A Holistic Essential Oil Guide

The complete role of essences in the life of plants is not fully understood. I will describe some functions, but much research remains to be done on the full significance of these marvelous substances.

In plants which produce flower oils, one of the obvious functions is to attract insects for pollination, which insures reproduction and survival of the species. Red and pink flowers, about nine percent of the aromatic flowers, attract butterflies by both color and scent. White flowers, which attract moths, account for about 15 percent of aromatic blooms. Morris 2 says that the night-blooming flowers are white because they reflect the moonlight better than other colors and this helps guide the moth to the flower. This type of flower also has a heavy, languorous, sweet scent which attracts the moth. Jasmine, lilies, hyacinths, and honeysuckle are examples of this type of flower.

A Chinese emperor moth can detect a scent six miles downwind. Bees are attracted to yellow, lavender, and blue flowers and the scents associated with them. Another basic function of essences in the plant is to protect it against predators. Within the plant, the essences are separated from the plant tissues because they can be toxic to them. Pine oil, for example, damages plant tissue even at a dilution of 1 to 50,000 parts. The strength of the oil keeps away predators because it can burn the mouth of an animal attempting to eat the plant. In the Mediterranean region, goats known to eat almost anything will not touch the pungent herbs such as wild thyme and wild marjoram. Sandalwood is impervious to termites; cedar and redwood trees are also highly resistant to various insect pests.

Another way that essences protect their plants is to reduce dehydration. Evaporation of oils from the leaves appears to inhibit the transpiration of water vapor. Interestingly, the plants containing the highest percentage of essential oils are generally found in the warm, sunny parts of the world. An environmental adaptation, perhaps

The chemical composition of an essential oil is what produces its particular aroma and its biological effects. Although chemists have isolated and identified many of the complex compounds found in essences, Valnet 3 notes that essential oils present researchers with more new compounds than all the chemists in the world could analyze in a thousand years. Valnet also says:

The whole natural essence is found to be more active than its principal constituent. Moreover, those constituents which form a smaller percentage of the whole are found to be more active than those of its principal constituent. As early as 1904 Cuthbert Hall demonstrated that the antiseptic properties of the essence of eucalyptus were more powerful than those of its principal constituent, eucalyptol.