A HEALTHY
PERSPECTIVE
November/December 2018 GASPARILLA ISLAND 41
In some plants, such as cinnamon, the oil is
extracted from the bark. In others the essence
can be found primarily in the leaves, such as in
peppermint oil. With others the roots are the
thing, and in a few it is the peel or needles that
do the trick.
Each type of oil has a different composition
that affects how it smells, tastes, how it is
absorbed and how the body uses it.
Oils have been used around the world for
thousands of years. The Egyptians have a
documented history of the use of oils since
around 4,500 B.C., and still have the most
prominently connoted culture when it comes
to oils. From seasoning their food to using them
as aphrodisiacs to anointing their dead, their
daily lives were wrapped up in the use of
essential oils. But they were not the first culture
to utilize them.
More than 20,000 years ago, in the
Dordogne region of France, cave paintings
depicted the use of oils as medicine. The
aborigines of Australia were smudging and
using oils more than 7,000 years ago, as were
the mainstream denizens of Pakistan.
In 1910 a French chemist named René-
Maurice Gattefossé plunged his hand into a
vat of lavender oil when it was on fire. He was
amazed to find the wounds healed very
quickly and with minimal scarring. Not long
after that, he tried the oil on World War I soldiers
who were burned, and found the same
results. In later years it was discovered that
other plant oils, such as lemongrass, winter
savory,
lemon
myrtle and
tea tree
contain heavy-duty antiseptics.
Many people use a common essential oil
quite often and don’t even realize that’s what it
is. Aloe vera, a common houseplant for Florida
commonly used for burns of all sorts, is an essential
oil. It is considered to be one of the 12
healing plants listed specifically in the Bible. It
was used for perfume, incense and burial ointment.
Frankincense and myrrh are additional
well-known resins/oils mentioned in the Bible,
particularly as the three wise men brought
them as valuable gifts to the Christ child.
Some tales are told of plague doctors in
the1400s using oils of balsam, cinnamon,
clove, frankincense, pine and rosemary to
escape infection while touching plague
victims, after four thieves were charged with
robbing the dead and dying. These thieves
never contracted the plague themselves, and
eventually revealed they had used the
combination of oils above to stay healthy,
hence the essential oil name “Four Thieves.”
As you inhale essential oils, the limbic system
sends the information directly to your brain. It
can have a powerful effect on the memory and
emotions as well as the body.
There are thousands of uses for hundreds of
oils and concoctions thereof, so how do you
know where to start? Many companies
claiming “all natural” oils have sprung up in the
last five years, so it’s hard to know who has the
good stuff and who doesn’t.
To start your quest for the most all-natural,
most-essential oils, it’s best to do some
research. Two popular (and most commonly
found) essential oil companies are doTerra and
Young Living brands, and both of them have a
reputation for having good products. They
have starter kits in many forms: doTerra has a
Chinese collection, a Spanish collection and
larger kits with specific purposes (AromaTouch,
Emotional Aromatherapy, the Yoga Collection,