Essential Oils

Aromatherapy is the use of pure essential oils to enhance physical and mental well-being. as quoted by James F. and Phyllis A. Balch in their wonderful book Prescription for Nutritional Healing.

Essential oils have a long tradition of providing a variety of therapeutic benefits. Many of these traditionally known benefits have been confirmed through modern scientific research.

The use of essential oils in a cosmetic will have an antiseptic and antimicrobial action, as well as a healing and soothing effect on the skin. Essential oils help the skin and hair detoxify, drain, heal and regenerate. Essential Oils are readily absorbed through the skin and hair follicles and carried to all parts of the body, having an effect, which can last from a few hours to a few days.

To order Therapeutic Grade essential oils, please click here.

Using Essential Oils therapeutically for Animals allows us to promote and maintain balance in all systems of the body. If given the opportunity, animals seek out a natural remedy from various herbs and plants, instinctively picking out whatever their systems may need. In a domestic environment this choice is not typically available to our animals. Using Essential Oils therapeutically for Animals offers a natural choice of relief from many common physical and emotional, including behavioral problems in animals, such as:

Allergies
Arthritis
Aggressive behavior
COPD
Coprophagia
Digestive problems
Headshaking
Hoof and foot conditions
Laminitis
Mud Fever
Muscular problems
Respiratory conditions
Potty Training issues
Sarcoids and warts
Skin conditions
Separation Anxiety
Stress
Urinary disorders
Viruses
Wounds

Each remedy is specific to the condition of the individual animal and may change over the course of the treatment as the oils take effect.

Most essential oils are safe for dogs and horses. Cats are highly sensitive and one should use extra caution when using oils that are hot, like Tea Tree oil, citrus oils, oregano, etc. Essential Oils need to be used with awareness due to the possibility of contra-indications and adverse reactions. Do your research or consult a properly qualified essential oil therapist for animals before offering any essential oils to your animal

An essential oil is any concentrated, hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. They are also known as volatile or ethereal oils, or simply as the "oil of" the plant material from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove. The term essential indicates that the oil carries distinctive scent (essence) of the plant.
Essential oils are generally extracted by distillation. Other processes include expression, or solvent extraction. They are used in perfumes and cosmetics, for flavoring food and drink, and for scenting incense and household cleaning products.
Various essential oils have been used medicinally at different periods in history.
Interest in essential oils has revived in recent decades, with the popularity of aromatherapy, a branch of alternative medicine.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Essential Oils are volatile, lipophilic substances obtained from plant materials by distillation, mechanical separation (expression) or solvent extraction. They are secondary plant metabolites and are largely based on mono and sesquiterpenes and phenylpropanoids.

The source of the essential oil chemicals varies from species to species, but oils can be found in the flowers, buds, fruits, peel, leaves, bark, wood, roots, seeds or oleoresins of plants. The composition of any essential oil can vary widely season on season; location, plant cultivation techniques, soil structure and climate also heavily influence the composition and quality of essential oils.

The bitter orange tree, for example, yields orange oil from the fruit peel, pettigrain from the leaves and twigs and neroli oil from the orange blossoms. The clove tree produces different types of essential oil from its buds, stalks and leaves whereas the Scotch pine yields distinct oils from its needles, wood and resin.

The wide range of aromatic materials obtained from natural sources and the art of their extraction and use has developed slowly over the course of time, but its origins reach back to the very heart of the earliest civilizations.

Adulteration of essential oils is widespread. This can range from blending with other essential oils through the addition of organic solvents to products that are solely based on synthetic fragrance chemicals. It has been said that 'pure' synthetic oils with a predetermined composition would be superior for the purposes of research, but this simplistic view ignores the fact that natural essential oils are complex mixtures in which all of the components have a part to play in the therapeutic action.
For example, the typical odor of rose oil is dominated by one component, damascenone, present at around 0.14% (the major component is found at levels of 38% and there another 273 known constituents).

Since an absolute guarantee of purity and composition is not readily obtainable when purchasing essential oils, certain precautions have to be borne in mind and these are included in the training program developed by GEOTA.

The potential for direct psychological and physical effects becomes clear when the anatomy of the olfactory system is examined. In the nasal mucosa, chemoreceptors give rise to axons that synapse on the olfactory bulb. Olfactory neurons then run through the olfactory tract to the olfactory cortex. Behavioral reactions to scent are mediated by direct connections to the limbic system.
The term 'aromatherapy' was first coined in 1928 by Gattefosse, a French chemist working in his family's perfumery business. He became fascinated with the therapeutic possibilities of the oils after discovering by accident that lavender was able to rapidly heal a severe burn on his hand and help prevent scarring. He also found that many essential oils were more effective in their totality than their synthetic substitutes or their isolated active ingredients. As early as 1904 Cuthbert Hall had shown that the antiseptic power of eucalyptus oil in its natural form was stronger than its isolated main active constituent, 'eucalyptol' or 'cineol'.

Apart from the scent, each essential oil has an individual combination of constituents which interacts with the body's chemistry in a direct manner, which then in turn affects certain organs or systems as a whole.

For example, when inhaled or applied topically, they are easily absorbed either through the olfactory system or through the skin and transported throughout the body. This can be demonstrated by rubbing a clove of garlic on the soles of the feet; the volatile oil will be taken into the blood and the odor will appear on the breath a little while later.

It is important to recognize that essential oils have three distinct modes of action with regard to how they inter-relate with the body: pharmacological, physiological and psychological.

The pharmacological effect is concerned with the chemical changes which take place when an essential oil enters the bloodstream and reacts with the hormones and enzymes etc;
The physiological mode is concerned with the way in which an essential oil affects the systems of the body, whether they are sedated or stimulated, etc;

The psychological effect takes place when an essence is inhaled.

With relation to the first two points, essential oil therapy has a great deal in common with the tradition of medical herbalism - in other words, it is not simply the aroma which is important but also the chemical interaction between the oils and the body, and the physical changes which are brought about.

It is not our aim to glorify natural remedies at the expense of scientific progress, nor to uphold the principles of our present-day drug-orientated culture, but simply to provide information about essential oils themselves in their multifaceted nature.
The rich vasculature and large surface area of the nasal mucosa are well recognized, so drug absorption through the membrane has a great therapeutic potential, which must also be true for essential oils.

Drugs administered intranasally include vaccines such as canine infectious tracheobronchitis and feline infectious peritonitis. Nebulisation as a drug delivery vehicle is becoming increasingly popular in veterinary medicine for a number of reasons. It is less stressful for some species, and the vehicle itself allows for rapid drug absorption, with documented systemic therapeutic blood levels. In situations where gastrointestinal complications such as drug stability or hepatic first pass metabolism exist, intranasal drug administration is an accepted alternative for certain drugs.

The antibacterial and antifungal properties of essential oils are well established indeed, plants produce the oils to defend themselves against invading microorganisms. There has been renewed interest in naturally occurring, wide spectrum antimicrobial agents, especially given the resistance of some microorganisms to single chemicals.

Tea Tree essential oil has attracted particular attention because it has been found to be active against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. In both human and animal testing inhaled Lavender vapor has demonstrated a sedative effect.
The use of essential oils to condition physiologic and behavioral responses in animals offers a very promising application. If conditional responses to odors allow a veterinary surgeon to reduce the dose or frequency of potentially toxic drugs (as doctors have been able to do with human patients), or a trainer to utilize harsh corrections less often, the value of essential oil therapy would be evident.
From GEOTA, The Guild for Essential Oil Therapy for Animals

To order Therapeutic Grade essential oils, please click here

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