Vetiver essential oil is distilled from the washed, dried and chopped roots, rhizomes and rootlets of the tropical grass that goes by the Latin moniker of Vetiveria zizanioides. Although it is native to India, the grass is mainly grown and distilled for its thick and complex essential oil in Java, Sri Lanka, the Reunion…
Blue Oils
While most essential oils are clear or slightly colored, some of them offer a rainbow of hues from dark brown (Vetiver, Patchouli), bright orange (Red Mandarin) and yellow (Turmeric), to beautiful turquoise (Inula), and inky dark blues (Yarrow, German Chamomile, Blue Tansy). These colors are a consequence of the chemical compounds present in the…
Essential Oil Allies: Spanish Lavender
Lavendula stoechas essential oil is obtained by steam distilling the flowering tops of “Spanish” lavender. Like other plants in the lavender genus, this plant seems to have an identity crisis going by several common names: Spanish, French, Arabian, Maritime, Butterfly, Topped, Cotton or Crested lavender. It has been confused with other plants over centuries….
Earth Day: Essential Oils and the Environment
As aromatherapy thrives and becomes, at best, a widely used natural, holistic healing modality, and at worst, a soulless cash cow, it is important to remember that behind each bottle of essential oil is a plant, growing somewhere on the planet. It is easy to forget that fact when essential oils moguls focus on…
Essential Oil Allies: Corkbark Fir
Abies lasiocarpa, known as “subalpine fir” is endemic to North America with several naturally occurring varieties1 —this Allies post focuses on “Corkbark Fir” (Abies lasiocarpa variety arizonica), also known as “Alamo de la Sierra.” Latin names give distinctive clues to identifying a plant: “Abies” is simply “fir tree” and the epithet “lasiocarpa” means “woolly seed/fruit,”…
Essential Oil Allies: Saro
Saro essential oil is obtained from the steam distilled leaves of Cinnamosma fragrans. This small, evergreen and aromatic tree is endemic to Madagascar and classified in the Canallaceae family. This relatively small family (nine species in four genus) is distributed around the world between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn—it is most…