Years ago I was an avid television viewer but, as the years passed, I found other activities to occupy my time. However, quite recently, I have taken to switching on the 'dreaded addiction' from time to time.

The programmes and characters on the main channels seem to have changed little over the years, but I am often pleasantly surprised to see actors I thought long dead popping up in Midsomer. Nevertheless, although many of the faces are familiar their roles are less so. TV gardeners seem to have cast aside their spades in favour of commenting on everything but gardening, which can be a mite confusing when I have tuned in specifically for advice on early potatoes, and I'm never quite sure what to expect from Fiona Bruce as she flits elegantly from the news to antiques roadshow as though both are much the same. Of course for some the role never changes, as the estimable Delia Smith embarks on a fourth decade of introducing us to the delights of Yorkshire pudding and  the like.

Eschewing Dancing this, Skating that and Talent the other, there really is little new to view. No wonder the PC is preferred to the 'box' in many homes, but even that is becoming old hat according to Dan Rossner of PA Consulting who argues that the arithmetic underpinning the growth of the mobile phone market is compelling: "High-speed connectivity and improved user experience has accelerated mobile internet take-up and the ubiquity of the mobile device will make it the dominant connected platform," he says. "Globally, the number of mobile devices exceeds desktop devices by a factor of 10."

When Apple Computer launched the iPhone 3G in 2008, it introduced a new option on its iTunes menu: the App Store. This is a collection of software programs or applications (pieces of software that help users perform specific tasks) that can be downloaded to, and run on, a "smart" phone or other mobile device. Unfortunately, whilst the phone might be "smart" I am not so sure that I am smart enough to operate it but, if I was, the range of functions available from the App Store is bewildering: cooks can carry a library of recipes in their pockets; birdwatchers, the identifying features of every feathered creature they are likely to encounter. Good heavens! Such functions could obviate the need for watching television for some.

Only the other evening an elderly gentleman was telling me how he depended on Delia Smith to tell him how to prepare and cook his supper and TV nature pundits to identify visitors to his bird table. As we chatted, I mentioned that our son Justin is always encouraging me to embrace the future and to stop dwelling in the past, which really got the old boy going.

That's all very well, he said, but before even considering the future just tell him what you have had to survive already to get this far in life. When you were born, you were probably put in a cot with woodwork covered in bright lead-based paints which you sucked. You didn't wear a helmet when riding a bike and were never strapped into a car seat. If you were thirsty you always drank water from the  tap, not from a sealed bottle. Even though all the shops closed by 6.00pm, and didn't open on weekends, I doubt your parents starved you to death. You ate sweets, chocolate, newly baked buns with lots of butter, drank soft drinks with sugar in them, but didn't get obese because you were always outside running around.

If you fell out of a tree, got cut, broke bones and teeth, there weren't lawsuits. The idea of being bailed out by your parents if you broke the law was unheard of; they actually sided with the law! We didn't have Playstations, Nintendo Wii, X boxes, video games, 999 channels on SKY, video/dvd films, mobile phones, personal computers, internet or internet chat rooms. Instead we met people, had friends with whom we shared interests, activities and adventures. Even books. TV was change enough for me, and I'm sticking with it!

He has a point, albeit one with which I doubt Justin would agree!
The CNHC debate.
Prompted by your comments in last month's newsletter [Number 215], I am a qualified Masseuse, Aromatherapist, Reflexologist, Reiki Master/Teacher and Hypnotherapist and, having been a member of FHT for ten years, I had to let you know immediately about my opinion of CNHC [The Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council], e-mailed Sheila Nickolay-White.

Sheila draws my attention to the fact that a lot of complementary therapists are self-employed, providing a very beneficial service for which they don't get a huge income. They have to be insured, they need to keep up with their CPD points which involves paying out for courses each year, and most of them are members of either the FHT or some other organization, which again costs. She opines that this is the reason why only about 2,000 therapists have joined the CNHC, and thinks it just another way to bully therapists into joining [CNHC] for fear of being deemed a danger to the public.

An interesting opinion: no sooner had I begun to mull it over than an e-mail winged in from old friend and mentor Victoria Plum.....

"The CNHC (which one colleague has rather succinctly described as 'a quango', with all the load the word implies with regard to excessive bureaucracy and obfuscation) 'went live' to massage practitioners and nutritionists in Jan. 2009, with other therapies being able to join in stages. The staggered joining was in part due to the CNHC reputedly not wanting to be overwhelmed by the 1000's of practitioners who would be rushing to join the organization. As it turns out, practitioners seem to be voting with their feet about the CNHC (which currently is a voluntary regulator) and expressing their doubts about this organization by NOT joining it.

This is a very personal view, and merely puts forward a reason why THIS practitioner has not chosen to join until/unless it becomes mandatory and/or the organizations I work for as a therapist force me to join because the CNHC strong-arms them into thinking that it is only disreputable practitioners who are not members, only because they CAN'T join.

There is a tendency to interpret WON'T join with CAN'T join, denying the fact that many practitioners WON'T join when they easily could.

Initially, I was strongly in favour of voluntary regulation, via the federal route, as proposed by Professor Julie Stone. There were discussions which took place over several years, with goodwill expressed by many practitioners and professional associations who were in theory in favour of a prototype CNHC organization. However at varying points these relationships soured. Despite
the fact that the process proposed by Stone was supposed to proceed fairly slowly in its initial set-up, to produce structures which would not only clearly protect the public but also have strong input from practitioners and educators within each discipline, things began to become increasingly tick-boxy, rigid, bureaucratic and inflexible – and rushed.

Registers were opening when many questions remained unanswered. The active role of the individual professions to set standards etcetera began to diminish. A 'rival' organization without government funding - The General Regulatory Council for Complementary Therapies [GRCCT] – came into being, and that organization very quickly certainly seemed to be much more effective at persuading practitioners to voluntarily regulate with them – reflexologists particularly seemed to be voting with their feet and going GRCCT rather than CNHC.

GRCCT was set up by those who were initially part of the 'early goodwill' actively engaged in discussion, but who then withdrew from CNHC precisely because they were opposed to CNHC, not because they were opposed to the 'proto federal regulatory idea'.

CNHC has government funding only till 2011. I believe the government funding date of 2011 is already an extension date, as it was clear practitioners weren't joining in the numbers needed for self-financing. The GRCCT, incidentally, has many more members. If CNHC is not financially viable, it will fail. It is engaged on some quite aggressive marketing techniques to try and encourage (force?) practitioners to join.

I'm in an interesting position whereby one of my professional associations, IFPA [The International Federation of Professional Aromatherapists], are informing us as therapists that we CAN join but there has not been the sort of open grass roots consultation process about what the membership wants on this as there has been with my other professional association, the CSTA [The Cranio Sacral Therapy Association]. Significantly, it is my membership of this organization that has made me increasingly wary of the CNHC.

We had an open debate about this, both in our journal and at local roadshows and network group meetings, over the course of a year or so. Then we invited speakers representing the various pro and anti options (including the co-chair of the CNHC and the Chair of our own 'umbrella' Forum) to speak at our AGM. There was a ballot at the AGM and we decided to ballot the entire membership.
In some ways it has been a difficult and polarizing debate – we ended up with a very informed membership some of whom are pro CNHC, some profoundly anti external regulation in the CNHC form, but want to pursue other routes for external regulation, or to find a way to approach self-regulation so that it distances the professional associations' 'protecting the profession' interests from the schools' accreditation and disciplinary procedures which protect the public.

Although I'm probably labouring the point a bit, one of the big worries to me and indicators to me that the CNHC has some deep confusions within itself is the appointment of known anti-CAM 'public voice' David Colquhoun to the Conduct and Competence Committee (i.e. complaints against practitioners). Colquhoun profoundly distrusts and dismisses CAM. It's a bit like appointing ethologist Richard Dawkins as the next Pope!

As I've said, I'm adopting a wait and see attitude - which is precisely the one most of us seem to be taking. Unfortunately, this is untenable for the CNHC. If they don't get the 10,000 members they need for financial viability, they are out of a job. My sense is that the soft sell failed, and we're likely to see moves  to try and frighten therapists to join.

I'm not afraid of regulation – why should I be – I've been well trained. I keep up with my CPD and, of course, like the vast majority of practitioners I want to serve my clients as well as I can. However, I am afraid of the increasingly ticky-box bureaucracy that seems to be stifling and interfering everywhere – from education to mainstream healthcare and beyond. At the moment, the CNHC continues to appear to me like using a sledgehammer to crack the proverbial nut."

Well, that's certainly set the scene. Thank you so much Victoria. Now let's have some other comments and opinions so that we can widen the debate!

More on Vitex.
Following Mary Adams's cautionary tale in last month's newsletter [Chaste tree feedback], Bernadette Spink, who is a Licentiate of the Institute of Aromatic Medicine, e-mailed with another interesting experience.

Two years ago she used Chaste tree (Vitex agnus castus L.) with Clary Sage (Salvia sclarea L.) in a lotion, to support hormonal balance for herself. (Vitex at 2%). This blend suited her very well until she ran out of stock.

A month ago she was very happy to see that we had Chaste tree back in stock again, so she started using it as before.

The headaches that she started to suffer were very bad and the depression that followed unbearable. As she puts it, "therapists are not very good at self diagnosis" and so she called Penny Price to discuss the situation, and came off it immediately.

In place of Chaste tree she is using Ginger (Zingiber officinalis Roscoe), as gingerol has been shown to influence prostaglandin [Wagner, H., Wierer M., et al. 1986.] and could influence the positive production of progesterone in the body [Price, P. In Essence, Vol. 4, 2006]. Gingerol is one of those plant volatile molecules that are said to be hormone-like.

Bernadette has never had such a negative response to an essential oil as she had with Chaste tree. Any more feedback would be very welcome.

The risks of Grapefruit explained.
Further to Christine Ainscough's enquiry about grapefruit essential oil (Citrus x paradisi Macfad.) last month, Ann Welsh forwarded some helpful information from Rhiannon Harris of Essential Oil Resource Consultants regarding risks associated with the oral ingestion of grapefruit juice.

Rhiannon writes: "Some confusion exists with regards grapefruit and certain drugs such as cyclosporine, nifedipine, felodipine, diazepam, carbemazepine and some statin drugs. Grapefruit juice (especially juice produced from frozen concentrates) is an inhibitor of the CYP3A4 group of enzymes in the intestinal wall.

Thus for drugs that have a high first pass metabolism by the same enzymes in the gut, there is a risk of inhibiting their transformation and elimination, thus raising serum levels and potential action/risks.

The compounds in the juice that are responsible for the enzyme interaction include flavonoids such as naringen and furanocoumarin derivatives such as bergamottin and dihydroxybergamottin. Flavonoids are not found in the essential oil and the furanocoumarins are found in much higher levels in the juice than the volatile oil. There may therefore be reason for caution regarding oral use of grapefruit essential oil with certain medications, but external use poses no risk."

As an aside, Rhiannon also mentions that Vitex agnus castus herb has been shown to have dopamine agonist effects, inhibiting prolactin release. There is potential conflict with this herb and other dopamine agonist drugs such as bromocriptine, levodopa and amantadine, but no information is available as regards the potential risk of Vitex essential oil.

Thinking about Sugar.
Since 2000, over 55,000 people have completed Patrick Holford's 100% Health questionnaire, the results of which are published this month in a 38 page 100% Health survey [www.patrickholford.com/100survey].
  
As one who consumes far too much sugar in his coffee, a habit picked up when living in the sugar cane region of Australia, I was alarmed to learn that, among other things, this survey confirms that sugar is the worst bad food – far worse than alcohol or salt.

Consumption of sugary snacks was by far the best predictor of poor health for every health factor the survey looked at – energy, digestion, immunity, mental and hormonal health. This is consistent with a large body of evidence to show that high sugar intake, much of which is hidden in foods and drinks, is driving obesity, diabetes, heart disease and even violent behaviour. Nonetheless, many have survived unscathed. Whatever, it got me thinking about sugar.

Sugar was known in India 5000 years ago, and one of the earliest forms of Indian sweet, khandi, has its name preserved in a modern American equivalent. Sweets join jewellery and perfume as one of the earliest forms of gift. However, sugar was not known to the Romans, who had to make do with honey for confectionery. They did, however, invent the first artificial sweetener sapa (hence sapor - a quality perceptible by taste, e.g. sweetness).

Sir Edward Barry, an historian of the ancient art of making wine, wrote a book in 1775 called Observations historical, critical and medicinal on the wines of the ancients. He commented that the Romans boiled down grape juice in lead pans to give a concentrated sweet syrup. (When other fruits were used it was called defructum.) The syrup contained lead salts such as lead acetate (called sugar of lead) which had about the same sweetness as sucrose. This both sweetened and preserved the wine (lead kills microbes). As lead affects the brain, it is alleged that this sweetener (along with many other lead products used), finally led to the decline of the Roman Empire.

Sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum L.) was cultivated in southern Europe only around 800AD, and sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) about a thousand years later. Sugar infiltrated European consciousness because it was sweet and expensive and thus prompted early entrepreneurs to establish slave-based empires in the tropics. Sugar helps preserve meat and fruit. It is used in soft drinks because it makes water feel more 'refreshing', and in tomato sauce and peanut paste, because of its 'go-away' properties – the ability to degrease the palate after eating fat. The average Western person's daily consumption of 170g provides about 1.8 megajoules of energy.

The percentage of sugar deliberately added to food in the home has declined, but this has been more than compensated by the increase in the amount of sugar now added directly to manufactured foods; hence the interest in low joule sweeteners.

Nevertheless, we must never forget that sugar is a very important food and it is only our overindulgence that makes artificial sweeteners attractive. Raw sugar is a cheap source of minerals, and some protein as well as carbohydrate, and keeps indefinitely and without refrigeration. Australia exports almost 80% of its sugar as raw sugar.

Over 12 million children a year die from the effects of diarrhoea, mainly in the Third World. A simple treatment consists in feeding them with water containing an 8:1 ratio of sugar and salt.

A joint FAO/WHO report Carbohydrates in human nutrition found that 'there was no conclusive evidence that the consumption of simple sugars is of aetiological significance in diabetes mellitus'. This common form of diabetes occurs in obese adults, and control of total kilojoule intake is required.

Sugar is implicated in dental caries because it acts as food for the bacterium Streptococcus mutans, which converts it into an acid.

Sugar is a most natural food, consumed with relish in the form of honey by our hunter-gatherer forebears and is produced in all green plants. The nutritional problem with sugar is that it replaces other sources of energy which provide additional nutrients not present in sugar. It is for this reason that controlled intake is recommended.

As I was expected to buy sweets and soft drinks with my own pocket money, all of threepence per week (about 1.5p), my parents cunningly controlled my sugar intake as a child. By the time I was older I had lost the taste for sugar, except in coffee!        

Great efforts for great fragrances.
Hi Jan, I was just wondering if it was possible to ask Christopher (sic) if he has ever done any writing involving a day in the life of a rose picker in Bulgaria, or something along those lines, e-mailed Sarah Potts.

Apart from thinking that the name Christopher rather suits me, I don't think I have!

When the Bulgarians used to speak of something really precious, they would refer to it as being "as expensive as rose oil." Probably the largest single rose cultivation area in the world is in that country, at the foot of the Balkan Mountains.

The Damascene Rose (Rosa damascena Mill.), a rose similar to the hedge rose, has been cultivated in this area for centuries. It only blooms for just thirty days each year. The blossoms are still picked individually, as they have always been, and the picking is always a race against the sun. As the temperature rises, the rose blossoms lose their essential oil; and the rate of loss rises very quickly. At noon, for instance, the blooms are only half as rich in oil as they are at dawn.

In the high season, whole families – children, grandparents, uncles and aunts – come to the fields to pick the blossoms. They put them in bags that hang down in front, slung from the neck. The really experienced people can pick up to fifty kilograms a day. That may sound a lot, but the yield in rose oil from this quantity of blossoms is only a few drops. It takes approximately five tons of blossoms to produce just one kilogram of oil, and each day's harvest must be processed within twenty-four hours. An awful lot of effort! Mind you, jasmin pickers have a pretty hard time too, as I recollect from a visit to Grasse in the south of France thirty years ago.

If you want to harvest jasmine, you have to get up early. The blossoms are picked before the dew and the day begin, before they lose their fragrance in the heat of the sun. In Grasse, the rows of plants grow in terraces. The time of harvest is from the beginning of August until the end of October. A grower may only have 200 or so bushes – this is about all one family is able to take care of, because the blossoms must be picked every day. By noon, the field is cleared of blossoms. The next morning, it sparkles again in a dazzling new whiteness. The blossoms must be processed quickly, as they lose their fragrance as their freshness fades.

While the Grasse jasmine is cultivated and harvested by the traditional family methods, the big, modern plantations operate under industrial conditions with regular employees throughout the year and, during the harvest, with seasonal workers. Whether it still happens I don't know, but it's a thrilling event which I have witnessed more recently in India.

At these times, three generations of a single family might come to work the harvest. In the early afternoon of a typical day, a stream of people turns up from all directions, laden with blossoms, and heads to the collection point, where the blossoms are weighed and the wages paid, immediately, in cash. Having received their pay, there is no guarantee that they will turn up the following day because, if there should be a chance of a three-day family party, they simply won't be back for at least three days. I had exactly the same problem when harvesting beches-de-mer in the Pacific – all would go off on a kava bender!

In the processing, jasmine loses much of its lustre. The blossoms are stacked on strainer grilles in the extraction container. A solvent, such as petroleum ether, is then passed through them. When the solvent has been charged with fragrance, it is distilled. The resulting product is known as jasmine concrete. Through further extraction, with alcohol, it becomes jasmine absolute.

One ton of blossoms produces around 2.5kg of concrete, and finally, 2.3kg of concrete yield one kilo of absolute. As one kilo of jasmine blossoms contains approximately 8000 individual blossoms, it takes a staggering 8,000,000 to produce a single kilo of absolute.

No wonder Rose Otto and Jasmine Absolute are so precious! 

Maggots munch on.
As regular readers of the newsletter will know, I have long been fascinated by the use of maggots and other small creatures for medical purposes.

In past centuries such use was not at all unusual, but it fell from favour in the second half of the 20th century following the development of antibiotics. Some may recollect, however, that Dr. Steve Thomas of the Biosurgical Research Unit at Bridgend Hospital in South Wales began experimenting with maggots again in 1996, as maggots eat dead flesh, cleaning infected wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers to help rapid recovery without the need for surgery, which requires hospital stays and often the removal of living as well as dead skin. They could also play an important role in tackling MRSA infections in wounds.

Inspired by the work of Dr. Thomas, a company, ZooBiotic, became the first commercial spin-out from an NHS trust in Wales. It is now preparing to seek regulatory approval for flesh-eating maggots as a medical treatment. While it and a handful of other companies have already provided maggots on request to specialists in recent years, they are not allowed to make medical claims or promote actively the living product. However, having failed to persuade the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency that its maggots should be considered medical devices, ZooBiotic is now awaiting an inspection by the Agency, which will begin the process it hopes will lead to authorization allowing it to make health claims for maggots this year.

ZooBiotic will be required to submit more detailed evidence over the coming months, building on clinical studies that it believes already show that maggots are both effective and much cheaper than the alternatives of surgery and conventional drug treatment. A typical maggot treatment of 3-5 days costs from £100. They can be supplied loose and sealed in special bandages. Gill Davies, general manager of ZooBiotic, said the company shipped thousands of maggots produced by the greenbottle fly every day within the UK.

As one who was in at the start of leeches, which are now marketed by several companies, primarily to stimulate blood flow and growth of new tissue, notably after surgery to re-attach amputated fingers and limbs, I wish ZooBiotic good fortune.
    
Finally.....
Please note that there are one or two changes to our calendar of CPD courses.

Gill's Body Butters & Healing Balms Part II on Sunday, 18th April, has now become simply Advanced Body Butters and, due to a clash of dates, Lotte's Cold Mix and Hot Mix Cosmetic Making courses have been switched from  from 29th and 30th of May to 26th and 27th June. Also, Hot Mix Cosmetic Making has been replaced by an exciting new course entitled All New Natural Skin Care Products. On Saturday, 29th May, we welcome Louise Pinhorn, who will teach How to make Herbal Tinctures, Safe Herbal Teas, Macerated Oils & All Things Herbal.     




charles@essentiallyoils.com

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