On the Trail of Essential Oils Part 1-Digging for Facts

Updated: Aug 8

In the first of this 5-Part series, On The Trail Of Essential Oils, Part 1-Digging For Facts, I will attempt to answer the questions “What?” and “When?” by starting with the definition and the history of essential oils. Born extremely sensitive to chemicals, I avoid anything that is highly concentrated and try to stay as natural as possible. I am unable to use most perfumes and have found I am sensitive to essential oils. Being an herbalist and a nurse, I wanted to know how plants could have such a profound effect on my body. With the massive amount of information out there, I am determined to find the real story about things today. After some persistence and deep digging, I have uncovered some very interesting information on this subject. The marketing of these oils today has many believing that they can use primarily essential oils, also called volatile oils, for every part of their home health care and cleaning routine. Remember by using these fractionated compounds, we ignore every other part of the plant. The active constituents are located throughout the plant and not just in the essential oil. All the compounds work together in our bodies in a complimentary way. As I see it, if there are missing members in this delicate dance, the other dancers may get out of control and hurt themselves or others around them. As James Green points out in his book, The Herbal Medicine-Maker’s Handbook, even the inert constituents are carriers of the plant’s “tonic mineral stash” which our body needs for digestion, assimilation, elimination, repair, toning and health maintenance. The passive components, especially the non-digestible ones, feed the micobiome in our gut, which then contributes to the health of our digestion, our immune system and many other areas in our body.(8) Essential oils are missing these key components.

Essential oils contain many chemicals that need to be processed in our liver and in this form, may be without the natural buffering system that is normally located in the whole plant. The chemicals in the essential oils have different purposes than the whole plant. In my research, I found there are numerous documented injuries from the use of plants in this form, from internal and external use so safety education is of primary importance. There are cases where they have been fatal in certain doses when used internally, yet there are many essential oil companies and books that encourage internal use without much talk of safety, interactions with other chemicals or side effects. This volatile part of an aromatic plant, extracts well in water that is steeped with the lid on and is then drunk as a tea. Because of the strength of these chemicals, small dosages are used with good results, like one teaspoon of lemon balm leaves to one cup of water. This method also gives you the whole part of the plant, not just the essential oil, which allows the herb to work synergistically in the body. Traditionally teas, infusions, decoctions, poultices, compresses, and more modernly capsules and tinctures have been employed as remedies using more whole forms of the plants. While people have used incense and perfumes in small amounts as aromas since antiquity and essential oils have been used in the past, this was not the primary method of use.

Did you know that it takes 6000 lbs of lemon balm to make one pound of lemon balm essential oil? I was surprised to find that there are 10,000 roses in 5 milliliters of rose essential oil. That equals 100 roses per drop!

DEFINITION

What are essential oils? Also known as volatile oils, essential oils are flammable plant compounds that readily evaporate as they are found partly in the vapor state at room temperature. These oils are an element of aromatic plants that can be found in the flowers, leaves, rhizomes, seeds, fruits, wood or bark depending on which plant it is. They are soluble in alcohol, ether, and fixed oils but are insoluble in water. Generally liquid and colorless with a characteristic odor, they are responsible for the different fragrances of the plants. They serve as chemical signals which allow the plants to regulate the environment, attract insects, repel predators, inhibit seed germination, or allow communication between plants. They often have anti-fungal, antibacterial, insecticide, or some kind of deterrent activity.(23) According to the book, Essential Oils Natural Remedies, they are highly concentrated compounds that have been pressed or distilled from plants and are called essential because they have the fragrance or essence of the plant.(21) The book, Essential Oils and Aromatherapy: An Introductory Guide, describes them as the “true essence” of the plant and they come from a group of chemicals called terpenes.(19) Merriam-Webster defines essence as a constituent or derivative possessing the special qualities (as of a plant or drug) in concentrated form.(74) Since there are many categories of active constituents in plants, most herbal experts and biologists would not say the volatile oils are the most important or most essential part of the plant, but one part. The use of the word essential can be misleading as there are many, perhaps thousands of active constituents in a plant outside of the essential oil that are an important part of the plant. These constituents are used in many other ways as well, including pharmaceutical use.

HISTORY

When did the common and frequent use of essential oils start? The accurate history of essential oils has been hard to find like almost everything else these days. There are massive amounts of information to sift through and much is generated by sellers of these products. I may not have it right either but have done my best by spending countless hours of research using many sources. It is clear that the pro-essential oil books and marketers want us to believe that frequent and wide-range essential oil use has been popular by “everyone" for thousands of years. With the amount of plant material needed and the fact that few had the technology or equipment, this does not actually appear to be correct. While there have been infused oils used, which are made by a very different method, it seems that essential oils, if they were used long ago, were treated like gold and generally only the very wealthy or the religious leaders used them.

There is some evidence that the women of Cyprus did use perfume, but this was perfume and not just essential oils and this makes sense as the first perfumery was found there.(3) The water left-over from the distilling process, or hydrosol, as it is commonly known, may have been one of the main goals at that time, rather than the volatile oil itself. As you will see shortly, hundreds and with some, thousands of pounds of plant materials are needed for production of a small amount of these oils. It appears that infused oils as well as incense, poultices, decoctions and teas were the popular methods of using herbs in historical times. The use of resins is thought of as the “prehistory” of perfume and were used in religious ceremonies or soaked in fat or wine and used as ointments.(3) Infused oils use a small amount of plant material soaked in a fatty oil, like olive oil so the plant compounds and not just the essential oils, are extracted into the oil. This makes more product with less resources. Most of the books and articles I have used for research have quite varying histories and play with wording as if they were using essential oils, when they were using another method or just the herbs in themselves. They say that during the plagues, people used essential oils(22), but most likely they used some imported scented water, esp rose, other extraction methods, or the whole herb which contains essential oils and much more.(31) The book, Essential Oils For Beginners, correctly says that it’s not clear when oils were first distilled, then they go on to say that ancient Egyptians were among the first to use them dating back to 4500 BC and that “aromatic” oils were part of daily life.(20) While aromatic oils from the plants themselves may have been part of daily life that far back, clearly essential oils were not.

In the book, Essential Oils And Aromatherapy: An Introductory Guide, they also state that around 1800 BC, they were first used in Egypt and other nations learned the knowledge of using essential oils for healing from them.(19) There is no information I found to support that distillation or the sharing of the information about healing with them originated there. Miriam Stead, author of Egyptian Life, states that steam distillation for perfume production was not used in ancient times. The methods of extraction were enfleurage (to be described in Part 2), maceration, also known as infusion and less commonly expression, using a bag and twisting with sticks to squeeze the contents.(6) Essential Oils Academy had information that was very different than I found, saying that evidence for earliest use of essential oils was 3000-2500 BC but did not state the evidence. They also are an example of writers who play with words such as “aromatics” “herbs” and “perfumes” as if these are all essential oils. They may have other sources that I did not find, but I wonder about where they got their information.(13)

The earliest perfumes were smoke and what is today known as incense dates back as far as 7000 years to Syria where ceramic vessels made of gypsum and chlorite have been found. Egyptians made perfumed incense and oil-based perfumes around 3000 BC for worship, for entombment and offerings.(1) The discovery of the first still for distilling herbs was found at the Pyrgos site on the island of Cyprus(2,7) in 1850 BC. Maria Rosaria Belgiorno is the Italian researcher and archaeologist responsible for investigations at the prehistoric site of Pyrgos in Cyprus.(2) With archaeometric analysis of the substances, it seems that this is the oldest site found so far.(5) To be clear, we are discussing distillation of herbs and not alcohol, which has a history that dates back to at least 500 BC in the ancient Indian area known as Taxila.(9)

It appears that Cyprus used and traded perfumes on a large scale as the remains of the perfumery was one square kilometer in size with a large olive press room. It seems that Cypriot perfumes were traded to Egypt and other parts of the Mediterranean for centuries. They were also mass producing olive oil to be used in their distillation process. The Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, or National Research Council, which set out to recreate ancient traditions in modern conditions, has conducted experiments to obtain finished products identical the ancient ones by following the method described by Pliny which involved using herbs, oil and water, then sealing them and heating over hot coals for several hours.(4) From the ruins, it was possible to identify three methods of extraction for aromatic substances-boiling, distillation and maceration. They were written about centuries later by Dioscorides, Theophrastus and Pliny the Elder.(5) Some essential oil articles say that earliest use dates back thousands of years earlier than this find and in other parts of the world. I am not sure of their sources as this is the earliest I found. Many say the Egyptians were the first ones to use aromatic extracts, but at least at first, they most likely traded for these precious substances which were used for religious purposes and funerals and only by the kings and priests. These were also used as scents or for entombing and not ingested. There is evidence that China and India used herbs, including oils from an early time but what is not clear is what kind of oils, infused or essential? In one of the earliest Chinese medical text books, The Yellow Emperor (Plain Questions), there is no mention of essential oil use, although several sources state that it does, including the book Essential Oils For Beginners(20). The Yellow Emperor mentions foods including soups, legumes, vegetables, grains, fruits and poisons of which the nature is not disclosed. Medicines mentioned include thyme (not the essential oil), topmost branches and roots, lees of wine, sweet wine and moxa which involves the burning of Artemesia vulgaris.(14) There are many sources that state the same information copied almost word for word, asserting that this work has many mentions of essential oils. I was unable to confirm that from the book I purchased and read. There is another part to that book which focuses on acupuncture and moxibustion so I am going to take my research further at some point. If anyone finds out that there is documented use of essential oils this far back by the Chinese people, please let me know. In the article The Ancient History Of Perfume from Perfume.com, it states, “The Chinese used scent in the form of incense instead of perfumes to be worn.”(15) Some other sources point to the use of essential oils by the Chinese but I was not able to find any details about this. An extensive article published by the NIH (National Institute Of Health) shows that the main methods in which Chinese medicine is administered include a mixture of medicinal components and non-drug components (the vehicle). This article states that the form in which medications can be delivered into the body include pills, tablet, bolus, aerosol, plaster, liniment, tincture, decoction, nanomized herb, powder, injection, ointment, granule, poultice, paste with pharmaceutical techniques of stir frying, calcining, steaming and boiling.(87) Essential oils or distilled herbs was not there at all. The perfume articles I referenced did not mention China as using them.

Early use focuses on “perfume” in small quantities. In the Cypriotic period, the two main substances imported from the perfumery were resin of Pistacia Terebindo and Coriandrum sativum (Coriander), which were exported as seeds and essence in olive oil.(5) The Alembic still is a simple apparatus for distilling which was used by Jabir ibn Hayyan in 800 AD,(12) where the first documented studies were done with distillation but included alcohol or grain distillation. The process of aromatic substances and alcohol distillation have been described after 900 AD by the Persian philosopher and physician Avicenna. He is given credit for inventing the refrigerated coil for use in the distillation process thus improving usefulness(10) and he extracted oils from flowers, first working with the rose.(11) In the 13th Century, Islamic physician Ibn al-Baytar, an Arab from Spain, traveled extensively, collecting and documenting plants and their medicinal use. He wrote the Compendium on Simple Medicaments and Foods. In this work, he details 1400 plants, foods and essential oils. He details the process of steam distillation and also describes how rose oil is prepared using hot oils and fats, then cooled with cinnamon oil.(17) The in-depth work by Ernest Guenther, PhD. from 1948, gives great detail to the history where he states, “Data on the methods, objectives and results of distillation in ancient times are scarce and extremely vague.” In his exploration of the past, the only essential oils prepared by “crude distillation” that have been definitely established in ancient times were oil of turpentine and camphor.(18) The Greek historian, Herodotus (484-425 B.C.) and Pliny (23-79 A.D.), a Roman natural historian as well as Pedanius Dioscorides, author of De Materia Medica, a dominating reference for over 1500 years, mention oil of turpentine with only partial information on methods of production. I was not able to find any other oils mentioned in early texts until the early Middle Ages when the art of distillation was used primarily for the preparation of distilled waters. It was believed the essential oil was a by-product that was undesired. While a substantial trade in odoriferous oils and ointments went on in ancient places of the Orient, in Greece and in Rome, the oils used were not essential oils or a mixture of essential oils by distillation with fatty oils, but rather were made by placing flowers and other plant parts into a fatty oil, then putting these mixtures in the sun to warm them and eventually separating the odor-filled oil from the plants, in what we call infusion today. At times, the flowers were macerated (soaked) in wine before adding the fatty oil and then was filtered and boiled to a thick syrupy consistency. Joannes Mesue described this way of preparing oils in the "Grabaddin"written in the thirteenth century. In this widely used book, no essential oils are listed. Two oils prepared by destructive distillation, oil of juniper wood and oil of asphaltum are listed. He goes on to state that the term “distilled” in ancient times and the Middle Ages “did not have the exclusive and particular meaning it has today.” From the historical work, Fr. Hoffman’s “The Volatile Oils”, the word distilled was "a collective term, implying the preparation of vegetable and animal extracts according to the rules of the art, or rectification and separation." The first description of distillation of essential oils has been principally attributed to physician Arnald de Villanova, who lived in the mid 1200s to early 1300s in the Principality of Catalonia, in northeastern modern Spain. He was more interested in the distilled waters as remedy, where they were becoming a specialty of early pharmacies.(18) Paracelsus (born Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim-1493-1541, no wonder he went by a “nickname”!) believed that the separating of essential oils should be the goal of pharmacy and this theory is thought to have laid the basis for research into the preparation of essential oils after his time. He was an alchemist and termed the name “essential” (Quinta essentia or quintessence) where this was thought to be the “last possible and most sublime extractive,” thus representing the “efficient” part of every drug.(18) He also believed that the stars and planets caused human illness and that all diseases should be treated with minerals. He is one of the first men to use mercury in large amounts to cure, believing that minerals chemically purified the body. His followers began treating illness with minerals in place of herbs, roots and barks. He is known as the “father of pharmacology.” We know now that chemical reactions in the body do not follow the chemical laws of minerals so the body is not purified by taking minerals. This practice led to the idea that giving the body poison would counteract another poison.(75) There is evidence that the production and general use of essential oils did not occur until the mid 1500s, as major works from the early 1500s, covering the entire field of distillation technique, mentions only four essential oils, turpentine, juniper, spike (lavender) and rosemary. In Adam Lonicer’s book “Krauterbuch", which appeared at Frankfort on the Main in 1551, he states that "the art of distillation is quite a recent, not an ancient invention, unknown to the old Greek and Latin physicians, and indeed has not been in use at all." While other works came out in other countries in Germany and Switzerland around this time, the most important publication during that period, came from one of the most careful scientific writers of all times, the Neopolitan, Giovanni Battista della Porta. In his "De Destillatione libri IX," written about 1563, he differentiates distinctly between expressed fatty and distilled essential oils, describes their preparation, the ways of separating the essential oils from water and the appliance used for this purpose. Information moved fast from that point and soon essential oils were in the pharmacies where "15 or 20 different oils were kept in small round boxes and, when asked for, they were delivered by means of a toothpick, i.e., in a minute quantity achieving, nevertheless, the best results." The invention of the printing press allowed the spread of herbal knowledge. By the late 1500s, Hieronymus Brunschwig, a German physician, had written several books on essential oil distillation and referenced 25 essential oils.(18) By the 17th century, most of the essential oils of Europe and the Near East had been found. The popularity of science and chemistry at that time, allowed the control of adulteration to be dealt with from the 18th century on.(16) In the 1800s, the chemistry was being investigated from many angles in many countries and the word terpene was first used around 1866. As the oils were chemically discovered, many became commercially produced and synthetic oils were introduced.(18) The first recorded lab tests on antibacterial properties were done in 1887. By then medical professionals were interested in isolating active principles of natural substances and producing synthetic drugs. In 1923, Italians Dr. Gatti and Dr. Cajola published “The Action of Essences on the Nervous System” explaining how odors influenced mood and emotions and defined the opposing states, anxiety and depression. They showed how smell can influence the central nervous system.

Rene M. Gattefosse, a French cosmetic chemist and perfumer was researching the use of essential oils by 1928. He burned his skin in an explosion and used lavender essential oil to help heal it. He termed the word aromatherapy and published the book, Aromatherapie. French doctor and researcher, Jean Valnet used essential oils to treat patients in French colonial Vietnam and by 1954 had established doses, which he published in Practice of Aromatherapy, this becoming the first materia aromatica of recent times. He has been considered the father of modern essential oil medicine. Interested in the psychic and mental state of people, Marguerite Maury, a nurse, experimented with essential oils and wrote The Secret of Life and Youth in the 1940s. She began the notion of personal blends and is responsible for non-medical aromatherapy developing in 1950s England. Robert Tisserand was a massage therapist in the UK who was influenced by Maury and Valnet. He wrote the first aromatherapy book in English in 1977, called The Art of Aromatherapy: The Healing and Beautifying Properties of Essential Oils of Flowers and Herbs.(16) His book has been a popular reference for most of the books written since.

These were by no means all the people who influenced the essential oil industry. I only referenced the ones who stood out to me as I was researching and who played a key role along the way. Several sources had histories that were either partial, inaccurate or they played with words as to make it seem as if everyone, everywhere, for thousands of years, were using primarily essential oils in all aspects of their lives. Although there have been times when they were popular to an extent, they have been only a part of our herbal history. I was surprised how varied the histories were in the sources I read. Per James Green, “from the inception of herbal pharmacy, herbal traditions throughout the world have favored the simple infusion and decoction of medicinal plants as their predominant form of extraction. Only within this last 100 years has there been an emphasis on making concentrated alcohol and/or glycerin solvent tinctures and other highly concentrated fractional extracts.”(8)

I do not believe that a part is better or more complete than the whole. Would you say your eyes are the most important part of your body, because that is how you see the world or the immune system is your true essence because this is the part that plays a role in fighting disease, the part that helps keep you alive? This brings to mind the scripture in 1 Corinthians 12:21 which reads, And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."(81)

Please join me for Part 2-A Closer Look, which will attempt to answer the question How?" and will describe the chemistry, processing, and action of essential oils in detail so we can really understand how they look under the microscope, how they are made and how they work.

RESOURCES for all 5 Parts

1. http://www.fieldtofragrance.com/blog/2016/12/7/perfume-in-the-ancient-world ,7 Dec. 2016.

2. https://www.academia.edu/34713270/Behind_Distillation_.pdf ,2017, Accessed 17 Nov 2019.

3. https://www.academia.edu/25667029/The_Perfume_of_Cyprus._From_Pyrgos_to_Fran %C3%A7ois_Coty_the_route_of_a_millenary_charm ,May 2016.

4. http://cyprusfortravellers.net/en/review/perfumes-cyprus ,May 2016.

5. https://www.academia.edu/26053459/Cinyra_Cyprus_and_the_notes_

of_music_of_wine_and_perfume ,2009, Accessed 17 Nov 2019.

6. https://www.aromahut.com/extracting-essential-oils/ ,Accessed 17 Nov 2019.

7. https://www.scienceinschool.org/2011/issue21/caesar ,22 Nov 2011.

8. Green, James (2000) The Herbal Medicine-Maker’s Handbook (pp. 83, 85, 91, 94, 104, 105, 119) Crossing Press: NY

9. Owens, Bill, Dikty, Alan, Faulkner, Andrew ( 2009 ) The Art of Distilling, Revised And Expanded: An Enthusiast’s Guide To The Artisan Distilling of Whisky, Vodka, Gin, And Other Potent Potables (p. 13) Quarto Publishing Group: MA

10. http://www.phys.ufl.edu/courses/phy4550-6555c/spring09/milestones.pdf ,Accessed 17 Nov 2019.

11. https://www.worldofchemicals.com/611/chemistry-articles/what-is-the-chemistry-of-a-perfume.html ,Accessed 17 Nov 2019.

12. https://www.lusiancoppers.com/files/StillHistory.pdf ,Accessed 17 Nov 2019.

13. https://essentialoilsacademy.com/history/ ,17 Nov 2019.

14. Veith, Ilza (1949) The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine (pp. 55, 56, 148, 150, 151, 152, 205) University of California Press: CA

15. https://www.perfume.com/article-the-ancient-history-of-perfume ,21Nov 2019.

16. http://ultranl.com/ultracms/wp-content/uploads/Aromatherapy_History.pdf ,Accessed 17 Nov 2019.

17. http://www.ethnoherbalist.com/review-best-essential-oils/ ,Accessed 17 Nov 2019.

18. Guenther, Ernest (1948) The Essential Oils (pp.1-12)D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, INC, TORONTO NEW YORK ;

file:///C:/Users/HP/Downloads/Essentialoilsvol1.pdf (pp.1-12), Reprinted March 1955

19. Sonoma Press (2104) Essential Oils and Aromatherapy: An Introductory Guide (pp. 8, 9, 11, 16, 22, 30, 32-34) Sonoma Press: CA

20. Althea Press (2013) Essential Oils For Beginners (pp. 4-7, 9, 20, 21, 22, 31, 32, 100, 217, 218) Althea Press: CA