SAFETY DEBATE ln April this year Britain’s most revered nursing body, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) passed a resolution “to raise public awareness of the hazards of essential oils” at its annual congress. This resulted in a great deal of media attention focussing on (often exaggerated) dangers of essential oils.

Many nurses spoke briefly in support of the resolution, including Carole Cunningham who said: “Training courses should cover extensive learning in the chemistry and holistic significance of essential oils”. Hardly an inflammatory remark. However, the press picked up on comments made, for instance, by Janet Holmes, who said: “Some essential oils may induce a seizure or miscarriage, others raise the blood pressure with potentially Patal consequences, if the blood pressure is already high”.

The resulting public debate on essential oil safety caused a flurry of correspondence between the RCN and the Aromatherapy Trades Council (ATC) who felt, with some justiiication, that their ongoing efforts to regulate the industry had been ignored by the RCN. Eventually both organisations realised that they were on the same side. Sylvia Baker, speaking for the ATC, said: “We have now agreed that working together is in the best interests of everyone concerned.”

In a recent article Angela Avis, chair of the RCN complementary therapies forum, called on nurses “to undertake education that. will equip them to integrate essential oils into nursing care safely and effectively” 0

NEVVS INTERNATIONAL

FUNDED

AROMATHERAPY

A 530,000 smdy at Birmingham Womens’ Hospital in the UK has been approved by [he National Health Service, and will measure a variety of parameters in 100 patients, including blood pressure, anxiety and pain, either before or after surgery. Sister Kath Ryan, one of the organisers of the study, said they hoped to establish the efficacy of aromatherapy in a traditional hospital environment.

In London’s Hammersmith Hospital, three NHS funded aromatherapisls are now working in the oncology depdrlment, giving aromatherapy treatments to cancer patients to help them in a variety of palliative ways (see stomach cancer in Case Studies) 0

INDIA TRIP

This September Chris McMahon is taking a Small

group of Westerners with him on one of his aromatic “pilgrimages” to explore India’s aromatic traditions. Starting in Madras on September 11 th, the group will travel to Tanjore in South India (lotus and rose flowers) Madurai (jasmine and marigold) Koddikanal (geranium) Coimbatore (jasmine) Mysore (eucalyptus, sandalwood) Bangalore (bakul, champaca) then back to Madras on September 22nd. Many temples, exotic meals, dedicated people and extraction processes will also be enjoyed by this adventurous group 0

BACTERIA

FLAVOURING

Bacteria could soon be manufacturing cheaper vanilla flavouring for ice creams, yoghurts and cakes if work by British researchers pays off. Their ‘biovanillin’ could be the first of many valuable flavourings created in this way. Authentic vanilla is

extracted from the pods of the tropical vanilla orchid, Vanilla fragrans. But demand exceeds supply and the food industry is seeking cheaper alternatives.

A team at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich says that a simple soil bacterium can make large amounts of vanillin from a cheap starting material. IFR researchers Arjan Narbad and Mike Gasson describe how their newly discovered strain of Pseudomonas Juorescens

converts ferulic acid, found in agricultural waste, into vanillin.

They hope that biovanillin will be superior to synthetic vanillin, which is made from the plant fibre lignin or from eugenol, a substance found in clove oil. Synthetic vanillin accounts for 80 per cent of the 8000 tonnes of vanillin consumed world-wide each year.

The researchers acknowledge that they cannot match the quality of the natural extracts, but they believe they can manipulate the genetic pathway so that the biovanillin includes additional flavourings found in the natural extract.

To dispel fears about the safety of using soil bacteria to make edible substances, Narbad and Gasson plan to transfer the genes which manufacture vanillin from the Pseudor/lonas bdctcria into organisms widely accepted as safe. They expect bacterial production to be cleaner than chemical synthesis, which generates sulphur dioxide 0