of the gel. It is commonly thought that the emollient and healing properties of aloe vera gel are due to the polysaccharides. The major polysaccharide has been determined to be glucommanan, which is similar to guar and locust gums. Other polysaccharides containing galactose and uronic acids as well as pentoses are also present.
However, it is probable that the gel’s beneficial properties are not due to the polysaccharides alone but rather from a synergistic effect of these compounds with other substances present in the gel, but the quality of aloe gel varies greatly because guar and locust bean gums are often added to increase viscosity and yield, and it is difficult to distinguish the good from the poor. Nevertheless, as far as I know, xanthan, guar, locust bean, citric acid and sodium benzoate have no known toxicity from cosmetic use, but potassium sorbate may cause mild irritation of the skin. Could this be the cause?