We recently received this story via email from one of our South African distillers and would love to share it with you:

We have a very poor community in Bela Bela who have quite a lot of land available to them because of the size of their tribal boundaries. ( Bela Bela is about 4 hours drive from Johannesburg where our offices are)

About one year ago, the community, represented by Mr Lelaka, decided to allocate some of the land to growing essential oil crops. Mr Lelaka contacted us last year to ask for funding and education on farming essential oils.

They received a small donation from a private bank investment which allowed them to build a small nursery, clear natural land and put basic irrigation on the land from a river which flows through their land. We were able to fund Organic geranium plants to help them get started.

We also have joined with them to try to find more funding to expand. We have met with them on numerous occasions (at our offices and on their land) to give advice and educate them on how the grow geraniums successfully. We prepared a 21 page presentation for them to allow them to use the presentation as a marketing tool to try get funding.

They are wanting to expand to alternate crops and to clear more land.

Last week, out of the blue, I got a call from a lady named Desiree who was in a panic. Her story is that she had been growing wild lemongrass in her little farm in Bela Bela for a while and cultivating it.  The lemongrass plants were healthy and covered almost three quarters of a hectare.  Desiree had recently sold her farm and had just heard that the new owner was going to pull out all her lemongrass to plant strawberries – that same week!

This upset Desiree because she felt that all her effort and time had gone into growing each lemongrass plant and now they were going to be thrown out for compost. Desiree contacted me at the last minute in desperation to try to find out if we can do something with the lemongrass plants (even distill them to at least get some oil from her hard work).

So I contacted Mr Laleka who has been waiting for funding since October last year and asked him if he had a way to move the plants. Unfortunately, a large truck would be needed to collect all the plants and there was no one who could help out immediately. I spoke to Mr Lelaka to explain that if he could collect the lemongrass, it could be used as a natural insect repellent for the geranium crop. We discussed planting the lemongrass among the geranium or around it and also the yield which lemongrass has for the amount of oil it can produce (a very high yield). Mr Lelaka found a friend in the area who had a small pick-up and a trailer. They immediately drove to the lemongrass farm (while the strawberry tractors were waiting to plough the ground) and pulled out as many plants as possible and packed the pickup and trailer as full as possible.

It turns out that the lemongrass will be sufficient to be planted on the perimeter of the geranium field and will act as an insect repellent for the geranium crops. The lemongrass will also yield oil which we can purchase from Mr Lelaka.

So all in all, it was a great success: Most of Desiree’s plants were saved and Mr Lelaka and the community received many lemongrass plants at no cost. We are now going to wait for the new crop to settle down in its new environment and then we will harvest and distill the lemongrass to see the quality of the oil and then we can plan how much should be propagated for future oil sales.

Florihana is a distillery in the south of France. This is their mission statement:

“At the foundation of our commitment to create the Florihana distillery were two main aims: respect for nature and development of highly therapeutic certified organic products for aromatherapists.”

I believe they have accomplished both!

Florihana uses organic farming techniques for plants under cultivation.  Any wild plants are harvested from sustainable sources with respect to their ecosystems. They have an exclusive distillation process set up and they use very low temperatures to distill their plants.

They offer you the complete botanical name and chemotype, distillation date and batch number on all their labels. Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) reports are given for every batch on their website. The only other website I know that does this is Aromatics International, in Montana, USA.

Florihana sells organic essential oils, hydrosols, carrier oils, and soaps. They make organic cosmetics, honey, massage oils and more. You can purchase small sizes on their website; a wonderful feature for a distillery! The shipping is rather high, so it makes sense to purchase more items, or share an order with a few friends. Tell Alain that Andrea from Aromahead sent you (no affiliate program, I am just a big fan!).

Cary Caster, an Aromahead Institute graduate, has created an innovative and exciting new essential oil company called 21 Drops. The 21 Drops website’s homepage begins with this:

“21 Drops is a thoroughly modern line of therapeutic grade essential oils. Our artisan blends are 100% natural, organic or wild crafted. Tried, tested and incredibly effective. Designed for use anytime, anywhere. 21 Drops. Aromatherapy like you’ve never known it”.

When you click on the 21 Drops “About” page you find this wonderful expression of who they are:

“Exotic in origin, ancient in derivation, proven in application. At 21 Drops, we’ve taken what we already know, have known for millennia, about the healing properties of plants, and combined it with what we know about our bodies, hearts and minds. The result? Aromatherapy in a little black dress. Beautifully portable, reassuringly time-honored, incredibly effective. With plenty of science behind it. From Hippocrates himself, who mixed powder from the bark and leaves of willow trees to cure headaches, pain and fever – his discovery would lead to the formulation, some two thousand years later, of modern day aspirin. To French chemist Rene-Maurice Gattefosse who stumbled across the medicinal properties of lavender oil when treating his burned arm – giving rise to our current use of therapeutic essentials.

As for a history of plants and their essences – well that speaks for itself. Three Wise Men brought them for Christmas. Herodotus documented their use throughout the Arabian Peninsula. And the ancient Egyptians buried 50 alabaster jars of them with their favorite pharaoh. In fact, references to plant medicine are found as far back as recorded history, painted on the walls of the Lascaux caves.

So with those credentials, why be shy? At 21 Drops, we state our intentions upfront, on every perfectly designed bottle. To motivate and invigorate, enhance and support, balance and soothe, digest, decongest or just rest. Our oils have been created with a commitment in mind, to counteract the depleting effects of our everyday lives. We’d like to think nature gives us perfect ingredients”.

As you might have guessed, they offer 21 blends, all in travel size roll on glass bottles. Jojoba and essential oil blends for headaches, anxiety, pain, digestion, sleep and more. Take a tour of the 21 Drops website.

Featured in W magazine this month!

As educators, we have the privilege of reading and grading research papers written by students with many perspectives and unique insights. Tomoko is an Aromahead Institute online Aromatherapy Certification Program student. She recently submitted her research paper and I asked her permission to share the end of her paper with you.

“We all are living with nature’s blessings. From plants, we have gotten food, and medicine which heals out bodies and clears our minds. We can get energy from trees and plants by inhaling their oxygen. Plants help us continuously.

Now, the Earth is being harmed with deep scars. Now it is harder to restore the earth. We can use essential oils rather than synthetic detergents to clean our kitchens and house. Each small step in the world can help to clean the oceans and rivers. Aromatherapy is fun, feels good, and fills the room with pleasant scents from nature. We can use it in everyday life. People may become healthy and full of vitality. If a lot of people heal themselves at a deep level, the earth might heal as well.

Aromatherapy is one of the gifts from the natural world. People can become more friendly with this and they might start to listen carefully to nature’s voice”

Written by Tomoko Matsukawa, Japan, 2010
Email: tomokoferguson@hotmail.com

Bergamot Mint (Mentha citrata) is one of my favorite essential oils. The oil is made up of  two significant components, linalol and linalyl acetate. The aroma is minty with citrus undertones and very fresh!

So what is significant about linalol and linalyl acetate?

Properties of linalol: airborne antimicrobial, analgesic (always welcomed!), calming, antibacterial, antifungal (candida), anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antispasmodic, antiviral, CNS sedative, hypotensive, stimulants the immune response

Properties of linalyl acetate: analgesic , anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, CNS sedative, stimulates the immune response

Wow! Pretty excellent for one essential oil.

I  like to use Bergamot Mint for cooling and calming blends (a must for menopause). It is emotionally uplifting and at the same time soothing for the nervous system. It is great for nausea,  pain, to reduce anxiety and stress, and for reducing fear and panic. Try it in an inhaler…

At Aromahead Institute we make travel kits during the Aromatherapy Certification Program. Below is a list of all the various blends we made in small travel size bottles (such cute bottles). Each person chose 10 of these blends to make and all ten blends easily fit into a small quart size clear plastic travel bag!

Hand cleanser
Hand and body soap
Headache blend
Nausea blend
Jet Lag remedy
Microbes mist
Insomnia relief
Pain and spasms blend
Emotional balance spritz
Digestion lotion
Bug Spray
Cooling mist
Solid perfume
Deodorant
Body butter
Toothpaste

Some of these recipes can be found for free on the Aromatics International recipes page.  What are your favorite blends and products to travel with?

Visiting Aliksir Distillery was the highlight of our recent trip to Canada. The farm is located in Grondines, a small rural municipality of the Comté de Portneuf bordering the St-Lawrence River in Quebec. Aliksir has been producing essential oils since 1988. It has always been a family business focused on medicinal plants and healing with essential oils.

I love visiting essential oil distillers. All the distillers I have met over the years are farmers dedicated to the earth, to plants, and all have a deep love of nature. Meeting Lucy, the owner of Aliksir, and her daughter Estelle, was no exception and proved to be a deeply inspiring experience. Lucy has dedicated her life to creating an organic farm that distills the most beautiful essential oils with the utmost care. Her son built 2 of the 4 stills, and they take good care of their equipment.

Estelle took us on a muddy and fun tour of the fields of Melissa, Yarrow, Peppermint, and Sweet Gale. We saw their stills, the lab, the teaching space for their local classes, the storage facilities and their incredibly beautiful boutique. We also had the chance to play with their new kitten, I fell in love! We almost took him home…but there was the issue of the border control…forget smuggling oils, I wanted the kitten!

One of my favorite oils from Aliksir is Balsam Poplar. (Populus balsamifera) It has an incredible balsamic, sweet, exotic, resinous, woody, aroma. Lucy had explained to me a few years ago that the oil was expensive because they distill it from the twigs and buds at spring. Buds oleoresin and the yield is rather small, not to mention it is cut by hand and then chopped in this wild looking chopper (pictured below), and then distilled for many hours.

The oil has about 23% a-bisabolol, a component proven to have a strong anti-inflammatory effect. It is an excellent addition to German Chamomile and Helichrysum in any injury blend and for rheumatism and arthritis. It also has the unique aspect of being antispasmodic, and offers an analgesic effect. Balsam Poplar is an amazing oil for scars and wound healing. The oil has a deeply nourishing effect.

Lucy explained to us that after the balsam poplar is distilled, they can do a second extraction to produce an oleoresin from the buds. She had some samples of this oleoresin and I loved the aroma. She offered to produce some for us next spring when the Balsam Poplar is being distilled. They only make a tiny amount of this oleoresin, so I feel very fortunate! She gave me a tiny sample of the oleoresin mixed with the essential oil, what a treasure.

The Balsam Poplar trees are actually 10 hours from their farm! They have farmers who cut the branches for them in the spring and truck them down to the distillery! Most of the conifer trees were not on their land, they have to go to great efforts to acquire the needles for distillation. This has motivated them to start a project for the Balsam Poplar. They have hundreds of baby Poplar trees started in their greenhouse. The plan is to dig lakes and to build filtrating floating islands and to solidify the chore with Sweet Gale and Balsam Poplar trees.  Pictured below is Lucy’s Sweet Gale cuttings.

Another exciting aspect to our visit was our discussion about hydrosols. Lucy explained that as long as the bottles are sterilized before pouring the hydrosol into them, the hydrosols can last for several years. She drinks them, cooks with them and integrates them into her life on a daily basis. Estelle and Lucy took us to a sweet little cafe for lunch where the owners use their oils and hydrosols in the food! We had a home made pizza with local cheeses and their essential oils in the topping! In typical French fashion we ate delicious food, drank too much coffee and of course had a rich and wonderful desert of chocolate cake and blueberry cheesecake.

What moved me the most in our 7 hours at the distillery (and at lunch!) was the feeling of the place. All the people working at Aliksir are like family. I knew I had come across a very special place with extraordinary people and exceptional essential oils.

To visit the Aliksir website: www.aliksir.com

Airline travel is a source of stress for almost everyone.  Between fear of flying, cramped seats, luggage restrictions and security lines, it’s easy to see why those terminal bars are packed with people grabbing a pre-flight cocktail.  (Skip the drink next time you fly, it will only make you dehydrated and cranky!)

Travel stress can do a real number on your immune system.  To top that off, airline travel exposes you to a concentrated batch of germs and bacteria.  If you take steps to ward off illness, you have a much better chance of enjoying your travels after you land.

Here are some tips:

• Drink LOTS of water.  It’s worth the extra trips to the lavatory.
• Wash your hands before you eat and as soon as you depart the plane.
• Try to rest if you can, especially on long flights.
• Bring an aromatherapy inhaler to help you relax and fight stress

Lastly, consider using a special essential oil blend for traveling.  Andrea Butje recently formulated this one for Winter travel:

Travel Blend

50% Black Spruce, Picea mariana
25% Cedarwood, Juniperus virginiana
25% Saro, Cinnamosma fragrans

Blend in Jojoba oil or another gentle carrier oil.  (This is for short-term, concentrated use, so it’s okay to blend at a higher dilution than normal.  Trust your instincts and skin test for irritation before you fly!)

The blend smells great—deep, complex and nourishing!   Apply to your wrists, behind the ears and on your neck to help keep your personal space healthy and germ free.

During cold and flu season, you can use this blend as a part of your “general protection” plan.

Happy and safe travels!

Aromatics International rang in 2008 with a trip to Italy in search of Bergamot! Happily for all of us, we were able to find a wonderful producer of bergamot in the “toe” of Italy, in the region of Calabria. After an enchanting 2 days in Rome, we flew to Calabria, and continued by car along the Mediterranean sea on a beautiful, twisting road through small towns and sweeping inland landscapes of Southern Italy.

We found Giuseppe or rather Giuseppe found us, huddled in our chilly hotel room (the south of Italy is COLD in early January!). He and his sister took us to their farm, where we were greeted by the family pig and acres of lush bergamot orchards. With much body language and laughter (little English spoken here, and no Italian from us…) we were able to learn about the process of abrasion and centrifugal extraction of bergamot oil. As each drop of the essential oil came out of the pipes, we grew more and more appreciative of the work and dedication Giuseppe and all of the small farmers/producers of essential oil maintain each day to provide the world with the beauty of these oils. We now carry Giuseppe’s oils on Aromatics International.

Winter is the perfect time for bergamot and indeed, all of the citrus oils as they uplift our spirits, seeming to carry the scent of the sun with them! We have been filling our diffuser with bergamot and grapefruit frequently these days, and filling our senses with the joy of their aromas.

Suggested blends to bring a little more sunshine into your day:

For the diffuser:

Mix 5 drops each of bergamot, grapefruit, and orange.

See more Bergamot pictures from Italy