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A fragrant form of healing
The aromatic oils of many plants not only smell fragrant, but can also be surprisingly therapeutic for a variety of conditions, notably stress, anxiety, and other mood disorders.
Seventy-five years ago, French fragrance chemist Rene-Maurice Gattefosse was in his lab working on a new perfume. While he was blending essential oils, the super-concentrated aromatic essences of fragrant plants, a sudden explosion burned his arm. Frantic with pain, he plunged his arm into the nearest cold liquid, which happened to be a bowl of lavender oil. Immediately, he noticed surprising pain relief, and instead of the extended healing process of previous burns, this one healed remarkably quickly. Perhaps, he thought, a powerful healer was hiding right under our noses. Gattefosse devoted the rest of his life to studying essential oils' influence on health and healing. In 1928, he published Aromatherapie, coining the term now used to describe the art of inhaling aromatic plant oils or massaging them into the skin for physical and emotional benefits.
At the time, scientists generally ignored Gattefosse's work, but slowly, a few of his colleagues began nosing around aromatherapy. In the 1930s, one reported success using lavender oil to treat black widow spider bites. During World War II, French army surgeon Jean Valnet, M.D. used essential oils successfully to treat battlefield wounds and infections when penicillin ran low. After the War, Valnet experimented with aromatherapy for anxiety and other emotional problems. In 1964, he borrowed Gattefosse's title for his own book, Aromatherapie, which stands today as the field's basic medical text.
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Existing Medical Research
One of the oldest marketing tricks in real estate is to bake bread or cookies during open houses. The aroma helps people feel at home -- and often helps persuade them to make an offer. Scientists who study the affect of fragrances have come up with many similar findings:
- At the Smell and Taste Research Foundation in Chicago, neurologist Alan Hirsch, M.D. ushered volunteers into one of two rooms, each containing an identical pair of Nike athletic shoes, and asked each volunteer to fill out a questionnaire about them. One room was unscented. The other was infused with a faint but pleasant floral fragrance. Compared with the participants in the unscented room, those in the perfumed room liked the shoes more, and said they would be willing to pay an average of $10.33 more for them.
- In another study, when Hirsch infused a pleasant aroma into a Las Vegas casino, gamblers happily plunked down 45% to 53% more money. The more intense the fragrance, the more they spent.
- At Duke University, psychologist Susan Schiffman explored how a fragrant aroma might sweeten the interpersonal atmosphere on New York City subways. She had a subtle scent piped into one car, and then compared riders' behavior with the behavior of riders in an adjacent, unscented car. In the scented car, pushing, shoving, and other aggressive acts dropped by as much as 40%.
- Schiffman has also discovered that pleasant floral scents help women cope with the emotional symptoms of menopause: tension, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and confusion. Pleasant aromas appear to suppress negative emotions and allow more positive emotions to express themselves.
- Relaxing fragrances also calm anxious, agitated Alzheimer's sufferers. At a Boulder, Colorado, nursing home, a staff nurse interested in aromatherapy used diffusers -- devices that broadcast fragrances -- to spread a lemon scent around the Alzheimer's unit each morning. Aromatherapists consider lemon a refreshing, wake-up fragrance. In the afternoon, she diffused any of several calming aromas around the unit: chamomile, germanium, lavender, marjoram, rosemary, or ylang-ylang. Staff reports showed that after the introduction of the fragrance program, residents were less hostile, agitated, and disruptive.
- Previous studies have shown that the scent of apples helps relieve pain and anxiety. In one experiment, Alan Hirsch, M.D. gave 50 migraine sufferers two vials: one neutral, the other containing apple oil. The participants were asked to sniff the contents of one vial or the other the moment they developed a migraine and then rate their pain 10 minutes later. They reported significantly less pain after sniffing the apple scent.
- Pleasant aromas stimulate the immune system. At the University of Westminster, in England, psychologist Angela Clow, Ph.D. exposed blindfolded subjects to a neutral odor (water), an unpleasant smell (rotten meat), or a pleasant fragrance (freshly melted chocolate), and then tested their saliva for an important component of the immune system, immunoglobulin A (IgA). The water reduced IgA, presumably because of the stress of being blindfolded. The rotten meat reduced IgA even more. But the chocolate aroma prevented any IgA decrease.
- Finally, in a pleasant-smelling environment, people are found to be more productive. Robert Baron, Ph.D., a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, gave 120 students two mental tasks: proofreading, and unscrambling letters to form words. Half of the students worked in an unscented room, while half worked in a room containing a floral fragrance. Those in the scented room performed the exercise 25% better.
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Common Uses
- Relaxation
- Pain relief
- Mood elevation
Historical and Folkloric Use
Scientists have discovered the power of fragrance only recently, but cultures around the world have recognized it for thousands of years. The perfume industry is one of the world's oldest trades. The Bible records brisk trade in such aromatic herbs as frankincense, myrrh, and cinnamon. As Cleopatra awaited the arrival of Marc Antony, she had her servants fill the entryway ankle-deep with rose petals, hoping that the fragrance would open him to her seductive charms. From all accounts, it did.
Cleopatra's aromatic greeting was no accident. Ancient Egyptian physicians routinely used aromatic plant oils to treat mental health problems, among them the disorder we know now as depression. The ancient Chinese and early India's Ayurvedic physicians also used aromatic oils therapeutically. In the fourth century B.C., Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, reportedly said, "The way to health is to have an aromatic bath and scented massage every day." Around the same time, another Greek physician, Theophrastus, wrote the first aromatherapy treatise, Concerning Odors.
In Europe, after the fall of Rome, perfumes became rare and the medical use of aromatic oils virtually died out. But aromatherapy survived in the Middle East. The 10th-century Arab physician Avicenna wrote an entire book on the healing benefits of rosewater. The Arabs' Muslim religion may have been blasphemy to Christian Crusaders, but the Europeans who traveled to the Holy Land became quick converts to their enemy's perfumes and aromatic medical preparations. Perfumes captivated European royalty, especially in France, which became the world capital of perfumery. Today, perfumes are a $6 billion a year industry worldwide. But aromatic oils' medicinal uses were largely lost in the West until Gattefosse burned his arm in the 1920s.
Essential "oil" is somewhat misleading. The oils used in aromatherapy don't feel anywhere near as oily as say, olive oil. But chemically they are oils. They do not mix with water, but mix well with vegetable oils.
Plant oils are also incredibly concentrated. For a chamomile bath, it might take several handfuls of fresh or dried flowers but only a few drops of chamomile oil. One drop of an essential oil is the approximate aromatic equivalent of one ounce of its parent-plant material.
Essential oils can be extracted from their parent plants in several ways, but typically the process used is distillation, which science historians believe was developed in ancient Egypt to produce aromatic embalming fluids.
No matter which part of the plant they come from, all essential oils have the same purposes -- to keep the plant from becoming dehydrated and to protect it from predators, particularly microorganisms. Because they have an antimicrobial mission, all essential oils are antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal, attributes that make them quite useful to us humans as antiseptics. Thyme oil was once widely used as a disinfectant in hospitals, and it's still the active ingredient in Listerine. Essential oils also repel insects. Pennyroyal oil is the standard active ingredient in natural flea collars for dogs and cats.
Dosage and Administration
Add a few drops of essential oil to a small, capped vial. When you want a whiff, uncap the vial, inhale, and recap.
You can allow the oil to slosh around the vial, but aromatherapists generally recommend placing a chip of rock salt in the vial, and allowing it to absorb the oil. The salt does not interfere with your ability to sniff the fragrance, but it does prevent spilling.
Storage
Essential oils must be stored carefully in brown or dark vials away from heat, light, and dampness. When not in use, keep them tightly closed. Aromatherapists differ on the shelf life of essential oils, but most say they last for at least two years.
Another way to use essential oils is to mix them into vegetable oil or skin lotion and apply them as massage lotion.
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How to Use Essential Oils Safely
- NEVER INGEST ESSENTIAL OILS -- they should never be taken by mouth. When eaten, surprisingly small amounts -- as little as a teaspoon -- can be fatal. Be sure to keep your essential oils safely away from children.
- A few oils -- among them, clove and bergamot -- are phototoxic. In the presence of sunlight, they stain the skin brown.
- Finally, any essential oil massaged into the skin may cause allergic irritation in some people. Be careful if you have sensitive skin.
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Websites, Organizations & Manufacturers
- Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation
Water Tower Place
845 North Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 938-1047
Sources & Further Reading
Books
1. Keville, Kathi and Mindy Green. Aromatherapy: A Complete Guide to the Healing Art. Freedom, CA: Crossing Press, 1995.
Find more books on health and wellness at  barnesandnoble.com.
Articles
1. Flanagan, N. "Clinical Use of Aromatherapy in Alzheimer's Patients," Alternative and Complementary Therapies, 11-95.
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