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‘Fragrant oil brings joy to the heart and a friend’s support is as pleasant as perfume.’
Proverbs 27 v. 9
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Epigraph
Introduction
1 Setting the Scene
2 Extraction Methods
3 Aromachemistry – the Chemistry of Essential Oils
4 Plant Families
5 Perplexing Essential Oils – What’s In a Name?
6 Safety of Essential Oils
7 Essential Oils: Storage, Carriers and Methods of Use
8 Carrier Oils
9 The Holistic Approach
10 Touch and Essential Oils
11 Women’s and Children’s Problems
12 Oils at Work in the Home
13 Aromatherapy: Definition, Qualifications and Finding a Good Aromatherapist
14 Therapeutic Uses of Essential Oils – Reference
Glossary
References
Further Reading
Useful Addresses
Index
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Copyright
About the Publisher
Introduction
To write a ‘complete’ book on aromatherapy is an almost impossible task. Not only would it need to be several volumes thick in order to cover every essential oil in use, but as new facts are being discovered continuously, a new edition would be necessary every year.
My aim, therefore, is to write about as many facets of aromatherapy as possible, while still maintaining a simple easy-to-read style. At the end of the book there is space for you to make your own notes and observations.
Since writing my first book on aromatherapy in 1982, the interest and enthusiasm of both my husband Len and myself has increased at least three hundredfold in one way or another.
A few years ago, we were becoming increasingly aware of the difficulty of obtaining essential oils of therapeutic quality from British suppliers, whose main concern is the much larger perfume and food industry market. Their requirements are different from those of aromatherapy and not so stringent as far as the wholeness of a natural oil is concerned. We therefore decided to attend an essential oil exhibition in France, which was solely for those requiring essential oils for health reasons, and as such, interested Len and myself very much indeed. It was a small, but wonderful exhibition; Len attended one or two of the lectures while I was making contact with the suppliers.
Buying essential oils is very much a matter of trust and liking people, and we were fortunate enough to find there one supplier with whom we had an immediate empathy. He even invited us to his home to see the area and the plants from which would come the oils we would be buying.
We spent four wonderful days viewing the fields and meeting the farmers. Already I was feeling excited that at last we were going to be able to give our therapists, mail-order clients and retail customers genuine, untampered-with essential oils, specifically for promoting the health and vitality of the body, rather than those imported purely for use in perfumes and flavourings, most of which need to be standardized, or have synthetics added to them.
We were finding ourselves visiting France several times during a year, to order the oils we would need and to watch (even take part in) the planting, hoeing, harvesting and distilling of the plants themselves, so we bought an old farmhouse in the region! We take groups of aromatherapists and interested clients to a converted ex-monastery two miles from our farmhouse, from where, for a week, we visit the fields, discover the medicinal plants on a mountain walk and watch the distillation process – fascinating! We take them to noted restaurants in the area, to the local caves (the wine-tasting cellars) and to a well-known market, passing on the way fields of lavandin (the gloriously purple relative of the true lavender plant) and the incredibly striking fields of massive sunflowers, all with their bright yellow heads facing the morning sun. All this under an amazingly blue sky, with the green grass and cornfields (which contain a host of vermillion red poppies) backed by the awe-inspiring mountains – the whole scene, with its accompanying aromas, needs to be experienced to be fully appreciated.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I want you to get a feel for the plants which provide us with their miraculous quintessence, and to appreciate, as I do now, that essential oils are not just powerful liquids in little glass bottles, but are representative of the individual plants and families from which they come, giving us their vibrant energy to help us to improve the quality of our lives.
Neither let us forget that plants such as these have, since life began on this planet, provided us with ‘medicines out of the earth’ as it tells us in the Old Testament. The amazing energy which some of us, including myself, call God, certainly completed his work incredibly well: a few moments spent thinking of the wonders of Nature and the intricate workings of the human body (and its ability to heal itself under normal circumstances) should be enough to convince us of the Power surrounding us. Would that we were all able to respect what we were given, treat it with care and use Nature’s gifts efficiently to maintain good health all our lives.
My hope is that this book will help people to respect essential oils and to use them with efficiency and love.
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