Chi of Aromatherapy with Peter Holmes

Chi of Aromatherapy with Peter Holmes
Peter: Over the years, I developed a system of six essential fragrance categories - pungent, sweet, green, woody, rooty and, lemony . I would say collectively we need to treating the oils with respect for the amazing remedies they are, for their use as physiological olfactory or aroma therapeutic remedies. essential oils and aromatic waters or hydrosols were always considered almost sacred, the sacred remedies, sacred perfumes, they were used for ritual . We've lost that and we need to bring it back. That's the whole psycho-spiritual historical dimension that we need to connect with once again.
Lana: You're listening to Plant Love Radio episode number 68. Hello Friends. I hope you're having a good week. This year as an educator teaching much of my curriculum online, I had to be creative. For materials for one of the sessions on aroma therapy I reached out to one of my favorite essential oil companies, Snow Lotus. This gave me an opportunity to explore their website again and speak with their founder Peter Holmes, who has always been an inspiration for me. Peter is a medical herbalist, clinical aromatherapist, practitioner of Chinese medicine and the respected author.
As he began working with oils in the 1980s as a medical herbalist and acupuncturist, he became aware of the need to have absolutely pure and supreme quality oils for his clinical practice and seminars.
This initiated what has become a more than 30 year journey around the world in search of artisan producers distilling on at grassroots and traditional level. His search was for distillers that worked in the time honored artisanal way, living closely with the very source of the plant materials. This is the best way to collect the distilled fragrant essences of our earth in all of its amazing aromatic diversity.
One of Peter's firm beliefs is that essential oils hold an important key to achieving a true cure for illness, cure on the deepest levels of body, mind, and soul, and a promise of individual evolution towards integration and wholeness.
In this episode of Plant Love Radio, we spent quite a bit of time talking about Peter six categories of fragrances influenced by his knowledge and understanding of Chinese medicine. One of my personal favorites on the list is lemony oils. They always make me so happy.
As a result, one listener of the episode will have an opportunity to win citrus essential oil sampler from Peter's company, Snow Lotus. To participate in this episode's giveaway, please head over to ko-fi.com/plantloveradio and comment on the giveaway post or go to the show notes at plantloveradio.com/68 and look to the link for podcast bonuses. Enjoy!
Lana: hi, Peter. How are you doing?
Peter: Great. Thank you. Thanks for inviting me to your series of podcasts.
Lana: And thank you for being here. We met a number of years ago at the American Herbalist Guild, and talked about your books and your company Snow Lotus. I was incredibly excited when within about the following six months or so you had an opportunity to come and teach here in Boston. I immediately invited you to be a guest lecturer for my students in the school of pharmacy. And attended one of your aroma therapy seminars. I am incredibly humbled that you're able to talk to me today, to share your wisdom and your thoughts with the audience. So thank you again.
Thank you.
Peter's early interest in natural medicine [00:05:02]
Peter, I would like to start our conversation by talking a little bit about your path. How did it start? When did you become interested in natural medicine, in natural ways of healing?
Peter: Yeah, to be honest, I wondered about that myself, I've managed to tease out certain threads . And, I think one thing is just an innate connection with the plants and herbs, and natural healing. Now, back in the eighties, I was already taking Tai Chi classes, yoga classes, shiatsu. I was beginning to be intrigued by Chinese culture and Chinese medicine.
At the same time I was brought up in a family of musicians. Everyone in my family was involved in music in one way or another, either professionally or on an amateur level. I was always pushed towards a musical career at one point, which I could easily pursue but I didn't want to end up becoming one of millions of piano teachers.
So anyway, one day I was talking with a good friend walking in London. And I told him my dilemma, should I pursue a musical career or try to do something within the context of herbal medicine, Chinese culture, and all that.
And In fact, I wanted to just with him in tuning pianos, but he, he was actually a professional piano tuner amongst many other things. He stopped in his tracks, looks at me and said, Peter, why do you want to tune pianos when you have the possibility of tuning people.
I said tuning people, what do you mean. He said acupuncture and bingo, that lit something in my brain, and within a few months I was enrolled in acupuncture school.
Lana: How fascinating. And so you've been practicing, as a medical herbalist, clinical aroma therapist, and a practitioner of Chinese medicine, specifically acupuncture. And I'm assuming some, Chinese herbs as well. How did all of these components come together for you?
Peter: Right. Well, these pursuits definitely overlapped, but there were basically one step after another. I finished my acupuncture training. Then I did British herbal medicine training because I was forever reading everything I could get hold of on herbal medicine. I remember reading Maude Grieves Modern Herbal front to back over a two month period - I mean, insane, and I don't know what drove me to that, what my motivation was, except that I just loved it.
I love the whole thing, but anyway, I was doing some postgraduate studies in Paris, France, and, I met up with friend of mine originally from Chicago. She had moved to Paris and decided to drag me to a natural pharmacy in Paris.
Meeting the pharmacist Henri Verdier and his wife really was the biggest single turning point in my life. Not only was he in a direct lineage of essential oil producers from Provence in the South of France, but he was also of course, a fully qualified pharmacist.
Him and his wife ran a completely a hundred percent natural Pharmacy with botanical products right up to the ceiling, including herbs, lotions. I mean everything we know now. Now natural pharmacists are sprouting up all over the place, they had for awhile, but we're talking about the 1980s specifically in 81.
So my eyes just popped open and I knew I have to apprentice with this practitioner. And I basically got introduced to the French herbal medicine tradition, which included the internal use of essential oils, you know? Just something people now glibly call, clinical aromatherapy, which really doesn't cut it at all.
We're talking about a French tradition of botanicals that includes, using essential oils as one of many forms. So essential oil in the French clinical tradition is alongside the tincture, a syrup as all the topical preparations. That's all it is. He taught me the basic protocols, the nuts and bolts of prescribing in the French medical tradition, specifically with the essential oils. That was the real gift that he gave me.
Lana: Fascinating. Is there one of these practices that has been predominant in your own, medical practice. Is it acupuncture? Is it aroma therapy? Is it herbal medicine or are you effectively combining all three of them ?
Peter: That's a great question, essentially I combined them as I need for my patients and clients. I can draw on all three of those that you mentioned. Fundamentally I consider myself a practitioner of herbal medicine. But at the same time, with my being embeud in Chinese culture and tai chi and then subsequently acupuncture made just as much sense to me to use British herbs in my practice alongside acupuncture treatment . So that was a huge endeavor exploring the energetic properties of Western herbs basically. Many years later that resulted in my two volume book, the Energetics of Western herbs.
Lana: Peter, I reached out to you and I told you that one of my previous guests , Sam Coffman, when asked if there is one book that he still uses quite consistently. He did mention your book.
Peter: The Energetics of Western herbs has gone through four fully revised editions. And several months ago, it was actually republished in one volume in the UK. And the publisher told me that book changed his life. I've subsequently discovered that many herbalists in England still rely on that book which I find really heartwarming actually.
The attraction of essential oils
Lana: So let me actually take a step back. Essential oils and aromatherapy have been an area of your life that you have devoted a large amount of time. especially in recent years. What is it about aroma therapy itself that has such a strong pool on you as a practitioner and plant lover?
Peter: I would modify that question. take it apart into two questions. The first part is the pull of essential oils as opposed to tinctures and so on. Well, I used to make all my own tinctures, I had dozens and dozens of tinctures that I made myself with the help of friends. I used to make formulas combining Western Chinese herbs using Chinese herbal formula guidelines, formulating according to Chinese formula prescriptions. And, but then in the nineties the FDA really came down on the herbal medicine industry and they changed all the labeling laws, blah, blah, blah.
I saw the writing on the wall and I said, this is too much. Either you have to join the game or pullout and do something different. Luckily, I have decided to pull out of the herbal medicine manufacturing. I had a small tincture business, basically, in addition to the needs of my own practice. And I decided to pull back and to concentrate on essential oils instead, because from a practical point of view it wasn't and is not subject to the same laws of internal delivery. So the reason is simply practical. I've intensified my research, my interest in essential oils but the other reason I've always been pretty enthralled by the way that a plant can express in a nature in fragrance or scent. Scent really is a deep expression of the plant for those plants that have an appreciable quantity of essential oil in the first place. Okay.
Lana: Right.
Peter: so that's one thing. The other thing is that it opens up the whole dimension of aroma and the limbic system. In other words, what now I would call it true aroma therapy, not one word, two words, aroma therapy. Utilizing the limbic system as a delivery pathway to how to affect the psychology, the spirit of the mind and the moods, the whole, all of that.
So that's a whole other dimension, which of course can be accessed through internal, intake of plants. But plants have to go through the digestive system, the essence of it to be extracted before it reaches the brain circulation and the neuro- endocrine system, the microbiome, et cetera. With essential oils, it's so fast and so quick, it's astonishing.
So those are the three reasons right there, that I gravitated more and more to using aromatic plants in essential oil form. And of course I've always prescribed essential oils along with tinctures.
One of the basic internal delivery methods with essential oils is to put approximately one drop of essential oil in per one ounce of tincture. and then the alcohol content will of course disperse that. The result is a much stronger medicine and more diffusive as well. Essential oils through the lens of Chinese medicine
Lana: Okay. Great. Thank you. I want to actually spend a little bit of time talking about essential oils. On your website you talk about fragrance categories or fragrance profiles, and I was hoping that you could talk to us about those and give some examples in each category.
Peter: Alright, well, so of course I got the idea from the way that Chinese medicine classifies the different tastes of hers. So it's not just the catechism of the bitter tastes does this, the sweet place does that and so on. It's also a deep recognition that the taste has chi, taste has energy. Right?
[00:15:46]Eventually, I realized that I could transpose that to the olfactory level. So instead of talking about a taste, we can actually talk about the sweet fragrance, a sharp fragrance, a spicy, a woody, a rooty. In other words, use the language that natural perfumers have been using for thousands of years and interpret those fragrance qualities in energetic terms.
So my speculation was how to interpret those perfume as fragrance categories, as energetically potent, and therapeutically effective and viable, you know, that's a huge step. That's a huge gamble that I took and it's paid off. It actually worked. It written, it really works.
Over the years, I developed a system of six essential fragrance categories - pungent, sweet, green, woody, rooty and, lemony .
Pungent
So the pungent category, for example, actually, subdivides into fresh pungent and spicy pungent, spicy punishment are the spicy aromatic herbs, most of them are carminative, they are GI stimulants. The fresh pungent are the ones that when inhaled, they tend to open the sinuses, disinfect the airways, stimulate immune function. Most of them are strongly antiviral as well. For example, Cajaput oil from East Asia, Rosemary is another one, Ravensara. Many of these come from other countries - Ravensara from Madagascar, Neroli also from Southeast Asia, Eucalyptus the eucalypts basically fall in this category as well, especially the narrow leaf eucalyptus, which is a species radiata.
That's a potent antiviral, should be commonly used as a fresh pungent category type of oil. So energetically, what it does is it brings the chi, the energy up to the head, specifically targets the lungs and the brain. All the different oils have a strong tropism , which is affinity for certain organ systems, body parts, cells, and so on, just like herbs do it right?
So the traditional term for the fresh pungent oils would be cephalic, right? As in Culpepper, et cetera. There are oils that are cordial that go to the oils that are nephritic that go to the kidneys? All remedies not only have certain actions and indications, but they also have specific landing sites or affinities. I like the word tropism. Tropism - they hone towards certain body system, cells, et cetera. For example, Myrrh has a huge tropism for the mucus membrane. That's why it's able to completely regenerate the mucosa, stop discharges, et cetera, et cetera. It has a really big polyvalent action on the mucosa and at the same with oils.
Lana: Okay. That's awesome. And so the first category that you mentioned, so also pungents, but you said dry pungent, am I getting it correctly? So there is
Peter: well, fresh and spicy
Lana: spicy. And so the spicy ones, you're thinking things like ginger and turmeric, what else would cardamom, okay.
Peter: Cardamom, Nutmeg, Black pepper, the tropical spices. Both in herbal medicine and in essential oils medicine, they have a strong affinity for the GI tract and for the respiratory system. They're considered heavier than the fresh pungent, which a lighter, which move up to the brain. The spicy pungents don't move so much up to the brain. They start lower down in the gut, the wonderful for before variety of gut problems with gastrointestinal disorders as well as certain respiratory conditions.
Lana: Okay. That's wonderful.
Quick pause
Quick pause and a reminder for you - we are talking about six different categories of fragrances influenced by Peter's knowledge of Chinese medicine. One of my favorites on this list is lemony oils. As a result, one listener of this episode will have an opportunity to win citrus essential oil sampler from Snow Lotus, which is Peter's essential oil company.
To participate in the giveaway please head over to ko-fi.com/plantloveradio and comment on the giveaway post. Or head over to the show notes plantloveradio.com/ 68 and look for the link for podcast bonuses. Now back to the episode.
Green
What about some of the other ones? So you've mentioned pungent, green, woody, sweet, lemony, and rooty, can you give us some other examples and uses.
Peter: Okay. A huge category is called the green oils. I subdivided them into two basic sub categories, the sweet green and the pungent green. Lavender that you mentioned earlier, is actually technically a sweet green. Sweetgreen oils from that energetic or Chinese medicine perspective, move stagnation. So, and I think that is stuck basically. It Lavender and other sweet green oils like Blue Tansy, Roman Chamomile, Sweet Marjoram, German Chamomile. These are all sweet green oils, but excellent for stuckness or stagnation. And the beautiful thing about these is when the inhaled, they also work on the psychological dimension of stagnation. In other words, stuck feelings, emotion that we can't let go of , specifically distressed feelings, that we know we should let go, move on, but we can't, so those oils are excellent for that, those kind of stuck, stuck feelings and emotions.
Lana: That's wonderful. Thank you. What about some of the lemony? I love all the higher notes, they always make me feel so happy. Can you talk a little bit about those?
Lemony
Peter: Okay, well, lemony oils again are uplifting. The energy of lemony is uplifting. And cephalic, they definitely go to the brain, the limbic system and amygdalla and so on. The main lemony, the most useful I would say is Bergamot. It's a true mood balance as well as a mental stimulant. It's a gentle cerebral stimulant and mood balancer at the same time. I have a blend called Citrus bliss, which is my survival blend when I travel.
Lana: Okay. Why is that? Tell us why it is a survival one.
Peter: It contains three citrus oils Bergamot, Grapefruit, and Red Mandarin.
Lana: Oh, I can only imagine the aroma.
Peter: Can't go wrong with those. That blend actually works like a glorified Bergamot - it's balancing and slightly relaxing to the central nervous system. And it can be used by inhallation. You can dab a drop on the on the wrist and massage it with both wrists, you can dab a bit on the pulse points, perfume pulse points. Then there's the internal use application as well, which is similar but different, working on upper GI basically, again the theme of stagnation, gastric sluggishness, dyspepsia.
Lana: You talked about pungent, green and lemony fragrance profiles. Would you be able to touch upon the woody, sweet and rooty?
Woody
Peter: Yeah. Yeah. Woody oils are extremely important nowadays. Energetically woody oils make us centered, stable and strong. I know people who have gone psycho because of this pandemic. In addition to the rampant confusion, the paranoia, the rampant anxiety. It's absolutely horrible. I've never seen anything like it.
So essential oils to the rescue. This makes this whole scenario we've seen since February has made the rooty oils extremely clinically useful, because what they do is they ground and center us and they make us stronger to bring us back to our bodies instead of anxious, frazzled and paranoid in our heads and minds.
Lana: Right. So what are some of the examples of who do you wills?
Peter: The emperor of the woody oils, especially the subcategory sweet woody,is of course Sandalwood. The true sandalwood oil is a classic, timeless sweet woody oil. One that's less expensive, almost as effective is a Cedarwood oils. Personally, I've always preferred this Moroccan Cedar wood called Atlas Cedar wood from the Atlas mountains of North Morocco. It's a beautiful oil, just the scent. We put it on acupuncture points, we inhale it, we put it on reflex zones on the feet, etceter etcetera. There's many ways to use these oils, but the sweet woody oils is one of the categories that you can use pretty freely in many different ways.
It's very forgiving. And another one that's stronger is Myrrh. Myrrh although it's a resin, obviously not a tree, it acts like a tree, energetically it's stabilizing, grounding, centering, and so on.
Lana: That's great. What about sweet oils?
Sweet
Peter: The signature effect of the sweet fragrance cause to harmonize and regulate. For example, going back to Bergamot, Bergamot is his considerably sweet. It has a lot of sweet energy and that's what makes it a beautiful mood balancer. Slightly down depressed - Bergamot can lift your spirits, it can lift your mood.
On the other hand, if you're feeling frazzled and anxious, bergamot oil by inhalation or putting it on the ear point, Shan man, bergamot oil will actually settle you, calm you down. It's a relaxant. So it's a true mood balancer. And the same is true of the Red Mandarin, the Green Mandarin, the Sweet Orange, which is the kid's favorite. So those examples of sweet.
Another category of sweet are the Rosy sweet - Rose absolute, Rose oil, Geranium those are the main ones. The Rosy sweet oils action is emotional support. Someone who maybe needs emotional support because they're grieving. They've lost someone. If they've had any kind of shock or trauma. So Rosy sweet oils emotionally supportive and they promote emotional integration. For example, the heart is saying one thing the mind is saying another thing, they're not all one person, the Rosy Sweet have the beautiful ability to help you come together to harmonize your emotional village so to speak.
Lana: That's lovely. Thank you. And what about the Rooty ones? So the last fragrance profile.
Rooty
Peter: The Rooty oil are the big grounders - they bring you down to earth. They connect you with the earth that you're standing on. They bring the energy down from the head to the feet. So if you're overthinking, anxious, frazzled or any type of excess energy in the house. It could be a high temperature, it could be someone bursting with anger, with a red complexion, but in all those scenarios has excessive energy in the head, the rooty oils bring that energy down to the feet. The main rooty oil that's pleasant enough to be used is Vetiver essential oil and it's actually a root. There others but most of those are the acquired taste for most people.
Lana: Okay. Okay. Alright. That's great. Thank you so much.
Oral use
Lana: I actually want to ask you about the internal use because some of the larger companies are recommending internal use and I'm super careful about this, but I also have heard from aroma therapists that have been working for many years that do not have necessarily the same training that you do, they are very cautious about taking, oils internally. Can you talk a little bit about the sort of like dispel any myths ?
Peter: The Simple answer to part two of your question is that they're not trained in internal medicine. In other words, not trained in the internal use of essential oils. And so to cover themselves, they advise caution, it's just a political stance.
Lana: I understand. But for someone that is learning about oils from Instagram, I think that that's a good advice do not use oils internally. Right? So someone that has your level of experience and training, that's a totally different concept. And once again, I want you to talk a little bit about this for our audience. So they understand when can you actually use this information to make decisions, to incorporate into various preparations they are consuming and ingesting, and when it is not a good idea.
Peter: Okay. looking at the big context, unfortunately the little true clinical information that is available, especially in the English language is completely warped by the multilevel companies, we all know who they are. unfortunately that is the huge context and it distorts and mystifies conversations at every level between professionals, aroma therapy enthusiasts, it creates massive confusion.
So that's the big picture. Internal use opens up several issues. one of the most basic issues is the quality of the oil. A big precondition for using internally is that you must have essential oils that are guaranteed a hundred percent pure.
And, of course every company says the same thing. So how's the beginner is supposed to know without hiring their own lab. And even that isn't foolproof. how do they know where to start? It invokes a big trust issue as well. You know, people trust certain companies, they mistrust others, they trust certain teachers. With my company, there's a huge trust element. People trust me because I'm a trained teacher and I've been educating for over 35 years. People recognize that, they recognize the quality of the oils. They put two and two together. Bingo. but that's a rare situation, to have that happen is extremely rare. You know, most companies are, don't have that ability.
Mission of Snow Lotus
Lana: I actually want to talk a little bit about your company. So, when did you start, could you talk about the mission of Snow Lotus? What are some of the unique features or differences that separate you from other companies?
Peter: well, the mission has always been to source really high quality oils that are completely a hundred percent bioavailable in terms of physiology, bio available to the cells. And secondly, in energetic terms, they have a lot of Chi or Prana.
So again to achieve this criteria I talk about that in one of the chapters of Aromatica, volume one, the specific criteria that an oil needs to meet in order to be completely bioavailable, a hundred percent pure, et cetera, et cetera. And it's not just about purity. It's not just about organic certification. it's really beyond that.
For example, the quality of the plant material, the distillation method, how many weeds are taken out before the Roman chamomile goes into the still. No one knows that. For example, there's always a percentage of weeds that goes into every batch that is distilled. A good quality oils should have minimum quantity of actual weeds. That's something that is never quantified, as beyond organic certification, et cetera, et cetera.
Lana: Right. So how do you achieve this level of pure and what do you do to procure the actual oils?
Peter: I've traveled to meet my producers. I spent over 30 years traveling. I've traveled to probably most Mediterranean countries. I would say about 70% of the oils that I obtain are from Mediterranean countries, especially countries like Morocco, Egypt, Bulgaria, the few in Bosnia Herzegovina and so on. I know the producers - I've established human based commercial relationships based on good ethical, and ecologically sound business.
Lana: That is wonderful. This is one of the reasons why I am a huge fan of your company and love purchasing oils through Snow Lotus. I know where they come from and the distillers or producers how much energy they put into creating the best and the most pure quality of the oil. So thank you for talking about this.
We touched upon a little bit earlier the comparison between different companies. what you're doing that you're meeting the producers of the actual oil. Is that a typical situation for most of the companies? So would you say that's not what usually done.
Peter: No, completely untypical, most big companies purchase from big brokers in the U S. There are huge brokers in the U S , serve anyone who wants to buy including the food flavoring industry, the perfumery industry, the soft drinks industry, et cetera. Most of those are commercial type oils.
Commercial type oils, as opposed to the artisan oils, they're not as rich, without going into technical details, let's just say that commercial oils rough rather than what I call artisan. It's the method of distillation itself that shows the biggest differences. A lavender oil can actually be distilled commercially in about 15, 20 minutes. If you use superheated steam, high pressure from an external steam generator. Takes 15 minutes, but we've got an oil that isn't rich. It's flat, it doesn't have the rich top notes and the base notes. But like with a speaker system, a good high-fi system has extended highs. If you have a subwoofer, it has nice rich lows. And so on, same with essential oils, it's that you need an artisan distillation to produce those extended highs, the rich base.
And to do that with a lavender oil, for example, it doesn't take 15 minutes. It takes an hour and a half. That's what it takes because the steam is at a lower temperature. The time it takes to distill the batch is much longer, et cetera, et cetera, the vapor pressure is lower and so on. So that huge difference.
Lana: It's very interesting for me. when someone is just starting to learn about essential oils, you learn there are toxic constituents that can be used to extract the aromatic principles. you also learn that steam distillation a lot safer and better. But now you're taking it for us to a different level explaining that the steam distillation can actually be done in various ways. And the result in oil is going to show these huge differences.
Hydrosols versus oils
Peter: Absolutely. This relation is the fine art and it's been practiced since the beginning of time and I just want to insert the sticky note that for most of civilization, the main product of steam distillation, in fact, probably the only product of steam distillation was not essential oil. It was an aromatic water,
Lana: Right. The hydrosols.
Peter: called the hydrosol and the main domain aromatic water has always been rosewater, which comes from Central Asia from Bahara. The Rose is the tree of life. So Rose water was the life giving water that irrigated, not Chinese civilization, Persian civilization, and then fast forward to Mesopotamia, Greece, and Europe, and eventually Rose what was used for making cookies, biscuits, et cetera.
Lana: Right, right, right.
Peter: only in the early middle ages alchemists even became interested in separating the oil from the aromatic water. Before no one can prove, in fact, all evidence shows that there was no interest and no use for the essential oil. It wasn't user friendly at all. Unlike the aromatic water.
Lana: How interesting. you make me think about an interview that I did few months back with an American herbalist, Erika Gallentin. One of her specialties is doing these hydrosols. for our listeners I am going to include the link to that episode where she's talking about hydrosols and how she's using a lot of the hydrosols for her clients. Thank you so much for bringing this up. Very very interesting.
so once again, in hydrosol, we have the, molecules of the oil that are dispersed through that water. Right? When we actually looking at the essential oil itself, there is a separation where the water is one layer and the oil is at a different layer. And so this is what is collected and used as an essential oil. Correct?
Peter: Yes. And no. A true aromatic water of a hydrosol is a separate distillation from the oil, an oil should not be distilled at the same time.
Some producers are getting away with selling Sandalwood hydrosol, Laurel hydrosol et cetera, but they're not making a separate distillation. They're simply selling the leftover water after they recuperated the essential oil. Not a good
Lana: So how would you do differently? Like if you're distilling for the oil versus you're distilling for a hydrosol.
Peter: Yeah. If you're distilling for the oil has to be either completely dry or semi dry depending on the plant material. For example, Roman chamomile is kind of semi-dry or three quarters dry. Like if they in Bulgaria, let it sit on a stone floor for three or four days, to dry a little bit before they actually distilled it.
Lavender. No problem. It can go in right away. And that's what every plant is different. Coriander seed should dry for three weeks in order to get the stinky insect smell from the seed.
Lana: Interesting.
Peter: If it's not dried for three weeks you'll get a poor, stinky coriander seed oil, which is promotionally of course available.
Lana: That's really fascinating. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.
Peter: That's just one detail among many that goes into the art of essential oil production.
On the other hand, an aromatic water or hydrosol should use fresh plant material. And the reason for that a true aromatic water or hydrosol not only captures that aromatic essential oil molecules, it actually captures most water soluble molecules in the plant, in the herb.
Now, that's amazing. So we actually getting the benefits of an infusion along side, a little bit of oil distillation.
Lana: Very, very interesting. Thank you for sharing this.
Peter: Yeah. So for example, one of the favorites in France is Blue coneflower aromatic water or hydrosol, which is used for tired eyes, stressed eyes, sties in the eyes and so on. It doesn't contain any essential oils. It just contains the usual herbal compounds. So hydrosol is not limited to aromatic plants.
Plantain was another favorite hydrosol in the past, Plantain water. You just have to look at the old herbals, any herbal pre 1700 will contain descriptions of aromatic waters and their users.
Lana: Very very interesting. Thank you.
Aromatica references
Lana: So in my next question I wanted to ask you about, your two-volume publication which is called Aromatica: clinical guide to essential oil therapeutics. as I mentioned earlier, I love your books and was hoping you can tell us a little bit more about this particular two volume set. Who would be a perfect reader perhaps? How is it different from something else that people may be reading on aroma therapy ?
Peter: Okay, essentially the two volume aromatica set is for someone interested in the therapeutic applications of essential oils, clinical therapeutic applications. It actually includes the internal use of the oils and the psychological application through olfaction which are completely different areas of treatment, it actually encompasses both. The separate sections for internal actions and indication of the oils and then the possible psychological functions of the oils as well.
Lana: Wonderful. Thank you. I'll definitely include the links to both volumes of Aromatica. Learning more about Peter and his work
Lana: So two more questions for you. How can our listeners learn more about you and from you? So perhaps your newsletter, your site, any of the workshops that are coming up, anything along those lines?
Peter: The simplest way is to go to the website, which is snowlotus.org and browse around, and you'll see the shopping aspect , on the right you'll see the books and continuing education seminars. The best way to keep in touch and to get the newsletter is to just to sign up for that.
Lana: Okay, that's wonderful. I want to thank you for this conversation. do you have any parting thoughts for us about aroma therapy, essential oils, herbal medicine, or anything else?
Peter: I would say collectively we need to treating the oils with respect for the amazing remedies they are, for their use as physiological remedies, olfactory or aroma therapeutic remedies. And that requires an approach that's respectful and what I'm trying to counter balance is the vulgarization, the complete bottom of the barrel vulgarization, commercialization of essential oils that we see nowadays in this country and worldwide, that's what we're up against. And that's what we need to counteract. You know, essential oils and aromatic waters or hydrosols were always considered almost sacred, the sacred remedies, sacred perfumes, they were used for ritual, et cetera, et cetera. We've lost that and we need to bring it back. That's the whole psycho-spiritual historical dimension that we need to connect with once again.
Lana: Peter, thank you so much again, this was absolutely enlightening and really fascinating. Thank you.
Peter: thank you. I really enjoyed it. Thank you.
Thank you for listening!
Lana: Thank you so much for joining us today for this conversation with Peter Holmes, I hope you have enjoyed it. To get to all the resources mentioned in today's episode please head over to the show notes at plantloveradio.com/68. Also in the show notes, you will find information about a live webinar on the treatment of immune disorders with essential oils that Peter will be offering within the next couple of weeks.
If you're enjoying this podcast, please consider supporting me once or on a monthly basis. The best way to do this is through the website where I post the giveaways ko-fi.com/plantloveradio. You can also find the link in the show notes or on my website.
Are you listening to Plant Love Radio for the first time, please subscribe to the podcast to seamlessly, get future episodes downloaded to your device. I'm so thrilled to introduce you to too many amazing guests and topics. And of course, nothing says thank you better than sharing this show with a friend who might enjoy it and giving us a five star rating and review. Thank you so much in advance.
The music you hear in the introduction was written by a neighbor of mine, David Scholl and it's called Something about Cat - my deepest gratitude to Bill Gilligan for this opportunity to play it.
Thanks again for being here today. I really appreciate you. Till the next time, thank you for loving plants and planting love!