Part I: Essential Oils
The Course presents the true nature of essential oils, especially what it means that they derive from living organisms. It analyses the issues of purity and quality beyond the current, mostly marketing driven narratives.
What are Essential Oils?
Their chemical and biological nature is explained.
Production Methods
Steam distilling and cold pressing of aromatic plants produces classic essential oils. Other extraction methods such as CO2 or solvent extraction can produce oils of similar or sometimes substantially different chemical composition. The specific qualities of extracts produced by these different methods are discussed.
Course Content Part 1 »
Part II: Chemistry of essential oils
While the Course introduces concepts which go beyond chemistry to explain essential oil properties, it is still essential and necessary to understand how the chemical structures of essential oil components translate into energetics and basic properties.
Molecular Structure and Therapeutic Properties
Essential oil chemistry is not as daunting as it may first appear. There are only twelve major families of chemical components found in essential oils. These twelve chemical families are all you need to know to understand the principal healing properties of most essential oils based on a conventional pharmacological perspective.
The Graph on the Left represents the Structure Effect diagram of Helichrysum italicum essential oil. Calming esters combine with antiiflammatory sesquiterpene hydrocarbons and radical scavenging Diketones.
Course Content Part 2 »
Part III: BEYOND CHEMISTRY biology and TCM Narratives
Current Perspectives
The current perspective explaining the efficacy of essential oils is largely derived from conventional pharmacology. Accordingly healing properties of oils arise from the molecular structures of their chemical components.
Interestingly Chinese Medical Aromatherapy embraces exactly those essential oil phenomena, namely variability of composition and their sensory impact, which present problems for conventional pharmacology.
Chinese Medical Aromatherapy
In the perspective of Chinese Medical Aromatherapy essential oil efficacy arises from three phenomena.
Molecular Biology
Molecular Biology has discovered many cellular mechanisms by which the anti-inflammatiory and antitumor properties of essential oil components are mediated.
Course Content Part 3 »
Part IV: treatment of disease
Medical Aromatherapy
Part IV of the Course presents the more rigorous medical aspects of French Style aromatherapy. It surveys the classic research from the 1960s through the 1980s showing the pharmacological properties of EO components ranging from expectorant and mucolytic to sedative and spasmolytic, and many more.
The Antiviral Properties of Essential OIls
30 years ago conventional medicine did not offer effective antiviral drugs.
Medical Protocols
The second segment of Part IV discusses the underlying perspectives of phytomedical infection treatments
Course Content Part 4 »
Part V: CONTEMPORARY formulating
Goldenrod (Solidago virgaurea or canadiensis) is a most valuable oil for effective blends: it imparts many valuable properties while being entirely non irritant and even beneficial for the kidneys.
Contemporary Formulating
Modern aromatherapy blends always address the whole person, even when we create compositions to address specific issues.
Scope of Part V
The chapters of Part V introduce in some detail todays most effective ways to treat viral, bacterial and fungal infections. It offers proven suggestions for chronic inflammationa, metabolics diseases and liver detoxification. It discusses scar treatment, psoriasis and eczema. There are suggestions for improving immune response and to ameliorate allergies.
Course Content Part 5 »
Part VI: future dynamics
What is New?
There are many exciting developments in aromatherapy almost at any given time. Today, data from cellular and molecular biology fuel the inspiration of individuals in the community, who take it upon themselves to try out in real life what the laboratory data suggest.
Essential Oils and Cancer
It is uncertain whether or not the large number of laboratory data on the antitumor properties of essential oils will translate into stand alone cancer treaments. What has been established through convincing clinical research is the ability of essential oils to mitigate side effects of chemo and radiation therapy.
Oils of Asian Origin
Many Asian essential oils are derived from rhizomes or resins.
Course Content Part 6 »
