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199!! Good heavens, I have been writing the Newsletter for almost 17 years. It seems only yesterday that 100 clicked by so quickly that I forgot completely about it and, in fact, did not start numbering
them until 2 or 3 months later, because I wanted to remind myself to stop at 150. However at 150, I merely commented that had anyone told me back in 1991 that I would still be writing the Newsletter in September 2004 I would
have bet heavily against it, and carried on scribbling. I dread to imagine how many words I’ve written, and what about.
When I started, aromatherapy was still in its comparative infancy and there was a paucity of books
on the subject, whereas today there are many excellent volumes and journals on every aspect of the therapy, and access to the internet is only a click away. With the arrival of the worldwide web I was sorely tempted to give up
the newsletter for fear of outstaying my welcome, but many generously encouraged me to keep on going because they welcomed the monthly missive through the letter box. At one time, we were mailing out almost 20,000 newsletters
each month all around the globe! But things move on.
As I believe that most of you now have access to the internet, and do not wish me to waste paper needlessly, I’m going to direct mail the newsletter only to those who
have ordered within the past six months, and stop mailing it overseas altogether as it has become too costly. Of course, it will still be available for all to view on our website, as are all my past newsletters.
Nevertheless, should there be any like me who will always prefer a ‘hard copy’ to file away, just ask even if you haven’t ordered for years, as I know there are some who relish the monthly update although they gave up
practising years ago. After all, we go back a long way.
For those who are only really interested in the SPECIAL OFFERS, these will also be available on our website and, if you do not have access to the internet, from the
office on request.
And so if No. 200 doesn’t drop on your mat next month you will now know why. Of course, this decision is not written in stone, but it is our attempt to save a few trees and cut some needless costs.
Changing Times?
Meanwhile, I have just stumbled across a copy of our January 1993 Price List. How things have changed! Fifteen years ago, postage charges were levied at 5% of invoice value, before VAT, and you only
avoided the cost altogether if you ordered more than £150! That was a lot of money back then. We stocked only 19 vegetable oils and 100ml of Evening Primrose would have set you back £9 and 100ml of Rosehip £10, but one litre of
Sweet Almond cost only £6.50. The benchmark prices of 10ml Lavender French and 10ml Tea Tree were £2.50 and £2.00 respectively. 5ml of Neroli was a tempting £25 and Rose Otto was a virtual giveaway at £35 for 5ml! Lavender and
Chamomile Roman hydrosols, however, were quite expensive at £12 for a litre.
Still, fifteen years ago, professional and student therapists were entitled to a 20% discount on proof of status. But we only offered them
carriers in 100ml, essential oils in 10ml, and exotics and absolutes in 5ml. There was no provision whatsoever for smaller or larger sizes. However, soon it was apparent that there were many who wished to on-sell to their
friends. We introduced a range of sizes and special offers, and did away with the 20% discount and postage charge with the result that today, including VAT and bottle costs, 10 friends can enjoy 10ml of tea tree each for less
than 80p. Almost a third of what it would have cost for a single 10ml bottle fifteen years ago! Of course, not everyone chooses to take advantage of 100ml of tea tree on special offer, but the opportunity is always there!
Something to ponder.
Medical Herbalist Schia Mitchell raises an interesting question or two. A fellow herbalist recently recommended the use of Laurus nobilis L. (Bay
Laurel) hydrosol for post-operative adhesions and commented that she had great success using it for post-caesarean adhesions. Schia wonders if I have come across anything like this before and if I have any information on its
use in this context (apparently the herbalist heard about this use from an aromatherapist). Schia also wonders whether, given its success for post-caesarean adhesions, it can be used while lactating. Frankly, I have never come
across this before, and don’t know.
As I do not think that we have ever stocked Laurel Leaf hydrosol [I shall call it this so that it is not confused with Cherry Laurel or Common Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus L.), which
is highly poisonous, or West Indian Bay (Pimenta racemosa (Mill.) J.W. Moore)] my knowledge is very limited, but it is reputed to be analgesic, antibacterial, antiinfectious, antiseptic, antispasmodic, circulatory stimulant,
digestive, immunostimulant, toning, and uplifting.
It has been recommended as an intestinal antiseptic, digestive, and an antispasmodic [Viaud, H. 1983. Huiles essentielles - hydrolats] and Franchomme & Penoel write
that the hydrosol is antiinfectious and analgesic, excellent in a compress for varicose ulcers [L’aromatherapie exactement. 1990]. SuzanneCatty has found it stimulates the lymph and circulation and is a broad-acting antiseptic
and bactericide; it tones the intestines and may relieve gas; it is an excellent tonic and immune booster and is suitable as a mouthwash and gargle for infections and dental hygiene [Hydrosols: the next aromatherapy. 2001].
A few years earlier, at the Pacific Institue of Aromatherapy Conference in 1998, Catty reported that in over two dozen cases of long-term palpable swollen lymph nodes in breast tissue Laurus nobilis hydrosol had effected a
complete disappearance of the swelling and tenderness within five days by dilute internal use. This is most interesting, and new to me.
She went on to say that given before and after vaccinations the hydrosol acts
prophylactically to prevent many of the associated side effects and helps the body deal with the vaccination process, of which I was unaware as well. I must read more!
I am indebted to Understanding Hydrolats: The
Specific Hydrosols for Aromatherapy for this insight, but could find no reference to its use for post-caesarean adhesions.
Perhaps I am not looking hard enough and the answer lies in the past, because about 2000BC
Babylonian writings described the use of such herbs as laurel, with methods of preparation and use for herbal cures. Certainly laurel was sacred to Aesculapius, the god of medicine, and the Romans had much faith in their
gods. Perhaps a decoction of laurel leaf was applied to the mother of Julius Caesar, which would explain a lot, as the great emperor was supposedly delivered by Caesarean section; hence the operation’s name.
Just a little lateral thinking on my part, but you never know! What do you think?
Schia also asked for advice about the use of oils while breast feeding. I think it would be wise not to apply any essential oils directly
to the breasts, especially the nipples, unless absolutely necessary. Am I being too cautious?
A vastly improved book.
For far too long I have been bewailing the paucity of information about Carrier Oils, particularly
the newer vegetable oils that have appeared on the market over the years. After all, I am sure that all use far more fixed oil than volatile oil.
For years I depended upon Liz Earle’s pioneering Vital Oils, and then
along came Len Price’s Carrier Oils For Aromatherapy And Massage to light the way. Extremely helpful though it was, there were still some glaring gaps in its contents. At the time, rare and unknown carrier oils were winging in
from across the globe and it was no doubt as difficult for Len to garner any meaningful information about them as it was for me, and yet this is what therapists understandably demanded if they were going to try them.
I
spent a small fortune on scientific volumes about Sea buckthorn, Argan, Neem, Marula, and others, and endeavoured to disseminate odd scraps of information through the newsletter, but it was barely enough. Therapists wanted it
all in a single, user-friendly, volume. Well, Len has come close to providing just that!
Now in a brand new Fourth Edition, his book has been carefully updated, considerably expanded and newly presented. Running to more
than 320 pages, it is still usefully divided into clear, easy-to-use sections, but each now contains far more information. There are 60 fixed and macerated oils discussed in detail, including some more unusual ones, with useful
tables, a glossary, a cross-reference chart of common ailments, a discussion of essential fatty acids and their impact on bodily health, and other useful appendices. Also, for the first time, there is a wide selection of
genuinely appetizing culinary recipes (I’ve tried some already!) created to combine the therapeutic value of the carrier oils with flavourful, simple-to-prepare healthy meals. Go for the trout tartare with avocado!
A
little surprisingly perhaps, there are still several oils which appear often in suppliers’ lists that are not discussed. I can only imagine Len is leaving them for the Fifth Edition. That said, this really is an excellent
reference book and, in my opinion, anyone interested in increasing their knowledge of carrier oils should not be without it. Bravo Len!
For inclusion in the Fifth Edition!
Although Len considers
the merits of Mango Seed (Mangifera indica L.) and Pistachio (Pistacio spp.) oils in his book, he omits another member of the Anacardiaceae, Marula (Sclerocarya birrea (A. Rich.) Hochst. ssp.caffra (Sonder) Kokwaro), which,
unlike mango seed and pistachio, we DO stock! However, perhaps because of cost, it is not the greatest seller. All the same, it is worth consideration.
Dr. Lucy Welford, who is marketing and communications manager at
PhytoTrade Africa and has been working in community-based natural resource management in southern Africa for 16 years, wrote recently in HerbalGram....For generations, marula oil has been of great social and cultural importance
for rural people living throughout southern Africa. With numerous local traditional uses, it is venerated throughout the region for its nutritional, medicinal, social, and spiritual significance. As the archetypal African “Tree
of Life”, the marula tree is protected throughout its distribution as one of the most important wild indigenous African fruit trees.”
Marula trees are noted for their staggering fruit and nut yields. In heavy fruiting
seasons, a single tree can produce between 21,000 and 91,000 fruits, making them very easy to harvest. As I have mentioned before, the prolific nature of the marula tree has not only been noted by humans, but also by elephants
that travel considerable distances to gorge on the fruits, invariably getting quite drunk! The juice from the pulp surrounding the seed is used in making traditional beers and wine and a commercial liqueur Amarula.
Importantly, the fruit harvest occurs between January and March at the beginning of the school year, providing cash income for the payment of school fees and clothing.
The extremely hard seeds of the marula tree are
difficult to crack without crushing the kernel, and specially designed small implements are used to open the opercula or “eyelets” in the seeds to pry the kernels out. The oil and protein-rich kernels are processed by women for
both domestic use and sale. The kernels are so full of oil that a squeeze with the hand can release a rich yield. The oil is traditionally prepared by squeezing it from the kernel in a mortar and pestle or by crushing the
marula seeds and kernels in boiling water so that the released oil floats to the top of the water and can be skimmed off.
The oily kernels are eaten as nuts, fresh or roasted, or flattened to make a cake which can be
eaten on its own. They have a delicious flavour and are regarded by many indigenous people as the “Food of Kings” because of the hard work required to obtain even a small quantity of kernels from the hard seeds.
Marula
oil is also considered a luxury food and is added to a wide variety of traditional and modern dishes. It is a key ingredient to add a rich nutty flavour and a smooth buttery texture to foods. It is also used as a cooking oil
and salad dressing. The oil has also been reported to have preservative properties.
There are two basic types of marula oil: heated and raw. Raw marula oil is less commonly used as local people say it only stays fresh
for a short time before becoming rancid. Heat-treated oil, usually with salt added, is the most commonly used marula oil and is preferred because of the better taste and its ability to be stored for use throughout the year
without going rancid.
Marula oil is reputed to have medicinal properties, and is used as a balm to treat ear, eye, and nose problems, especially in children. It can be used also to treat coughs, diarrhoea, and wounds when
applied topically. As an emollient, it is used by rural people throughout southern Africa to treat cracked, dry, or damaged skin, and as a beauty treatment.
The oil contains a large proportion of mono-unsaturated fatty
acids and natural antioxidants. It can be classified as a high-oleic (70-80%) acid with relatively low tocopherol content. The stability of the oil therefore is attributed to its particular fatty acid composition.
In
addition to oleic acid, it contains the unsaturated fatty acids palmitoleic (<0.2%), linoleic (4.0-9.0%), linolenic (<0.7%) and eicosenoic (0.5%), and the saturated fatty acids myristic (<0.2%), palmitic (9.0-13.0%),
stearic (4.0-8.0%), and arachidic (<1.0%). However, recent studies have suggested that some of the minor components in the oil, such as sterols, may contribute to this important antioxidant property. Marula oil contains a
similar fatty acid composition to Olive oil (Olea europaea L.) and may be as stable to oxidation, which could explain its use as a traditional food preservative.
Marula oil is easily absorbed, making the oil potentially
useful for topical application. It has been shown to improve skin hydration and smoothness, and reduce redness [Gruenwald, J. Anti-ageing nutraceuticals. Food Science and Technology 2006; 20(3): 50-51]. Preliminary tests to
find out the commercial potential of marula oil as an ingredient in cosmetic formulations have been successfully carried out. In vitro tests included skin hydration, transepidermal water loss, and “increase in skin smooth- ness
with marula oil performing significantly well.” [Aldivia Specification Sheets: Marula Oil-Virgin (fact sheet)].
PhytoTrade Africais a non-profit entity dedicated to the development of a viable and enduring natural
products industry in southern Africa, based on resources accessible to poor rural communities.
With over fifty member organizations in eight countries, its objective is to deliver large volumes of sustainably-harvested
natural products, thus providing many small-scale rural producers with access to markets and an equitable livelihood alternative.
Since 2003, PhytoTrade Africa has been working in partnership with Aldivia, a specialist
French lipids company that produces innovative natural and organic cosmetic ingredients and derivatives. Both parties share the belief that together they can make a difference to the lives of people in Africa and their
environment.
Now that you know a little more about marula how about giving it a try, if only to drizzle it on to meat before it is air-dried for storage as biltong for the long winter months ahead. It could be a way to
ease the cost of living! Joking apart, jerky’s not bad, if you like that kind of thing. I used to chew on it for hours when I was stuck in Idaho years ago, as it was frowned on to smoke tobacco. It was an arduous time!
Prairie medicine.
I’ve just come back from a holiday in the States. What is prairie wild rose, and for what did the American Indians use it? e-mailed Geraldine Nees. To be honest this question left me a little nonplussed, as
very similar rose species are known to hybridize, and there is very little evidence that these were identified by the Indians. In other words, I have not an idea to which particular species Geraldine might be referring!
Consider for a moment some tribal names for the wild rose of the prairie. The Dakota name is onzhin-zhintka(rose bush), the Omaha and Ponca name is wazhide (?) and the Pawnee is pahatu(red). The Arapaho call Rosa woodsii ya-no
(?), and the Cheyenne name for the rose hip of Rosa woodsii is hih’nin(to pour out), referring to pouring out grain, flour, or water. This is also their name for the tomato. Interestingly, the Blackfeet also implicate the
tomato. Their names for Rosa acicularis are kine (rose berries) and apis-is-kitsa-wa (tomato flower). None seems to know the reason for these comparisons to the introduced tomato, although the hips when ripe might vaguely
resemble small tomatoes. The Mesquakie names for Rosa blanda are sipitia’mini (berry) and kishipi’iminaki (to itch like haemorrhoids), which defies all logic! Whatever, the wild rose was widely used by the Indians as a medicine
and, in some cases, as an emergency food as well.
The Omahas steeped the roots of Rosa arkansana to make a wash to treat inflammation of the eyes, and the Chippewas made a tea from it and used the berries for food. They
also used the inner bark of the roots of various wild roses and the raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) to treat cataracts.
The wild rose was a well-known medicine of the Cheyennes. They boiled the inner bark or root of Rosa
woodsii to make a tea that was valued for treating diarrhoea and stomach trouble.
To make an eyewash for treating snow blindness, the Cheyennes and Flatheads boiled the petals, stem bark, or root bark of roses (Rosa
spp.), and the Crows boiled the crushed roots to make a hot compress that was used to reduce swellings. They also sniffed the vapour from this brew for nosebleed, drank it to stop bleeding in the mouth, and gargled and drunk
some of it to treat tonsilitis and sore throat.
The Arapahos made a beverage tea from the bark of Rosa woodsii and used the seeds “to produce a drawing effect for muscular pains”. The Blackfeet made a drink from the root
of Rosa acicularis for children with diarrhoea, and the Mesquakies ate the skin of the hip of Rosa blanda for stomach trouble. They also boiled the whole fruits to make a syrup that was used to relieve itching on the body, but
especially for haemorrhoids.
Kishipi’iminaki isn’t so illogical after all!
Without Kelly Kindscher’s superb ethnobotanical guide, Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie, I would not have had a clue where to start!
[ISBN: 0-7006-0527-4. University Press of Kansas]
“Fever Tree”.
Why do they call the Blue Gum the “fever tree”, I was asked recently by Penelope Stevens.
Blue Gum (Eucalyptus globulus Labill.) is not the only
species known as the “fever tree”. For example, Acacia xanthophloea Benth., which grows in Kenya’s Rift Valley, Georgia bark tree (Pinckneya bracteata (Bartram) Raf., which was used against malaria during the American Civil
War, and the South African Zanthoxylum capense (Thunb.) Harvey all share the reputation, but Blue Gum undoubtedly has more hype behind it than the others.
Millions of blue gums were planted worldwide to subdue malarial
vapours. This native of Australia, known in Europe as the “fever tree”, became one of the world’s most widely planted trees.
Nineteenth-century doctors in Europe believed that the aromatic oils of pine trees exerted a
disinfectant effect on their environs. A Frenchman, Prosper Ramel, visiting Australia in 1854, proposed a similar function for the eucalypts, and encouraged plantings in southern Europe and north Africa. The trees seemed to
clear away malaria, and further plantings followed. Plantations set up by Trappist monks in the Pontine Marshes outside Rome were credited with spectacular success against the disease.
A testimonial from C.T. Kingzett in 1888 was typical of the times:
“Between Nice and Monaco there existed, until recently, such a very unhealthy district, that the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean Railway were compelled
to change their watchmen who did service at a crossing in the neighbourhood, every few months.
Some time since, however, a plantation of Eucalyptus globulus was made there, and now there is said to be no more fever; and
the necessity therefore for perpetual change of watchmen (to protect them from death) is abolished.”
Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, who was appointed the first Government botanist of Victoria in 1853 and is credited with
convincing Melbourne pharmacist Joseph Bosisto to build the first eucalyptus distillation plant near Dandenong on the outskirts of Melbourne in 1854, ascribed the cleansing power of eucalypts to four special features:
Thecopious absorption of humidity from the soil; the corresponding power of exhalation of the leaves; the highly antiseptic aromatic oil in the leaves; and the disinfecting action of the dropping foliage on decaying organic
matter in the soil.
Australia’s near-freedom from malaria was attributed to these wonderful trees. In an 1874 article entitled, Is the Eucalyptus a Fever-destroying Tree?, Dr. Bosisto concluded that “the whole atmosphere
of Australia is more or less affected by the perpetual exhalation of these volatile bodies.”
Baron von Mueller was all for building sanitoriums to benefit from these vapours and other learned gentlemen, such as Dr. A.B.
Stroud, proposed the planting of eucalypts in gardens “to sanify the atmosphere from those emanations which give rise to epidemic diseases.” Joseph Maiden, author of The useful native plants of Australia, including Tasmania,
lamented that when forests were cleared for housing estates, “the idea of leaving say one Eucalypt to each allotment for the purpose of dessicating the ground seems never to be thought of.”
Eucalypt oils have no effect
on malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes, and it is a wonder that so many eminent men could get it all so wrong. The blue gum is a very fast-growing tree, and its water-hungry roots helped drain the swamps where malarial
mosquitoes bred. This alone was apparently the key to its success.
A few nineteenth-century doctors did question the merits of this tree, but their objections were loudly overruled. [Low, T. 1990. Bush Medicine: a
pharmacopoeia of natural remedies. ISBN: 0-207-16462-2]
The Australians have always been great marketers!
Finally.....
Makeyourownjeans.com specializes in making cutomized jeans to meet
each customers ‘personal needs’. But now the online retailer has gone one step further by ensuring that a customer’s wellbeing needs can be met. Ayurvedic jeans! Or rather, certified organic jeans that have been dyed in
ayurvedic medicinal herbs. According to Makeyourownjeans.com, the “ayurvedic-treated fabrics expose these medicinal herbs to the body through the skin”.
However, there is no mention of whether any human intervention
studies have been carried out on the efficacy of herbal jeans or whether they will require a licence under the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive come 2011.
Whatever, an interesting little challenge for the
borderline section of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency! [Natural Products, September, 2008. www.naturalproductsonline.co.uk]