Forest Scents

Are all essential oils completely safe to use? Same for herbs, are all herbs completely safe? In order to be able to understand whether they are safe or not, first of all, you need to understand the concept of toxicity. What is Toxicity? According to Merriam-Webster, toxicity refers to the quality, state or relative degree of being poisonous material which can cause harm or death on you, or any other animal or plant (living organism) . The damage may occur in many forms and various levels. Some toxic cause immediate death and some toxic are chronic where you might only realized it after few months or years. It is Natural, so it must be Safe? A lot of people think that essential oil is natural, so it must be safe. Aconite is a natural plant and it is one of the herbs use in Traditional Chinese Medicine, but it is extremely poisonous plant. There are few fatal cases of aconite poisoning reported by drinking the homemade medicated liquor containing aconite...

One day, my friend asked me to recommend her a “therapeutic grade” essential oils’ brand. What does she means? Is she looking for the essential oil that has therapeutic effect on her? Or she is concerning on the product safety? Or she is looking for high quality and non-adulteration products? According to Stewart (2005)… “A therapeutic grade essential oil is defined here as one that is specially distilled from plants that are cultivated organically or grown wild in a clean environment (not gathered along a busy highway). Plants should be from proper botanical genus, species, and cultivar. No chemical fertilizers are added to the soil, and crop cultivation is free of herbicides and pesticides. Essential oils should be extracted by steam distillation at minimum temperatures and pressures, as was done in ancient times. No chemical solvents are used in the extraction process.” In my teacher  Jade Shutes  article, she does mention that this “therapeut...

Pharmacokinetics is the term use to describe the study of  how the essential oils are absorbs, distributes, metabolizes and excretes by the body . There are many studies on cosmetic and drugs pharmacokinetics, but essential oils pharmacokinetics study is relative new. According to Worwood, one the effective ways is through skin absorption. Perez also agreed that massage is the most efficient method to help body recover from stress and illness, as well as regenerating whole being. However, massage has contraindications and sometimes it is not appropriate to use massage. Besides, it is hard to perform self massage also. Therefore, different approach is necessary. 1) Inhalation Inhalation is the easier application methods, you can either use steam inhalation, necklace diffuser or diffuser. (a) Steam inhalation Put 5 to 6 drops of essential oils in a bowl of steaming hot water (2 liters), put your head near the steaming bowl and cover your head and the bowl with towel. Bre...

When we are making our decision to purchase essential oils (EO) , we often afraid that we might buy the synthetic or adulteration essential oils.  There are many essential oil's suppliers advertise “ the best ”, “ the pure ” or “ natural ”, but actually there are not. To reduce the cost, some of the suppliers will mixed with the considerable volumes of various diluents. The worst, you might even get the synthetic EO, but you didn’t aware of it.  But how to choose genuine and authentic EO? Most of the aromatherapy practitioners will tell you to use your own organoleptic “odour” assessment when choosing a good quality of EO. You need to train your senses… When you are familiarizes with it, you will be automatically known how to choose the genuine and authentic quality of EO. But most of the consumer is not being train in this area.  Therefore, he or she might have a big chances buying synthetic or adulteration EO. Therefore, I prepared some general guides as fo...

 “ Essential oil ” derived from the word “ quintessence ”. Based on Aristotelian idea, matter is composed of four elements: fire, air, earth, water; the fifth element, or quintessence , is the soul and spirit of the aromatic plants. Some even said it is the life force of the plants. Of course, nowadays, we know that, essential oils are the aromatic essences extracted (distillation, cold pressing…) from roots, flowers, fruits, herbs or trees. It is the plant’s second metabolism developed over the centuries for survival, defense against microbial pathogens, adapting to the ever-changing environment and used for attracting pollinating insect. This is why essential oils have therapeutic properties such antiseptic, anti-virus, anti-fungal, immune stimulating which is beneficial to our mankind. Essential oils are highly concentration, volatile and fat-soluble. It differs from fixed oils which contain glycerides or fatty acids which will not leave a permanent stain on fil...

From the words itself, aroma therapy seems to be a bit misleading, you might have a perception that it is all about scents or smells, but I can promise you it is more than smells!   “ Aromatherapy ” is a words coined by a French chemist René-Maurice Gattefossé in 1930s where he treated his badly burned hand with lavender essential oil during an laboratory explosion. The healing effect is amazing and with very little scarring.  Although the words coined only during 1930s, but when we study the history of aromatherapy, the use of aromatic plants is very much older. I couldn’t find any books clearly defined what aromatherapy is, and I also have difficulty in finding the reason behind Gattefossé use this word. His book Gattefossé's aromatherapy: the first book on aromatherapy , did not give me any direct answer on my questions. But I found that his study is mostly related to the odour and properties of essential oils and perfume.  Balchin also pointed ou...