Scientific Development
By 1896 chemical science was becoming increasingly important. It was thought better to isolate the active therapeutic properties from plants and use them alone, or better still, to synthesize them – a much cheaper exercise, enabling large quantities of a uniform standard to be available (not possible with natural extracts alone). The drugs produced have proved to be very powerful and have an important role to play in modern medicine. However, synthetic copies of nature’s healing materials tend to be toxic and do not appear to have the same respect for living human tissues. They tend to produce numerous side effects (some serious) which then need treatment themselves and a vicious circle is begun. Many of the people in hospital nowadays are there not because of their original illness but because of problems caused by the side effects of the drugs taken (iatrogenic disease). The use of natural materials such as herbs and essential oils does not give rise to ever-increasing dosage, as is the case with synthetics, to which germs may often become resistant.
Enter Aromatherapy!
The early years of this century saw a renewal of interest in natural methods of healing, no doubt stimulated by the unfortunate side effects beginning to be shown after long-term use of drugs. A few scientists began seriously to investigate and research the healing properties of essential oils, Rene Maurice Gattefossé being the most well remembered, probably because it was he who coined the word ‘aromatherapy’. He had been introduced to the use of essential oils by Dr Chabenes, another Frenchman, who had written a book in 1838 on the enormous possibilities of utilizing aromatic material. Gattefossé (and others) used essential oils on the wounds of those who suffered in the terrible trench warfare of 1914–1918. In his research he discovered that essential oils take from 30 minutes to 12 hours to be absorbed totally by the body after rubbing on the skin. (This has since been corroborated by other researchers e.g. Schilcher.3) Gattefossé’s book Aromathérapie was published first in 1937 and is now available in English.
Other pioneers worthy of note are two Italian doctors, Gatti and Cajola, and later Paolo Rovesti, who researched the psychosomatic effects of essential oils.
The use of essential oils under the name ‘aromatherapy’ reached Britain in the late 1950s, after an Austrian, Marguerite Maury, married to a French doctor and homoeopath, became intensely interested in essential oils, both working with them medically and researching their ability to penetrate the skin and to maintain youth. Aromatherapy was not introduced via the medical profession, but via beauty therapists, qualified in massage techniques, which is why, for so many years, aromatherapy has appeared to be ‘a massage using essential oils’. As beauty therapists are not allowed in their code of ethics to ‘treat’ any medical condition, the main application of aromatherapy in Britain was to relieve stress and skin conditions by massage, and only massage. Partly because of this, and partly because much of the information on essential oils was tied up with their use in perfumes, the aromatic compounds called absolutes and resins were introduced alongside essential oils in treatment blends when aromatherapy with massage first appeared on the scene.
Through her lectures, Mme Maury was able to bring her ideas to beauty therapists in England, where she opened a clinic for facial and skin care treatments.
The beauty therapists were not taught how to select essential oils for each individual – selection was a closely guarded secret, for commercial reasons, and all oils used and sold on courses were ready mixed and blended in a vegetable carrier oil. All the courses I attended were like this and, being of an inquiring mind, I began to research the effects of individual oils, using my friends as guinea-pigs. The results spurred me on to prepare a course to teach aromatherapy in a more holistic fashion, teaching students not only to try and discover the cause of the symptoms shown, but to select essential oils individually for each client, and employ other methods of use. (At first I was criticized for giving away ‘secrets’ but soon all accredited courses will teach in this way.) Being already in the teaching profession was a great help, and gradually my classes expanded not only to include students from many different countries but also people from other disciplines, including physiotherapists, nurses, therapeutic massage practitioners and occasionally doctors. Aromatherapy is presently used in many hospitals and a number of beauty therapists now use the therapy in ways other than massage, which, after all, is how it should be!
The book of yet another Frenchman, Dr Valnet, made a great impact on the world of aromatherapy, especially after its translation into English some years ago. During all this time, aromatherapy was being used medically in France (notably by Belaiche, Girault and Pradal), essential oils being prescribed by doctors practising ‘médecines douces’ (gentle, i.e. complementary, medicine – or parallel medicine as it is sometimes known there). Essential oils are stocked by pharmacies, though their purchase price, even when prescribed by a doctor, cannot be reclaimed through health insurance.
The technical book in French, L’aromathérapie exactement, by Pierre Franchomme, an aromatologist, in collaboration with Daniel Penoel, a medical doctor, contains some very valuable and interesting information on essential oils. In most French books the dilutions used are much stronger than a massage-trained aromatherapist would use, or indeed is taught to use. Somewhere along the line aromatherapy, as Gattefossé saw it, has acquired a slightly different interpretation.
Aromatherapy, as we now know it in Britain, has spread to many countries. Norway and Denmark were the first Scandinavian countries to enjoy the revival of essential oils and around the same time it began to develop in the United States and Canada; Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Middle and Far Eastern countries following a little later. We have taught in most of these countries and the demand has necessitated us training teachers in many of them.
It seems right that a return should be made to natural remedies, which have been the mainstay of medicine for centuries. At the beginning of the 20th century, with no doubt the best of intentions, knowledge which had been painstakingly gathered together in many different lands was largely cast aside, and had it not been for the dedicated work and interest shown by a few people, mainly in France and Italy, this invaluable knowledge may have been lost forever.
Aromatherapy or Perfumery?
Plant aromas were extracted by solvent means long before distillation came into general use. The resultant compounds were not essential oils in the true meaning of the word, and were not used as medicines as were herbs. This is important, as there are many aromatherapists today who use absolutes and resins in their work; these are perfume and flavouring extracts and though, by inhalation, they can have an effect on the mind (as can any aroma, natural or synthetic), strictly speaking they are not for use in therapeutic aromatherapy. Nowhere in any French book on the subject are they included (except for benzoin) and as the man who coined the word aromatherapy always used the oils in a strictly medicinal way, i.e. in compresses, inhalations, baths, local applications in ointment form, intramuscular injections and also internally – usually in honey water – this is no doubt the reason for their exclusion.
Some therapists use absolutes and resins (which contain a variable proportion of the solvents used to extract them – see chapter 2) possibly because when therapists began to select their own oils, these were available – and lent a rich aroma to a mix. At that time, none of us knew enough about the chemistry of such oils, nor about the copious adulteration of the exotic oils in particular (see chapter 2).
Research and Clinical Trials
Hundreds of thousands of pounds are spent on research, clinical
