scientific research. – Cretan-Garden

A short history

The use of aromatic plants and trees, goes far back in history, to the time of the Egyptians and Babylonians, 3000 – 4000 before Christ. It is told however that the oldest knowledge of essential oils.is to be found in China.

The Egyptians used the essential oils from plants and resins to mummify the dead, because of the cleansing and anti-sceptic properties. Cleopatra used essential oils to enhance her attraction. Also in the bible essential oils are mentioned, like myrrh, incense, cloves, sandalwood, rose, and cedar.

Those who worked as perfumers during the Black Death plague epidemic were not contaminated by the plague: they inhaled the aerosols which were mixed with the anti-sceptic aerosols from the plants while working with it, and also the anti-sceptic properties of the plants entered the body via the skin.[Additional: The Forgotten Pollution: Dr. Schnabel’s Hepa Filter]

Essential oils

Essential Oils are the highly concentrated, volatile, aromatic essences of plants. Essential oils are derived from the leaves, flowers, wood, seeds, roots, bark and resins of trees and plants.. Essential oils are composed out of diverse aromatic volatile liquids, which are distracted from the plant parts via steam distillation. To create one litre essential oil one needs many kilos aromatic plants. To create one litre of for instance rosemary oil one needs 50 kilos rosemary leaves, and about 5000 kilos for a rose and jasmine oil.

Essential oils and the chakras

There is hardly any information about essential oils in the combination with the term “chakras“. There seem to be essential oils however that could be helpful in the healing of blocked or disbalanced chakras. I have just one but excellent advice: the smell you are searching for on that moment, and absolutely your favourite, fits for all chakras. If you want to read more about it then this article could be helpful.

Hydrosols

Hydrosols, also known as “flower waters,” or “herbal waters”, are the water condensates from the steam distilling process of essential oils. Hydrosols have similar properties and scents to essential oils, but these aromatic waters are much less concentrated. Hydrosols are especially suited for children, because they can hardly create irritations. One or two soup spoons in a baby bath are helpful in cases of inflammations, or eczema. Consult a certified aroma therapist for the right information before experimenting with it. The pH values of hydrosol varies from 4,4 to 7. This means that it could neutralize a too alkaline skin or a too acidic skin, into a natural skin condition. Read more about the pH value in Scientific Research, scroll down to pH values.

Aroma therapy

The use of essential oils is rather safe when using these in an aroma lamp diffuser, or in massage oils and body-oils, if one is following up the advice about the total of drops on a certain total of water for a bath, footbath, or aroma lamp. Also when using essential oils in a carrier oil, like olive oil, to create a body-oil or a massage-oil, or to dilute it for just a small spot on the skin, one must be well informed about the total of drops essential oil on how much carrier oil. Internal use of essential oils is dangerous, unless one follows up the advice of a well-trained and certified aroma therapist.

Photo by **Anna Tarazevich** from **Pexels**

Quality criteria

There are many different brands on the market with all several different essential oils, and all smelling different from another brand with the same oil-name, and not smelling so nice at all. It can be related with the own nose, of course, and preferences, but it can happen that not only you dislike a certain smell: it can also depend on the brand, and the country, the climate, the height of the area, the hours of sunshine, the soil, the pH of the soil, even the entire community of plants and trees, animals, the so-called biotope where the plants grow where the essential oil is extracted from, are creating the chemotype, the ct, and the scent. It is impossible to smell an essential oil when one orders it from the web. It is therefore wise, if possible, to buy an essential oil in a good health shop.

Steam distillation is a delicate process. It needs professional experience and a constant control. The essential oil must be for hundred percent natural and may not be denaturised by half-synthetic molecules and not be mixed with essential oils with the same scent, but less expensive and of a lesser or even inferior quality..

Books

Avicenna, born in 980 C.E., near Bukhara, Iran which is now in Uzbekistan, died in1037 C.E., Hamadan, Iran, was a medical doctor, who wrote more than hundred scientific papers about the knowledge about essential oils, and lectured the art of distilling at the by him founded universities in Spain. Book: Avicenna’s Medicine: A New Translation of the 11th-Century Canon with Practical Applications for Integrative Health Care
René-Maurice Gattefossé, father of modern aroma-therapy. Book: Gattefossé’s Aromatherapy (1918)
Dr. Jean Valnet – Book: The practice if aroma therapy. Article: We remember Jean Valnet (1964)
P. Franchomme & D. Penoël – Book: L’aroma therapie exactement. In the year 1975 P. Franchommé discovered that the chemical compound of essential oils changes according to the place where the plant grows or is cultivated. This is noted with chemotype or ct. One needs to take this in consideration for optimal medical results.

Article

What Are Essential Oils, and Do They Work? – Healthline