AROMAPROFILES

Geranium - Pelargonium graveolens - Personality Profile

CHARACTER
Harmonizing, Healing, Comforting, Cushioning

USE TO COUNTERACT THESE NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES
Anxiety, Depression, Acute fear, Extreme moods, Inner child, Abuse, Confusion, Rigidity, Instability, Worry, Moodiness, Lack of Self-esteem. Insecurity, Over-sensitivity, Tension, Stress, Hurt, Crisis, Apprehension, Aggression, Irrationality, Discontent, Heartache

USE FOR THESE POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES
Consoled, Flexible, Elevated, Regenerated, Humour, Friendliness, Balanced, Soothed, Secure, Assured, Shielded, Mothered, Stable, Tranquil, Steady.

GERANIUM PERSONALITY PROFILE
The Geranium personality is friendly and comforting, although not in any way extroverted or over-talkative. This is one of the mothering type of personalities, always taking care of someone or something, just getting on with things, allowing everyone to have the freedom to have their own thoughts and never interfering unless you want them to.

This personality seems to be able to create a feeling of security and stability wherever they go. This doesn't mean they're boring, far from it, but they just seem to have the knack of making everything all right again. Say, for example, you feel frustrated and hurt about something and need to make a phone call to sort it out, Geranium will make you a cup of tea, settle you in a chair and make the call for you (and about three years old!) Geraniums never consciously look for thanks or appreciation but get it naturally, which makes it a pleasure to give to this personality.

They have the ability to wash away your tension and stress just by being there, and caring a great deal for their family and friends - which are very valuable to Geraniums. However, they tend to take on too much, and don't leave enough space for themselves and unfortunately those who are helped may not even notice that help may sometimes be needed in return.

Geraniums are seldom eccentric, outlandish characters prone to great strokes of genius, just steady and stable, but they often do have the most bizarre friends and companions, flamboyant and colourful- - the complete opposite to themselves. This feature makes them even more popular.

This personality has interesting dinner parties, interesting house guests, and their homes are always full of people - not because Geranium is the most sensational cook, nor because they are sparkling conversationalists; what attracts people to Geranium is their marvellous ability to make people feel worthy and wanted.

Geraniums may be surrounded by fascinating people but fascinating people are often too full of their own self-importance to think about lending a hand. Geranium will lay the table, cook the meal, clean up, wash the dishes and glasses and if someone asks, 'Oh, do you want a hand?, they'll offer knowing that, more often than not, Geranium will say @ you sit down, I'll do it', (unlike Jasmine, who'll leave the washing up for someone else to do).

Within the family, this generosity of nature can really be exploited and Geraniums will continue to do their children's laundry twenty years after they leave home, mind the grandchildren, and take on the chore of washing and repairing the entire football team's kit.

Unless they occasionally shout 'Stop!', very loudly, they can really become the dogsbody. Geranium is the ultimate personality for being taken for granted , never really getting their due but they astound friends and family in middle age by suddenly packing a bag and going in search of personal happiness. If not appreciated, Geraniums can get very anxious and depressed and may find their heart being broken many times over, by thoughtless friends and family.

Negative Geraniums have devised a ten-point plan to inflict guilt on their families and refer to it at every opportunity, and if that doesn't work, there's always the medical dictionary of imaginary illnesses to work through, another way to ensure people provide the (much-deserved ) attention. Unfortunately, this often has the opposite effect, and drives people away.

Geraniums in general cannot be said to be passive people, but some can be very mean. These personalities may have suffered emotional abuse as a child and feel somehow have to make up for what they perceive to be their faults.

Geraniums are much under-valued personality who generously comforts those who suffer, those with broken hearts, the grieving and the stressed-out. Whether male or female, Geranium is a warm, kind and generous personality, which deserves to be appreciated for the very special person they are. 

Reference: The Fragrant Mind: Valerie Ann Worwood

Quality and Purity - 2 -  AromaProfiles

There are several problems with this, and other, methods of analysis. As we have already noted elsewhere, each machine response somewhat differently, and records differently, so fingerprints cannot be accurately compared one machine to another. That means that a library of characteristics fingerprint patterns has to be built up, for each machine, so that there are accurate fingerprints against which the tested material can be compared.

However what tends to happens that the fingerprint is compared with one of the set of 'standard' fingerprints used as a reference by the industry, so the idiosyncracies of each machine are not always taken into account, Also, interpreting the fingerprint is done by humans, who can take different opinions on the matter. Nevertheless, the GC can help to a certain extent to identify adulteration of essential oils. For example, a common adulterant is linalool, an alcohol found in many essential oils.

Linalol, produced artificially, contains traces of other compounds - dihydrolinalol shows up on the fingerprint, it shows the oil has been adulterated. However, it is also possible to add a naturally produced linalol, extracted from another plant, and this form of adulteration cannot be detected by this method.

Once the essential oil components have been separated by the GC, there are other machines which can further help identify them, including mass spectrometers and infrared spectrometers. However, essential oils contain hundreds of components and not all of them have been identified by science yet. Also, of course, it means that the complete essential oil cannot be reproduced exactly in a lab).

if one were to apply all the known technology to an essential oil to be analysed, although one couldn't get a complete picture, a fair enough picture would emerge - of its age and chemical composition. Albeit limited. However, this process would be very expensive. What often happens instead is that a substance is tested for the main constituents that are supposed to be in it. 'Eucalyptus essential oil' will be tested to see whether it has the correct proportions of eucalyptol and 1,8-cineol for example. However, this doesn't tell us much about the tested material, which might even be an entirely man-made composition.

The term 'essential oil' can, be applied to a liquid that has nothing whatsoever to do with nature. Also, bottles can be labelled 'essential oil' but bear no relation to what description is given on the bottle - 'tuberose absolute' could, in fact, be a mixture of other absolutes and essential oils cleverly blended to smell like tuberose. It is also possible to buy bottles labelled 'aromatherapy essential oils' which have a few drops of essential oils blended in with carrier vegetable oils. In some cases these mislead people into thinking they are buying undiluted essential oils.

Most essential oils are distilled from the plant material which is placed in a still and exposed to steam, forced through them from below, which makes the volatile aromatic molecules detach from the plant. These rise with the steam and after condensation, turn into liquid form. At this point, the essential oil is separated from the water - as it is lighter than the water it is siphoned off the top.

Citrus essential oils are produced by another method known as expression which involves highly-sensitive machines extracting the essential oil from the rind, without using heat. In this process, whatever biocides were used on the fruits are inevitably included with the essential oils.

All these aspects of cultivation and extraction have to be considered by wholesale purchasers of essential oils, who are more and more coming to the conclusion that it is better to lease your own fields, so control over growing methods can be maintained, and the biocide eliminated. Ultimately, they all-know the end user would prefer to use organically grown essential oils, and by collectively pressing this point home we, the consumers, can pressurize suppliers to aim for the highest purity.

Professor George Dodd at the olfaction research department at Warwick University has developed an electronic nose capable of picking up and identifying small components of aroma. Perhaps in the future this will be a tool in essential oil analysis but u8ntil then, despite all the latest technological developments in essential oils analysis, the human nose is still the most sensitive aroma-detector going, and it is sometimes still used instead of a machine, at the receiving end of the GC column.

The best way to assess an essential oil is to smell it but, like the GC machines, each of us has to build up our own library of aromas. Obviously this takes time, but the powers of discrimination should soon build up providing you have access to pure fresh essential oils. 

Reference: The Fragrant Mind: Valerie Ann Worwood

Frankincense Resinie - Boswellia Carteri

CHARACTER;
Elevating, Spiritual, Meditative, Wisdom

USE TO COUNTERACT THESE NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES
Fears, Grief, Blockages, Over-attachment, Burn-out, Exhaustion, Insincerity, Panic, Anxiety, Disconnection, Repression, Resistance, Self-destruction, Apprehension, Despair.

USE FOR THESE POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES
Comfort, Healing, Emotional stability, Enlightenment, Protective, Introspection, Courage, Resolution, Fortitude, Acceptance, Inspiration.

FRANKINCENSE PERSONALITY PROFILE
Frankincense people are compassionate and interesting and something of an enigma in that they often display an air of mystery and secretiveness, even hinting at an understanding of the nature of the universe. There is a driving forcefulness about this personality, a strength and fortitude supported by maturity, conscientiousness, confidence and efficiency. At the same time. Frankincense can be impetuous, compulsive and generous.

Frankincense personalities are often geniuses and may well have invented practical contraptions for use around the home and work. They don't rely on others to do things for them, preferring to use their own initiative, and are sometimes called eccentric . Frankincense will deliver fast on dangerous mountain roads, ski down runs nobody else would dare , and swim in shark infested waters without turning a hair. It's not that they're reckless but they believe that they are protected in ways that the rest of us are not. 

The Frankincense personality , has what one might call parapsychological tendencies - they're very sensitive to atmospheres, sensing unhappiness or evil in a room or house, although this wouldn't necessarily be mentioned if they didn't think you would understand.

Although no particular personality has more psychic experiences than another, some notice them more than others, and Frankincense notices the most. They also sense the intention of other people, which is a very useful tool for them to have.

Frankincenses are very steady, upright citizens and are often found in jobs that command respect and even honour. In business, their ability to sense accurately whether a deal will turn out well or be a waste of time is a very useful tool for them to have.

Although this profile may make them seem rather cold, Frankincenses are very kind, warm hearted personalities with a knack of making people feel both confident and secure. They'd make good counsellors as their advice is often very down-to-earth and practical, not impossible for mere mortals to carry out.

The Frankincense person may not think of themselves as religious and may avoid places of worship , but they carry a profound love of God in their hearts. Frankincenses question thin gs in terms of good and evil and have a love of all things spiritual, which give them a deep wisdom. They are often excellent speakers, clear and eloquent, but are inclined to be somewhat blunt.

If they're negative, the Frankincense personality can be destructive and bitter, full of scepticism and cynicism, inclined to become guilt-ridden, insecure and uncertain , liable to suffer anxiety attacks and stress, also become short tempered and agitated. However, this is such an enlightened personality they soon realize what's going on and make a concerted effort to change direction - into positivity! Frankincense is a well-balanced personality and remarkably gifted. They are terrific communicators and are friendly, warm and loving.

Maureen Farrell, MRPharmS, MIFA Reg, MISPA, aromatherapist and teacher:

'Frankincense - the traveller, the pilgrim on the Way of Life [ a steadfast companion in a journey through grief and in letting go fear or supressed emotions. For me, the resins and resinoids, most frequently used in aromatherapy, come into the category of Wounded Healer.'

Reference: The Fragrant Mind: Valerie Ann Worwood 

Quality and Purity - AromaProfiles

It used to be the case that you could be pretty sure where a particular species of plant was grown and from where the essential oil came - lavender used to come from either England or France, for example, Lavender still comes from England and France but now it also comes from China, form where it is sometimes shipped to France - and re-exported as 'French.

It used to be the case that French Lavender was grown under clear skies, fresh and clean. Now you can see lavender growing in fields adjacent to motorways, under skies thick with the smoke rising from nuclear plants.

It now makes a great deal of difference from where, exactly, in France the lavender comes - the high Alps are preferred partly because the air is cleaner there . For an Aromatherapist it is important to know whether a Helichrysum, for example, is grown in Corsica or the former Yugoslavia, because the two essential oils have different therapeutic qualities.

It used to be the case that some essential oils were sold at auction. Nowadays, wholesalers tend to have a more direct access to the source - the field in which the crop is grown , and the farmer - often through a middleman. This gives purchasers more control, which is necessary, because there are more factors to consider.

Aside from the question of which country, and exactly from where in that country the oils come, aromatherapists who use essential oils for clinical use want to know which, if any, chemical pesticide, fungicide or herbicide is used on the crop. Bear in mind here that we are talking about tiny quantities of biocide residues.

These things also exist - in very much large quantities - in the foods we eat every day. Plagued as they are by insects, insect eggs, snails, rodents, weeds and fungi, farmers are tempted to use chemicals (known as 'biocides'), and it is the job of the middleman or direct buyer to make sure they're not. Just how much biocide residue is left in any particular essential oil depends on the integrity of the line of supply.

For serious aromatherapists, this is the thing they look for when choosing essential oils. The various aromatherapy oil trade organizations recognize the public's desire for purity and as the acceptance of biocides grow less, growers are responding by trying to cut down on them, or omit them altogether.

Essential oils are tested by gas chromatography, mass-spectroscopy. thin layer chromatography and high performance liquid chromatography, which are methods of separating essential oils (and other things) (GC) is basically a hollow column which is lined inside with a chemical resin.

A tiny amount of essential oil is diluted with a solvent and injected into one end of the column and then gas - hydrogen or helium - is forced through the column , under constant pressure, forcing the components of the essential oil to stick to the sides. The most sophisticated machines have columns which are just 0.25mm in diameter and 100 metres long.

A detector at the other end identifies each component as it releases from the resin and comes to the other end of the column, the most volatile being evaporated first. The column is heated, releasing more components, which are likewise registered, one after the other.

As they arrive at the detector, the components are burned, which causes electrical activity, which is recorded as a series of peaks on a piece of paper. The unique pattern of the peaks, showing the relative positions of the components, creates a 'fingerprint' of the oil.

Reference: The Fragrant Mind: Valerie Ann Worwood