I’m tired, I ache, and I’m extremely irritable. I haven’t a clue where anything is, as the movers off-loaded at such a pace that all seems to have ended up in one great pile. Used to an ancient Aga, the ceramic hob has me confused and in constant fear of burning myself. The anonymity of a fitted kitchen means that I know not what lurks in any drawer or cupboard. Not yet au fait with the location of the light switches, I bump and crash my way around in the early morning darkness. I have yet to find a clean shirt and trousers, and the wash basin and shaving mirror are set up for a midget. Furthermore, I have abandoned my age-long nicotine habit. All in all, I’m feeling pretty sorry for myself. Still, off with this malaise as I have to get on writing this, which, of necessity, has to be a trip down memory lane as I haven’t one fresh thought in my mind at the moment. Aaaah, nostalgia! Yes, but how would you feel after twelve years in the same place?!

Becalmed Camellia.
I was mildly surprised to discover recently that we had Camellia Oil on offer almost twenty years ago. Although I say it myself, this must have been pioneering stuff as even today many are not familiar with this Japanese gem. Mind you, several aromatherapy books of the period, of which there seemed to be a new one published every other week, described Tea Tree Oil as a “comparatively new oil”, as it had only been reintroduced to Europe in the early 1980s and  was far from an immediate success because many thought it simply an overpriced eucalyptus oil! 

I offered several aromatherapists free samples of Camellia oil with a request that they let me know their opinions, as the oil contains high levels of oleic acid and has for many years been used by Japanese ladies as a hair treatment after shampooing. Containing similar components to those secreted by the sebaceous gland, several practitioners suggested that it should be the first choice for young or acne-prone skins as a facial oil. In addition, it makes one of the best carrier oils for the more mature client not only as a facial oil but also as an after bath oil, as it is ideal for thirsty skin. It’s light application suggested that it was highly suitable for use on clients after plastic surgery where it would not be preferable to use a heavier oil. All the same, despite glowing recommendations all those years ago, Camellia still remains a slow mover to this day.

Rising Rosehip.
However, a similar comparatively highly priced carrier oil has flourished well.  We imported a small quantity of Rosehip Seed Oil (Rosa rubiginosa L.) from Chile at about the same time as the Camellia from Japan, having been most impressed by the results of some clinical trials which had been submitted to the XIII International Congress of the International Federation of Societies of Cosmetic Chemists.

It seemed particularly effective in the treatment of hypertrophic scars, hyperdermic scars and retractile scars derived from surgical incisions, wounds and burns. Also there was evidence that it delayed the emergence of new ageing lines and reduced existing lines, which probably accounts for its current popularity. I have been known to apply the odd drop myself!

Languishing Linden & Hapless Galbanum.
Meanwhile, I was experimenting also with more unusual essential oils and absolutes, which have still not become overly popular. Linden Blossom Absolute (Tilia cordata Mill.), long considered a very relaxing oil promoting sound sleep, is an excellent tonic for the nervous system and can assist with headaches, migraine and neuralgia. It is also said to keep wrinkles at bay and has a tonic effect on the scalp encouraging hair growth, which I had long forgotten. Perhaps, Lime Blossom Vegetable Oil would have a similar effect. Sadly, the products of Tilia cordata are not the cheapest, and the aroma of the absolute can vary considerably.

Galbanum (Ferula galbaniflua Boiss.), although not outrageously expensive, is another oil that over the years has not caught the imagination as I expected. An emmenagogue, it has a reputation for removing psychic blockages and for calming erratic moods and easing nervous tension, but obviously should not be used during pregnancy. I recollect that it has a reputation for succeeding where other oils fail. In fact, I have a note that it is “a boon to the reproductive system, dealing with problems such as lack of period, menstrual cramp and water retention.”

Also, it lends aftershave lotions an unique oomph!

Could do better?
By May 1992, I was wondering why Borage (Borago officinalis L.), as a source of GLA, was not more widely used in the treatment of PMT as, according to Dr. Adrienne Mays in the A-Z of Nutritional Health, borage seed is between 2½ to 4½ times richer in GLA than Evening Primrose Oil (Oenothera biennis L.). We even added it to our list, believing it an excellent addition to treat skin disorders such as eczema and psoriasis and, also, a reputed anti-ageing treatment. Response? Zero! Why? I surmised that it was probably cost and perhaps a lack of knowledge.

Liz Earle, in her then recently published Vital Oils, concluded that Borage had yet to capture the imagination of the nation in the same way that Evening Primrose Oil had done, and it had yet to become as widely available. She believed that it could only be a matter of time before the extraordinary benefits of this plant oil were fully acknowledged. Maybe, but I would think that EPO still outsells Borage by a very large margin.

2 for 1, or 1 for 2?
That Christmas, we introduced for the first time Two for the price of one. However, instead of the current single 20ml bottle, we supplied two 10ml bottles which, perhaps, some would still prefer, but postage and labour costs dictate otherwise. Still, it did force us later to introduce a wooden box to accommodate 20ml bottles.

An irreplaceable journal.
The following Easter, the inimitable Aromatherapy Quarterly celebrated its 10th birthday. As one who had subscribed to the original photocopied sheets and had had his advert rejected for being too avant-garde, I was genuinely delighted that this whimsical journal had survived so long. Sadly, it is no longer extant and, to my mind, nothing has replaced it.

New Zealand hopefuls.
It was about this time that I was introduced first to essential oils from New Zealand. Home to the kiwi and tuatara (a Jurassic age reptile), this island group in the Pacific was bound to have something interesting midst its flora.

A bottle of Kanuka (Kunzea ericoides J. Thompson), safely encased in an old malt whisky container, was hand-delivered with a note from the growers and distillers suggesting that a few drops in a hot bath would be most refreshing. I gave it a go. Certainly, the aroma evoked past memories of the ‘bush’, but it was not as harsh as Tea Tree and Eucalyptus. Still, it’s use was little different to that of Tea Tree, and its greater cost tended to restrict its wider use in aromatherapy. Manuka (Leptospermun scoparium Forster & Forster) was more interesting as the oil contained an unusual cyclic tetraketone, leptospermone, which had strong inhibiting, antibiotic posibilities. Later research revealed that leptospermone induced vasodilating and thus stimulated blood circulation. Also, on its pathway to the tissues, it engulfs and dissolves fatty deposits as well as engulfing and suffocating spores and bacteria. Was this perhaps why Manuka Honey had been approved recently in Germany for the treatment of ulcers caused by helicobacterium?

Raising the alarm!
I first became aware of MRSA, which was currently sweeping through the southeast of the country, in early March 1995. First identified in 1981, it had already killed more than 100 people in Britain. Even so, it was still seen by doctors as the price of modern medicine, which had rendered standard antibiotics useless against such infection. I wondered if Manuka could help, as leptospermone is strongly adhesive to skin tissue thereby forming unique scattered coatings when precipitated on the skin, deferring the growth of invading bacteria and fungi, and prepared an information file which I sent off with a sample of East Cape Manuka to Dr. Lindsey Bain, Director of Pathology at Southend Hospital.

I also hastily wrote an article, ‘MRSA, Manuka and Modern Medicine’, that was quite widely published. However, I was alerted by a number of authorities, most helpfully and definitively by the Clinical Specialist at the James Paget Hospital in Norfolk, to some confusions in the article, culled, as it was, from the documents I had received from New Zealand on Manuka, and a number of pieces in the national press on growing problems of MRSA. Most notably, I had referred to MRSA as a virus, when in fact it is a gram-positive bacterium. This error very much confused the issue of specialised antimicrobial efficacy, the area in which I was so keen to promote Manuka, and may well have alienated some of those experts within the clinical departments, whose evaluation and support I was so concerned to solicit. A mis-spelling of ‘Methicillin’ in the first paragraph also did not help in this regard. Still, errors apart, it did heighten awareness of the problem and, more than a decade later, it is lamentable that more has not been done since. 

Consistent Citricidal.
Of all the Third Party Products that we have stocked from time to time over the years, it is Citricidal that has probably sold as well as any. According to leading American chiropractor Allan Sachs, “Studies from a list of prestigious institutes have demonstrated grapefruit seed extract to be effective against over twenty disease-causing bacteria, more than thirty fungi, and a host of single cell parasites.”

Discovered by Dr. Harich, a doctor and Einstein Laureate physicist, grapefruit seed extract had already impressed many. Dr. Louis Parish, an investigator for the U.S. Department of Health and the FDA, who had treated many people with intestinal problems, believed that it “gives more symptomatic relief than any other treatment.”

Dr. Leo Galland who had been prescribing grapefruit seed extract to his New York patients for over seven years confirmed its efficacy in treating chronic candidiasis, calling it “a major breakthrough for patients with chronic parasitic and yeast infections.”

However, what influenced me most to stock it thirteen years ago was news that the Pasteur Institute hospital in Nairobi had been using it orally with HIV patients for over two years and reported dramatic results with secondary infections, including parasitic infections and thrush. Really exciting, and all because Dr. Harich noticed that when he threw grapefruit seeds on his compost heap they didn’t rot!

A regular favourite.
Thinking back over the years, a carrier oil that I have tried to push harder than any other is Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.), but it rarely seems to sell except on special offer! I have always found this rather disappointing, but understandable all the same because the cost is unrealistically high. Even a trip to ‘Beautiful British Columbia’ to look at Prairie Canada’s contribution to the growing programme failed to elicit a decrease. Nonetheless, my enthusiasm for the oil remains unabated and only last year I purchased from India two large volumes of research on this fascinating plant.

I can still remember my excitement when I was sent from Beijing English translations of Chinese research, as I had never appreciated that Sea Buckthorn had been used by human beings for at least twelve centuries. It was first recorded in the Tibetan medicinal classics, ‘The rGyud bzi’ (the Four Books of Pharmacopoeia), completed during the Tang Dynasty (618-907AD), which contrasts rather starkly with Mrs. Grieves’s rather dismissive comments in her Modern Hertbal of 1931. Of course, Tibet was closed to the outside world for many years and it is unlikely that Mrs Grieve knew then what I know now.

Until I read the research, I had never realised that the vitamin content of Sea Buckthorn is much higher than any other fruit or vegetable: e.g. the Vitamin C content is 3-16 times more than that of Kiwi Fruit (Actinidia sinensis). Furthermore, b-carotene and Vitamin E contents are much higher than those of other nutrient oils.

More than one hundred active elements have been identified in various parts of the plant. Based on its nutrients, many medical studies, testing its effect on the skin, showed that Sea Buckthorn extracts could effectively improve the micro-circulation of blood capillaries and nourish skin and hair. Clinical experiments also demonstrated that cosmetics containing Sea Buckthorn extracts can improve metabolism and retard skin maturation. In haircare, it had the effect of retarding baldness and improving hair growth.

The fact that numerous scientists from around the world have managed to compile two vast books on this versatile plant surely demonstrates that it warrants more serious consideration by aromatherapists, despite the cost. I live in hope!

Long-forgotten facts.
My word, I must be going quietly mad because I have just caught myself reading idly through our Price List. In truth, I was trying to recollect what prompted me originally to stock certain oils. Suddenly, it all came back to me. Magazines and journals are responsible for many new additions to our list. I dread to think how many times I have been persuaded to stock some odd oil simply because it was recommended in a magazine!

Prompted by an article in the November 1995 edition of Here’s Health, I received several requests for Flouve Oil (Anthoxanthum odoratum L.), or Sweet Vernal Grass. Apart from sending me scampering for the reference books, it elicited an immediate subscription to the magazine! The article raised some interesting points, which are probably now long-forgotten.

“Flouve Oil - a rare essential oil derived from Sweet Vernal Grass - could play an important role in the treatment of cancer and diseases of the immune system, a recent study has found. Although the oil has not been widely used since the 1950s, when tests showed that one of its constituents - coumarin - caused liver damage in mice, further trials have shown that it is not only safe for humans, but also acts as a strong immune system stimulant. In recent trials on hospital patients in Ireland, coumarin was found to reduce tumours in cancer of the breast, skin and kidneys, and to boost the immune systems of patients with glandular fever and CFS. Robert Tisserand commented: Coumarin is particularly interesting because it boosts the immune system. The drugs currently used to treat cancer are immune-depressant. While aromatherapists don’t generally treat cancer, we do see many immune disorders. Flouve Oil certainly has potential for these. Though Flouve Oil is quite rare, it could provide therapists with a valuable tool against diseases such as chronic fatigue syndrome.”

“Quite rare” proved an understatement; it took me several weeks to locate a source of supply, and then it had to be distilled specially to our order.

Flouve has traditionally been used for the treatment of hay fever, internally as a tincture and as a nasal lotion. The herbal drug is obtained by passing hay through several sieves to get rid of the larger stem fragments, and then dust, sand, and soil are removed until finally a product consisting predominantly of flower parts is left. In folk medicine, it seems that the drug is used exclusively in the preparation of baths to alleviate rheumatic pain, lumbago, and, of all things, chilblains. It has also been used in neurasthenia (an anxiety neurosis associated with chest pains, faintness, palpitation, and extreme fatigue).

Needless to say, when the oil finally arrived, many were put off by the price. C’est la vie!

Dealing with complaints.
When I was working in the office, I always got quite upset by complaints and, although I was not so naive as to think that everything would run smoothly all the time (far from it, in fact), I always took them most seriously. But what really got me going was when the veracity of an oil was challenged. Of course it was all very childish because, with the best will in the world, we were as vulnerable to the odd “duff” oil as any other. In the majority of cases, the problem was quickly resolved by submitting the offending oil to independent analysis.

However, the complaint with which I found it most difficult to deal was the...It doesn’t smell quite right...or...It doesn’t work for me. Invariably, in these cases, I was sitting with detailed analyses, confirming the oil’s veracity, in front of me. We would pass it around the office for organoleptic assessment. All OK! I would telephone the customer to enquire what exactly was wrong with the oil. I don’t know: it just isn’t right was the usual reply. I was flummoxed. I would offer to take the oil back, and that was usually the end of the matter. Meanwhile, I would continue to smoulder whilst Jan told me to forget about it. I found it all most difficult!

Aesthetic judgments.
There was one complaint that probably I shall not easily forget. From a physicist at Princeton University in the United States (although I did not know that at the time), it sent me ballistic, until I began to investigate more deeply individual, aesthetic judgments. Bluntly, he asserted that our Indian Jasmin was an “obvious fake”. The smell was simply not natural.

Of all the oils that he could have mistaklenly chosen for criticism, Jasmin was a particularly unfortunate one because, unbeknown to him, I had submitted this particular batch to the ICI Research and Technology Department for GC/MS and Source Scan Analysis. As a result, I was sitting with more than twenty pages of analysis in front of me. Furthermore I knew the producer of our Jasmin Absolute very well, the location of the plants in south India, and the processing facilities. I refused to believe that the oil could be a “fake”, and responded with more gusto than usual!

Let us say that the skirmish over the relative merits of chemical analyses was a draw. As my American correspondent succinctly put it...Since we cannot get any conclusion this way, how about we discuss a little about the aesthetics of smell...you should pay more attention to the aesthetics of smell, not just the chemical analysis, for the good of your business...I’d like you to be even more successful.

Never one to cast aside advice, I looked out a paper by H.J. Eysenck of the Institute of Psychiatry, The Psychology of Personality and Aesthetics. Eysenck set out to prove scientifically that to some extent at least aesthetic values are objective. He suggested that there are two main usages of the term “objective”. Provisionally, these two usages may be designated as “qualitative” and “relativistic”. The former of these two terms refers to the question of whether or not the perception of beauty is purely mental, or whether it is somewhat dependent on the object: the latter refers to the question of the general validity of aesthetic judgments.

It has generally been found that correlations between people’s judgment of their preferences for certain odours over others were much higher than similar correlations in the field of visual aesthetics, or musical works. This is presumably due to the fact that odorous stimuli can have positive as well as negative effects, with the latter often stronger than the former. However, although the literature on the subject is contradictory, personality may play a role in fragrance preference.

It is suggested that extroverts produce lower cortical arousal from incoming stimulation than introverts, and this results in them looking for, and preferring, strongly arousing stimuli, whereas introverts look for, and prefer, less arousing stimuli: this enables both extroverts and introverts to arrive at a medium degree of cortical arousal. There is considerable experimental psychological and physiologigal evidence to support such a view.

However, on balance, studies are suggestive rather than conclusive. When positive they tend to bear out predictions based on well-grounded theories, but the well-known difficulties of doing research with olfactory stimuli complicate the issue (e.g. purity of stimuli, individual variations, habituation, specific anosmas, learning, etc.). Different choices of stimuli and differential decisions concerning strengths of stimuli further complicate the picture, as does the choice of different measures of personality. It is likely that in due course we shall arrive at a coherent conception of the complex relationship of olfactory stimuli and personality, but this is an aim not yet achieved. 

Needless to say this new-found knowledge reduced my blood pressure and henceforth I never bothered to query another’s aesthetic judgment, until the other day.

I have often thought that before moving house it would be no bad idea to do a local search on the future neighbours, but have never done such a thing. Now, I wish that I had! Arriving at our new abode, I was promptly greeted by our next door neighbour. Is there something wrong with your exhaust?, he angrily enquired. No, it always sounds like this, I meekly replied. Well, it’s a bloody racket! Not a good omen!

charles@essentiallyoils.com

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