Healing with Essential Oils: The Antiviral, Restorative, and Life-Enhancing Properties of 58 Plants by Heather Dawn Godfrey, 2022. Published by Healing Arts Press, a division of Inner Traditions International. 340 pages, including references and index; illustrations in color.
I’m in awe of the complex sequence of events that turns plant essences into essential oils. The results are linked to no less than the characteristics of plant origin, plant chemistry, and the choice of plant distillation.
Here, I review Healing with Essential Oils and also refer to the author’s earlier publication. Together they provide an excellent series on the use of essential oils.
If you’re a health professional looking for insight into essential oils, you might look for two books by Heather Dawn Godfrey. As an introduction to essential oils, you would choose Essential Oils for the Whole Body to read first, at least for the art and science of aromas as therapy. However, when you’re already conversant with those topics you might want more in-depth knowledge of the oils themselves. Thus you might appreciate her second book, Healing with Essential Oils.
First, the Science
Healing with Essential Oils: The Antiviral, Restorative, and Life-enhancing Properties of 58 Plants by Heather Dawn Godfrey presents the multiple aspects of plant-to-essential-oil product. It’s written in casual format and delivered as text, charts, tables, inserts, and full-color photography. The science, or biology, of plants begins the story of essential oils.
The author would like you to consider the wide universe of plants. As a product, essential oils are just one tiny artefact arising from a plant’s life processes. Further, plants that make aromatic, or volatile, oils are in turn one tiny group in the vast biodiversity of life on this planet.
Surveys of the Facts
There are so many facts about oil-bearing plants and their essences. Of the hundreds of thousands of plants, we find that most do not yield an essential oil. And yet, as just one tiny event, the production and use of an oil by a plant (let alone human use) is quite extraordinary. What the author’s broad examination and survey of numerous facts is meant to do is… not to overwhelm, but to organize what is an impossible amount of data into a pocket-sized all-inclusive edition.
Basically, the book covers four aspects of the aromatic substances we know as essential oils. First, what happens within the plant, specifically the biological functions of metabolism, photosynthesis and respiration are explored. Next, are methods of extraction—ways that humans have devised to harvest the oil from the plants. These include distillation, expression, solvents, and maceration, etc. Third, the 14 chemical components of essential oils, plus 3 more constituents, are described in detail. And fourth is an examination of safe practices, assuming topical application or olfaction. All of these facets of aromatic substances are offered as an introduction to the main part of the book, its materia medica, or Plant Profiles.
Plant Profiles
Plant Profiles are the main reference in the book. For each of 58 plants, the summary of data is generously detailed.
Ten categories specify the geographic location, descriptive data on the physical oil including odor, chemical constituents by their percentage of concentration, perfume note, etc. Emphasis here is on the antiviral, restorative, and life-enhancing properties of select plants. We have already seen how this collection of oils is grouped by family in the text (p. 53-on in the chapter, “What is an Essential Oil?”) and tabulated by morphology in the chart (p. 68-70).
A category for each plant is called “Subtle Connections”. Here, colors, chakras, gemstones and energies (taken presumably from Chinese traditional medicine) of Yin and/or Yang and the elements which the plant aligns with are shown.
And finally, the category on “Actions and Uses” offers general uses, followed by areas of the body for which the oil is best indicated. Comparing the entries for two oils, Neroli and Turmeric, I see that while Neroli has actions appropriate for Skin and Fungal infections, Turmeric’s actions are directed at Joints and Muscles.
Using the Whole Book
With charts, tables and inserts, there are many ways to cross-reference data about the 58 essential oils. For example, I could look up Coriander seed alphabetically by common name in Plant Profiles. I’ll gather information about where it grows, what it looks like (a textual description), how it’s extracted, the color and odor of the extracted oil, and the named compatible oils to blend with it. Worth mentioning is that it’s possible to distill both leaves (we use Coriander leaves often in Asian cooking) and seeds of Coriander (Coriandrum sativum).
Susbsequently, I can check the chart in the chapter “Biodiversity, Botany and Essential Oils” and find the category for Spice/Seed. There, I find that Coriander seed is shown together with angelica, aniseed, caraway, carrot, celery, cumin, dill and fennel. These seed essential oils belong to the same family, and thus may share similar properties.
Then in “Using Essential Oils”, a chart offers specifics on fragrance, dry-out quality, skin penetration, and general indications. By now I have a 360-degree view of an oil, its origins and chemistry, I can list other oils that may be similar, and define which oils blend with Coriander.
My Summary
An immense amount of data for each and every plant in her list, Healing with Essential Oils differs from her earlier book in its point of view. In her earlier book, Essential Oils for the Whole Body, the reader gains perspective on what essential oils do for the human body. Its emphasis is on safe use, blending for specific therapeutics, and close observation of that intersection.
Healing with Essential Oils, on the other hand, leans toward an understanding of the plants, how they create and use their oil, what their chemical constituents are and how they restore various bodily functions by inhalation or application to the skin. Thus, I would say that both books are an important source for learning about aromatic oils, their sources in the natural world and their mysteries in conjunction with our health when using them.
In short Healing with Essential Oils is a mini-encyclopedia of knowledge, focusing chiefly on the biology and chemistry that create essential oils. The tables and charts are one of the ways the author presents data for both visual and conceptual insight.
If there is a single critical remark to make here, it would be this: a casual style presents material in an easy to read format, devoid of footnotes, so the whole appearance is approachable, friendly. Yet such a publication runs the risk of being undervalued as an educational resource. I think footnotes validate the data or concept the writer is putting forth. And allows the reader freedom to explore further, if they wish. So, in both books, I would be pleased to see them, especially for statements made about Asian herbal medicine, TCM and Ayurveda, as well for biology and chemistry, and safety issues where these are not necessarily common knowledge for many readers.
NOTE: Please see my review of Heather Dawn Godfrey’s earlier book, Essential Oils for the Whole Body, here.
Follow
