Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #128117 in Books
• Published on: 1997-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback

Customer Reviews

Don't leave home without it.
This is an excellent book for students and qualified aromatherapists. Very handy and easy to understand. The lay out is great and very colourful making it "idiot-proof" when chosing aromatherapy blends. I keep a copy of this in my bag when I see clients just in case I want to double check something. In fact, it was that good, that I bought a second copy to keep in the office as well for those unexpected phone calls!

An exciting new approach to understanding essential oils
This exciting and original book is fascinating to explore. There are 90 essential oils and each one has a full page devoted to it. The most striking innovation is the brightly coloured pie chart for each oil. This piechart shows the percentage of each chemical family likely to be present in each oil. Also all the major individual chemical constituents to be found in each oil are listed. A comprehensive index of all the chemical constituents listed proves invaluable to any student of essential oils or aromatherapy. As well as the chemical information all the well known therapeutic properties of each oil are matched to the major systems of the human body. With this book I have found it intriguing to compare the chemical and therapeutic properties of all the oils in my 'box'. In addition the structure of the information makes it possible to choose oils and blend oils for specific reasons. I find the the book a cheerful companion to have on my shelf. At a glance the colour visual gives me a view of the nature of each oil and the carefully structured information is easy to find and use.

Tries to force square pegs into round holes
I had initial high hopes of this book. I thought the pictorial view of the chemistry of oils was a wonderful aid to an appreciation of the 'character' of an oil as indicated by its chemical constituents.

However, a rigid application of the 'functional group' theory of chemistry only illustrates the limitations of the approach - for example, Caddy subscribes to the functional group theory which would state that the general action of an alcohol is stimulating, and while she acknowledges that some sesquiterpene alcohols may be sedative in action, she finds herself trapped, by a rigid functional group approach, into, for example, for carrot seed, drawing a pie chart of an oil which is more stimulating than sedative in its actions. I don't think many practitioners would agree with that! Another example is vetiver, which by this 'functional group' analysis shows itself to be a stimulating/balancing oil, rather than a sedative, whereas again this really does not equate with the way most practitioners would view the action of that oil.

These 2 examples are not isolated.

Whilst a close study of chemistry is necessary and useful to the serious student and practitioner, I think it is important to acknowledge that while sometimes a chemical analysis of an oil will precisely explain its actions, the fact that each oil is a synergistic blend of chemical constituents will mean that sometimes the actions of an oil will seem to be completely different from that suggested by its chemistry - there are so many examples of oils in this book which just don't work in the way a rigid functional group approach suggests. German Chamomile as a stimulant, for example? - her explanation of what each oil 'does' is fine enough, I wouldn't quarrel with that - but its the 'pie chart pictures' which are so contradictory - not, I hasten to add, the pie charts themselves, which are great, but the rather doctrinaire interpretation of what they mean.