Aromatherapy

Rene Maurice Gattefosse' in the early 1900's fathered aromatherapy, as we know it today. He was interested in using essential oils, the aromatic or volatile part of a plant, as medicine to treat people. Before he began using these oils with people, he tested them on dogs and horses. When he was pleased with the results, he began working with people and through his studies and those of others that would follow modern aromatherapy was founded.

The term aromatherapy can be very misleading. There are products in our stores that are called aromatherapy products. Mango shampoo, strawberry candles, honeysuckle bubble bath, and others profess to be aromatherapy products just because they have a scent. An aromatherapist would not use these products as they are made with fragrances. Fragrances are synthetic materials made in laboratories. Essential oils used in aromatherapy are not synthetic but come from real plants. Usually they are steam distilled.

Essential Oils

How do you tell if an oil is real or synthetic? If it comes in a clear bottle, inexpensive, powerful scent, and has a fruit name like apple, banana, cherry, coconut, grape, watermelon or some floral name like lilly of the valley, hyacinth, sweet pea, or wisteria, these are give a ways that the oil is not real but cooked in the lab. True essential oils are always in a dark bottle with varying degrees of prices. A bottle (10ml) of real steam distilled rose oil is over $100. Then some oils can be inexpensive like peppermint at $5. Essential oils have a variety of scents. They can be very pleasant to smell as well as medicinal and there are some that do not smell good at all. Usually essential oils are sold with common and scientific names so you can identify the plant source. Then there is the country of origin. Fragrances come from labs not countries. Then there should be information on how they are processed. Usually this will be steam distillation.

Not all animals can be treated the same. What applies for a horse may not apply to a dog. One must be careful using essential oils with cats. Essential oils can be toxic to cats. They process differently than dogs and sometimes they just cannot metabolize the essential oils and they act like toxins building up in their body. Sometimes this can cause death. So we do need to be careful when using these oils.

Essential oils are very concentrated. It takes pounds of plant material to make a few drops of oil. An animal may have no problem with the plant but have a bad reaction to the oil. Many will tell you that it is natural and could not possibly harm you. You know better. Essential oils can harm you if used incorrectly.

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