Updated: 12th January 2020 In March 2018, a conference report by a research group at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS, USA), led by Dr Korach, made a lot of noise that reached far beyond the aromatherapy community. The media were full of alarming reports of new evidence of hormone disruption caused by … Read More >
If you’re reading this, you most likely use essential oils. You know your antimicrobial, anxiolytic and anti-inflammatory oils, and probably diffuse your comfort oils to bright up the mood. You might also have some overview of the chemistry of essential oils and how to use them safely.
But have you ever wondered how essential oils work? How they can affect both the body and the mind, and are there different mechanisms at work? Is it important to understand how they work in the first place?
Your romantic images of distillation may quickly be shattered when it comes to savory. Sure, not all aromatic plants are fragrant roses. I got familiar with winter or mountain savory about ten years ago and spent a good amount of time with it: growing it from the seeds, distilling and extracting aromatic constituents, and … Read More >
About ten years ago, when I was distilling tons of aromatic plants for research, I didn’t think much of hydrolats. In fact, I threw away tens of litres before I even knew them as valuable products on their own. A couple of years later, an encounter with orange flower hydrolat roused my interest and initiated … Read More >
We know distillation as the method of producing essential oil and its side product, hydrolat or aromatic water. But we often overlook that those are not the only distillation products. There are two additional products we do not hear much about in the phytotherapeutic world: residual plant material and residual distillation water. They are quite … Read More >
A critical take on the theory after almost 30 years of its existence, featuring 6 international experts in aromatherapy and essential oil research. In aromatherapy, when it comes to essential oil chemistry, things may look surprisingly simple. You may have heard of phrases such as: To prepare a wake-up blend, choose essential oils high in … Read More >
In September, I attended the 48th International Symposium on Essential Oils (ISEO2017), organised by the University of Pécs, Hungary. Pécs is the 5th largest Hungarian city with a rich history and beautiful architecture, located in the middle of the fields near Croatian border and only a few hours drive from Ljubljana where I live. … Read More >
Last updated: May 2018 When we enter the world of aromatic plants, essential oils and aromatherapy, we’re usually all excited and pumped up to try everything. But it is precisely this phase of initial enthusiasm that may pose a threat. We can quickly misinterpret things or start following wrong or even dangerous advice, ending … Read More >
We usually consider our essential oils merely as a reflection of the processes in plants, assuming that plants ‘produce’ and ‘contain’ essential oils, and that distillation is a method to extract them in a pure and concentrated form. After all, they smell just like the plants they come from, right? But only up to a … Read More >
Have you ever bought a bottle of essential oil, only to find out that you already have that same oil but with a different name? Or worse, that you have been using the wrong essential oil, or using it inappropriately? That’s why knowing the botanical or Latin names is important, but that’s not the only … Read More >