Comments on a response from
Chrissie Wildwood, over a letter from the Aromatherapy Trade Council (UK):By
Tony Burfield
I would like to point browsers to Martin Watt’s website (see link below),
to read a reply by Chrissie Wildwood to an article entitled “Environmental
Issues and Aromatherapy” by Sylvia Baker representing the Aromatherapy Trades
Council (ATC). This first appeared in Natural Medicines Society's Newsletter,
Spring 2003.
Meanwhile here are some additional comments:
Personally I find it rather curious that Sylvia Baker on behalf of the ATC,
should advocate a policy, which continues the exploitation of Rosewood species
(see link), rather than look for possible alternatives. Sylla Sheppard-Hanger
and I have just completed an article for inclusion in the next edition of Aromatherapy
Today, which attempts to follows the BMA’s replacement policy on this; I
quote a small section of the article:
“Part of a proposal by the Botanical Medicinal Academy (BMA) recommends
investigation of the use of substitute plants for endangered or threatened
plants (Yarnell E. & Abascal K. 2001). In the absence of any lead in this
direction from any professional aromatherapy organisation, and with the BMA’s
policy in mind, the properties of Brazilian rosewood oil (Aniba spp.) is
now considered, and possible suitable replacement oils are examined.”
Further it was red rag to a bull for Sylvia to make this statement:
“With wood oils, such as rosewood and sandalwood, the trade is fully aware of the need for sustainable sources and the governments involved have strict procedures in place to control production.”
The failure of the loggers to comply with the Brazilian government’s legal
requirement to replace felled rosewood trees with an equivalent number of
replanted ones, is precisely what has deepened this crisis. Further, the
“strict procedures in place to control production” did not actually stop
many essential oil traders importing smuggled sandalwood oil from India by the
ton in the past few years. It just makes me wonder where the ATC was in stopping
this semi-universal practice - surely it was aware it was going on?
And again:
“Responsible essential oil
traders that are members of trade associations, such as the ATC, are able to
trace their supplies of essential oils back to their origins.”
That’s an amazing statement. Rosewood
oil shipped from the States is universally acknowledged to contain synthetic
linalol – its called US quality. Please verify this by looking at any
reference book – Coppen (1995) page 30 says: “American oil, … is stretched
by addition of synthetic linalol to give a slightly lower price oil”. Unless
your ATC members universally purchase from companies shipping out of Manaus (and
to my certain knowledge they don’t) then its ‘origin’ is some vat in the
backyard of an aroma chemical company’s premises. Many buyers regard that the
only way of certifying Rosewood oil quality is not by any sort of reliance in
tracing back to origin, but by actual chemical analysis of the oil - here
eremophilene levels are taken as a quality indicator by some analysts (see
article mentioned above).
Fiddles with Sandalwood “oil” are even more extensive… perhaps that
subject can be explored another time, producers employing solvent extraction of
the spent distillation saw dust wastes to produce an “oil” which is added
back to the low pressure steam distilled oil have caused me some particular
problems in recent weeks….
“All in all, it is fair to say
that while the aromatherapy industry must remain ever vigilant, it is not the
villain in the demise of plants. Other
much larger industries, such as the pharmaceutical industry, must take much of
the responsibility for this and campaigners should be targeting those larger
industries that really can make a difference to sustainable sources.”
We all have different experiences,
but I personally believe that the ethics of some aromatherapy oil sellers are
considerably poorer than those I have experienced in international companies who
have their reputations to consider. But basically this is a disgraceful pro-AT
industry cop-out – Sylvia is playing the politician by saying it’s somebody
else’s problem. It isn’t. It’s everybody’s problem.
….To see the article you just need to follow the link
… http://193.110.88.40/~aromamedical/conservation.htm