Archive for the ‘Aromatherapy Essential Oil Recipes’ Category
Guidelines before buying oil
June 18th, 2009
How do we know we\’re buying a good-quality essential oil?
Objectively:
-suppliers mentioning the above garantees
-Analyses made by HRCG
-If referring to a quality label: this should be issued by an
independent organisation. (There is none at present.)
What should be written on the bottles/labels?
-parts of the plant used
(You can have an essential oil made from the peel, leaves or flowers,
for example from Citrus aurantium )
How to Blend and Use Aromatherapy Oils : Aromatherapy Healing Effects of Lavender Oil
How to understand the healing effects of lavender aromatherapy oil; get expert tips and advice on aromatherapy ingredients and techniques in this free personal health video.
-Latin name :
This is the ONLY way to be able to understand someone from another country
talking about essential oils
(In some countries like mine we can mention this only on the price list:
If it\’s mentioned on the bottles, regulators can interpret it as
referring to a medicine that can only be sold in a pharmacy…)
-chemotyping constituents:
Some herbs that produce essential oils can produce very different
essential oils, though they all have the same botanical name,
for instance basil, thyme or rosemary.
Thyme can contain a majority of the component linalol, or of thymol,
or of carvacrol… and thus have different medical actions, so it should be
specified: Thyme ct linalol)
-Country of origin:
It sometimes makes a big difference (Lavender – France, Bulgaria, USA…)
-Designation :
An essential oil obtained with solvents should be described on the bottle as
an absolute.
An essential oil obtained in synergy with another essential oil (for
instance Melissa officinalis, Lippia citriodora, Spirea ulmaria, Tilia
silvestris…) should be described on the bottle as a co-distilled
essential oil.
Posted in 
Tags: 
Lavandula officinalis Chaix (syn. Lavandula angustifolia Miller)(Labiatae)
June 18th, 2009
Ancient names:
Nardos, Nardostachus (Gr)
Pseudonardus foemina/masculinum (Lat)
How to Blend and Use Aromatherapy Oils : Stress Relieving Aromatherapy Massage Oil
How to combine aromatherapy oils to make a stress relieving massage oil; get expert tips and advice on aromatherapy ingredients and techniques in this free personal health video.
Lavender is part of the Labiatae family, comprising a lot of aromatic herbs: thyme, savory, oregano, peppermint, sage etc…
We now find lavender or lavandin on all the continents: tradition tells us that French lavender originated in Persia or the Canary Isles. We find lavender around the Mediterranean, North America, Australia (Tasmania)…
M Felix Eysseric said that he found lavender in Sweden, adapted to the bitter winter cold and probably protected by the snow.
\”Lavandula Officinalis (in several varieties) grows wild in the south of France, in Italy, Corsica and Yugoslavia. It is cultivated widely all over the world, however not always succesfully. Some of these areas are in Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cyprus, England, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, U.S.S.R, Spain, Tanganyika, Tasmania, Turkey and Yugoslavia.
There is some experimental cultivation and distillation in the far western state of Washington, USA.
English distilled lavender oil from English grown lavender plants deserves special mention. (maybe in another post since I will be focussing on French lavender).
Of the other countries mentioned, only Italy is exporting quantities of any significance.
The production in Tasmania is mainly absorbed by Australia; Japan produces 2-3 metric tons per year which is far from sufficient for its own needs, and even the Russian production does not cover local consumtion.
The annual production in France varies from about 50 metric tons to almost 100 tons.
It is difficult, however, to establish accurate figures for the production of this oil since it is subject to very extensive cutting, adulteration and other kinds of \”handling\” during which processes many other locally
distilled oils and synthetic perfume materials are used in quantity.\”
1961
\”Although lavender has been taxonomically classified as Lavandula vera de Candolle, L.officinalis
Chaix and L.angustifolia Mill., it is the latter name which is the correct derivation for the commercially grown aromatic member of the Labiatae family (Tucker and Hensen 1985) …The French oil excels all other types in quality, possessing a characteristic sweetness of odor; certain sections of Southern France produce lavender oils with a high ester content unequaled elsewhere.
Other producing regions:
Italy, Southern Russia, Hungary, England, Australia (Tasmania), United States….\”
Historical use of Lavender essential oils.
Analyse of lavender oils
Wild lavender and cultures of lavender and lavandins:
There are in France three \”Lavender\” growing wild:
-Lavandula vera
-Lavandula stoechas
-Lavandula spica
From this one there are some \”subspecies\”:
-Lavandula vera DC or Lavandula officinalis Chaix. It grows from 700-1800 meter altitude in the Haute Provence, France. The best quality comes from more than 1000 meter.
There are two natural varieties of the Lavandula vera: -variety \”Fragrans\”, preferring dry ground with a lot of sun -variety \”Delphinensis\”, preferring the fresh valleys and more from the sun protected places.
Naturally, in the altitude around 700-800 meters there is a contact with the Lavandula vera and the Lavandula spica, thus creating through the bees a natural hybrid form, known as \”Lavandin\”.
These \”Lavandins\” have intermediar properties of their \”parents\” and are habitually sterile.
The first plantations of \”Lavandins\” came from transplantations of wild ones to adapted fields,but only in 1925 the technique of cloning was developped and enabled the apparition of several clones.
There is a very important reason for this \”cloning\” because the yield can be 2-5 times higher compared with Lavandula vera.
Clones:
The first succesfull clone was the Lavandin abriale (made by prof. Abriale), and had a huge succes from 1930 on, replacing most of the transplantations.
a plant disease \”fatigue\” appeared and the abrialis was partly replaced by the Lavandin super. Lavandin abrialis was almost completely left behind later by the Lavandin Grosso. (from 1975 on)
In fact, Lavandin abrialis represents less than 10 percent of the production in France.
Lavandin grosso. This clone was developped by M. Grosso, from Gault (Vaucluse).
This clone is robust and productive and became very popular from 1972-1975 onwards. Lavandin Grosso represents 3/4 of the cultivated production areas, and in certain regions more than 90 percent (Plateau de Valensole).
The yield of Lavandin grosso is three times greather than the Abrialis clone.
Chemically, Lavandin super and Lavandin abrialis are closest to the original Lavandula vera.
There are other lavandin clones, less known: the 41/70, Special Grégoire, 33/70, Sumian etc…
