Aromatherapy and Essential Oils

Establishing a Set of Ethics continued...

Organic and Wild-Crafted

Repeatedly articles in this journal discredited the labeling of oils as being from organic and wild-crafted sources. The argument was, that organic oils hardly exist and if at all only at prices and quantities which are prohibitive for aromatherapy use, except for strictly medicinal internal use. Essential oils from wild-crafted sources either would not exist or their production would endanger the particular species. I would like to take the occasion to correct these common misunderstandings, based on my experience of working for the last 10 years with distillers around the globe. Over the last 10 years, an increasing number of distillers have been certified as organic producers. Not only in France, Italy, Spain and other European countries distillers had been certified, but also in developing countries like Egypt and Madagascar. The advantage of these oils is not only that the plants have been growing without artificial pesticides and fertilizers, but differently than most other essential oils they have been produced for aromatherapy purposes and their purity is ensured by the certification. The higher cost of these oils usually stays within limits. It is not different from organic vegetables. Organic farming is more expensive in some cases, in others it is not. For example ylang ylang does not require any fertilization nor any pesticides. The oil is by default organic. A certified organic ylang ylang oil requires only the cost of certification.

For wild-crafted oils the situation is again not as simple. Many oils like the conifer oils come always from wild-crafted plants. On the other hand, many labiatae which often are cultivated, can also be harvested from wild-crafted sources. Most of these plants are abundantly available. In Turkey alone, the annual harvest of oregano herb from wild-crafted sources is 40 Million metric tons. There is no risk of depleting the species. Spike lavender, rosemary, red thyme, sage are wild-crafted and distilled by smaller and larger distillers in Spain. Even in a situation like the helichrysum italicum where the increasing demand of the oil cannot be met anymore, the species as such is not endangered. The plant propagates through the roots which is not affected by picking the flowers. There are two endangered species from which an oil is distilled, sandalwood and rosewood. In both cases the threat does not come from the essential oil production. In the former, the species is well protected by the Indian government (which results in limited quantities of oil available). For the latter, the endangerment comes from the lumber industry in South America, which unfortunately is determined to produce high quality furniture until the last rosewood tree is cut. The essential oil is distilled from saw dust and otherwise unusable wood pieces and therefore does not increase the cutting of the trees. As in the case of sandalwood, the oil is limited and pure quality is difficult to procure. I believe that a holistic approach will require, that our ethics will consider ecological, economical and social aspects of the production of the oils we are using.

Considering the young history of modern day aromatherapy, its complex nature and its struggle to separate itself out from the fragrance industry, there is a high ethical standard establishing itself among a significant core group of practitioners, educators, and manufacturers, in particular among the ones organized in NAHA. I believe this group has the potential to give AT the recognition of a truly ethical healing art.