the aromaconnection blog

Call for Support for Firefighters/Victims in Australia

United Aromatherapy Effort is helping to mobilize efforts and donations to help wildfire relief efforts throughout Australia.  Any supplies or monetary donations would be welcome.

AUSTRALIAN WILDFIRES
March 21, 2009 NEWS: CALL TO ACTION
Once again the amazing power of the internet, and all our interconnections have enabled us to network this call to Action (feel free to forward).
We are mobilizing to help out with the teams already working for the Wildfire Relief Effort. The Australian Practitioners Emergency Response Network (APERN) exists to help frontline emergency workers fulfill their duties in an emergency/critical incident and to support volunteers and victims in a caring and compassionate way. The blog: http://therapistsunite.blogspot.com/2009/03/apern-bulletin-tuesday-10th-march-2009.html. It emerged from the events of Black Saturday, the 8th February, 2009 when extensive bush fires in resulted in over 200 deaths. APERN is still in its formation stages and they are all volunteers. In addition Hands on Health Australia or HOHA http://www.handsonhealth.com.au/ aims to assist communities to improve the delivery of health and other services to marginalized people, utilizing the resource of community volunteers. They are looking at setting up 7 community clinics. At present some clinics are running and others are still in progress. Some communities around Whittlesea are only just returning to their homes to begin the rebuilding stage. There are 7000 people still homeless and living in tents, having survived one of the worst tragedies. (News links on the UAE site if you need a reminder.)
Supplies (respiratory blends, relaxation, clinic supplies like towels/base oils, etc) can be sent to Tuesday Browell (tuesdaybrowell@bigpond.com) 424 High Street, Echuca, Victoria Australia. 3564 mobile ph is.0428342957.
In addition Ron Guba/Essential Therapeutics in Melbourne is collection donations for oil supplies if you want to purchase local supplies toward the Relief effort: visit http://www.essentialtherapeutics.com.au he will see your purchase is mixed into respiratory blends, or other useful products and delivered via the above organizations. Ultrasonic diffusers would be great for the seven clinics if someone wants to contribute those, contact Sheriar Irani in Sydney www.subtleenergies.com.au
This is a great quick way we can help rather than sending our own supplies.
Thank you in advance for any support as we mobilize globally to help out when we can. Please feel free to forward this to any other lists or organizations, and other caring aromatic friends.

Sylla Sheppard-Hanger
www.UnitedAromatherapy.org

Sassafras oil distillers help destroy Cambodian forest

Copyright © Tony Burfield March 2009.

Illicit manufacturers of MDA, MDEA & MDMA (ecstasy) can utilise safrole from safrole-rich essential oils such as sassafras oil and “brown” camphor oil as starter materials (precursors). Therefore safrole & sassafras oils are designated as controlled substances in many countries, and safrole is listed as a Table 1 precursor under the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. Since sassafras trees (Sassafras albidum (Nutt.) Nees) grow wild in the Eastern parts of the US, the Drugs Enforcement Agency has made safrole a List 1 substance under the under the Chemical Diversion and Trafficking Act, and it is unlawful to trade safrole & safrole-rich substances for illicit drug-manufacturing purposes. There are legitimate uses for safrole however - these include the manufacture of the aroma chemical heliotropin (‘cherry pie’) and the knock-down insecticide piperonyl butoxide. Interestingly, there is a tradition of drinking sassafras tea, of using sassafras as in ingredient in sarsaparilla drinks, and making root beer from the inner bark of young sassafras tree roots. Dried ground sassafras leaves, in the form of aromatic filè powder, is also used in cooking, being stirred into traditional Southern dishes just before serving. The FDA made sassafras a prohibited ingredient for food & beverages in 1976, since it is a weak experimental animal carcinogen (rats, mice) - Daimon et al. (1998). It has to be said that there is some resistance amongst many US citizens in accepting that safrole is actually the heptacarcinogen it is made out to be. The latest EFFA Code of Practice for example lists safrole both as carcinogen category 2, and as a mutagen category 3m. It is fair to day that the amount of evidence for safrole’s role in human carcinogenicity is scanty, even at this point in time, although there is very limited evidence of oral cancers from long-term safrole exposure from betel-leaf and areca-nut chewing practices (Chen et al. 1999). So the traditions of sassafras tea drinking (often made from the sassafras tree’s twigs & leaves) still persists in places, such as is still found within N. American Indian communities in Eastern parts of Canada. In the Eastern US, many citizens regard the right to use sassafras as part of their cultural inheritance, although any commercial root beer listing sassafras as an ingredient is now made with safrole-free sassafras extract.

N. American sassafras essential oil has a sweet-spicy peppery odour, with an underlying woodiness; the dry-out on a perfumers strip being invariably spicy and woody. Safrole has a cleaner, candy-like odour and its previous uses in perfumery included deployment in re-odourant formulae & soaps. In flavourings safrole was used as an ingredient to flavour medicinal products and confectionery. IFRA prohibits the addition of safrole to fragrances as such, and limits the safrole content of perfumes formulated with safrole-containing essential oils (basil, nutmeg, sassafras, cinnamon leaf etc.) to 0.01% for both skin contact & non-skin contact fragrances. This causes a potential problem for utilization of many safrole-containing fragrance ingredients, such as nutmeg butter; safrole-free versions of various aromatic nutmeg ingredients are commercially available, but often lack the spicy-sweetness and body of the authentic versions.

In South America, the safrole-rich chemotype of Brazilian sassafras tree Ocotea pretiosa (Nees) Mez. has been over-exploited as a safrole-source (there is also a methyl eugenol chemotype). As early as 1966 Mors and Rizzini (Mors & Rizzine 1966) noted that O. pretosia was becoming scarce in Santa Catarina due to uncontrolled exploitation and the natural slow growth of the tree. So Brazil went from being a major supplier of sassafras oil in the ‘sixties, to being a minor supplier in the nineties. Vietnam took over the role of being the major supplier, felling the tree Cinnamomum parthenoxylon (Jack) Meisn. to distill the roots to produce hundreds of tons of sassafras oil Vietnamese annually. Cropwatch (2007) declared the tree as now being critically endangered in Northern & Central Vietnam. Other geographic sources of safrole include Yunnan, China, where C. parthenoxylon, Sassafras tzumu & fractions of C. camphora are utilized for domestic piperonyl butoxide & heliotropin manufacture.

In S.W. Cambodia, sassafras trees (‘Mreah Prew Phnom’) Cinnamomum parthenoxylon are especially found amongst the 2 million ha. of forest within the Cardamom mountains. On-going investigations of illegal oil-producing activity were started in 2004 by the Flora & Fauna International Group. In a recent move, made together with help from the Ministry of the Environment, illegal distilleries were discovered within the Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary, run by Vietnamese syndicates, producing sassafras oil from the shredded roots & trunk of the Mreah Prew Phnom trees

Rangers from the Phnom Sankos Wildlife Sanctuary prepare to dismantle illicit sassafras oil still. Credit D. Bradfield – FFI. (used with permission.)

Subsequent action by the Royal Cambodian Armed forces dismantled 2 factories and led to 2 arrests. Tim Wood, FFI Field Co-ordinator at the Phnom Samkos Sanctuary is quoted as expressing grave concern that the harvesting of these trees is destroying the fragile eco-system habitats within the sanctuary. The FFI press release describes the pollution of streams used for cooling water for the distillation, and mentions the abstraction of fuel wood to drive the distillation process. Local peoples fear that this rate of abstraction could push the forest & Mreah Prew Phnom trees to the brink of extinction within 5 years. As a mark of their success, the 25^th Feb 2009 FFI press release also mentions the fact that in June 2008, 33 tons of illicitly produced sassafras oil were destroyed, and the 2009 FFI raids reported above have to be put in context – since previously in 2006 there were some 75 operating stills in the Western Cardamom Mountains. Now however, the FFI are apparently facing funding problems and need economic help to continue their work.

References.

Chen C.-L., Chi C.-W., Chang K.-W., & Liu T.-Y. (1999) "Safrole-like DNA adducts in oral tissue from oral cancer patients with a betel quid chewing history." Carcinogenesis 20(12), 2331 - 2334

Daimon H., Sawada S, Asakura S. & Sagami F. (1998) "In vivo genotoxicity and DNA adduct levels in the liver of rats treated with safrole." Carcinogenesis 19, 141-146.

Flora & Fauna International 25^th Feb 2009. “‘Ecstasy oil’ distilleries raided in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains.” Media Release, Phnom Penh, Cambridge.

IRIN –UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs “Cambodia: Ecstasy tabs are destroying the forest wilderness” – see http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79340

Mors & Rizzini (1966) Useful Plants of Brazil pub. Holden & Day, 1966.

Segelman A.B., et al (1976). "Sassafras and herb tea: potential health hazards." JAMA 236(5),477.

Technorati Tags: sassafras essential oil,brown camphor essential oil,ecstasy,safrole

Bio-Piracy, Bio-Prospecting, Local Treatments & Ayurvedic Medicine

Copyright © Tony Burfield Feb 2009

Cropwatch has previously featured articles concerned with the fact that intellectual property relating to traditional treatments & medicines, and other exploitable properties of useful plants, has been looted or otherwise misappropriated. These acts have been carried out by multinational companies and in some instances by unscrupulous individuals or teams within universities. The pharmaceutical industry, of course, has a long history of bio-piracy - you have only to think of well-known long-standing drugs such as reserpine & vincristine where no recompense was paid to the communities where the drug was found. Some examples of misappropriation for nine Indian medicinal plants were given in a discussion-only document by UNCTAD India Team (2005), which was reproduced in Cropwatch’s Updated list of threatened aromatic plants used in the aroma & cosmetic industries v.10 Jan 2009.
 

Plant name	Patents Revealed (use similar to Traditional Knowledge).
Acorus calamus L. (Vacha)	3 granted, 7 applied
Adhatoda vasica Nees (Vaska),	1 granted
Andrographis pinacualta Nees (Kalmegh)	3 granted
Commiphora mukul Engl. (Guggul)	11 granted
Curcuma longa L. (Haldi)	20 granted
Phyllanthus amarus L.	4 granted
Rauvolfia serpentina Benth. (Sarpagandha)	19 granted
Swertia chirata Buch. – Ham. Ex Wall (Chirata).	None directly mentioned, but 3 applications need study.
Terrminila chebula Retz (Harar)	3 granted
Withania somnifera Dunal (Aswaganha)	1 granted, 1 applied

Table 1. Medicinal plants with patent claims possibly similar to Indian Traditional Knowledge (adapted from UNCTAD 2005 discussion document).

Quoting from the Cropwatch article: “The authors of this document (UNCTAD) point out, that for most USA patents relating to native Indian plants, the inventors are often Indian people of Indian origin, patenting uses of plants already used for the same purpose in Ayurvedic medicine. This surely must raise questions on whether these particular patenting authorities are “fit for purpose” by ‘mis-granting’ patents based on traditional knowledge, & in so-doing, failing to establish whether acts of misappropriation have occurred. A spokesperson for the US Govt. defended the performance of the US patenting authorities on this issue in 2001, stated: “The fault lies not with the patent system, however, but with the inaccessibility of the knowledge involved beyond the indigenous community” (Anon 2001). This feeble excuse for not spotting bio-piracy when it stares US officials in the face is simply not an acceptable position for a competent authority to maintain, but it certainly illustrates the need for recruitment of the appropriate expertise in this area.”

In a new departure, the Indian Government has effectively licensed 200,000 local treatments as “public property” which is intended to limit their use as a brand. This move was taken after Delhi scientists identified 5,000 bio-prospecting patents taken out by companies outside India. Dr Vinod Kumar Gupta, who heads the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, was reported in the Guardian newspaper (Ramesh 2009) as saying more than 2,000 of these treatments belong to the seven Indian systems of medicine, and he wonders why so many millions of dollars are being spent by multi-nationals, when so many lobbies deny they work at all. Gupta’s remarks on these doubters brought a particular smile to the face of the author, as Cropwatch is currently gathering evidence of media & academic put-downs of those Complementary Alternative Medicines (CAM’s) which utilise aromatic plant treatments. This comes in a week when in an Education Guardian article, Lipsett (2009) discussed whether Alternative Medicine should be taught as a scientific subject at all, and mentions the cyber-bullying from anti-CAM lobbyists and their influential blogs, determined to shut down CAM courses at UK universities such as Salford, Uclan, Westminster, Middlesex, Thames Valley, West of England etc., and their attempts to totally discredit the practice of homeopathy.

Returning to the Ramesh-penned article, Gupta further mentions the granting of 285 patents in Brussels, which involve the properties of traditional Indian medicinal plants, and he would like these patents lifted. It will be very interesting to see the outcome, given the activities of the estimated 16,000 corporate lobbyists with very large cheque books, known to lurk in Brussels. Readers may remember however that Indian officials have previously been to court to successfully nullify patents taken out on the neem tree (which took them ten years), and on turmeric derivatives (which only took one).

You don’t have to look hard to find evidence of Ayurveda as the current buzz-word in cosmetics trade magazines. For example, an article on “Ayurvedic Beauty – here’s how to formulate beauty products based on the ancient Indian discipline” by Shyam Gupta of Bioderm Research (Gupta 2009) takes us through the principles of the Ayurvedic beliefs and describes topical treatments, Ayurvedic anti-aging ingredients, Ayurvedic skin-whitening ingredients, Ayurvedic arthritis, muscle & joint-pain relief ingredients & treatments, and a list of Ayurvedic herbs for further development together with their potential for ‘inside treatments’, as cosmeceutical agents, and for ‘outside treatments’. I am not a lawyer, I just believe in a fair world and treating people properly. I therefore have serious doubts about the operational ethics, & ultimately the legality of marketing certain products from companies such as Bioderm and Sabinsa (the latter company previously featured in Cropwatch articles). If the Indian Government start using their large financial resources to defend traditional plant uses and to stop their unlicensed exploitation by foreign companies, we could see a big shake-down in the cosmetics sector.

References

Anon (2001): US General Declaration to the First Meeting of the WIPO Committee 1st May 2001, through Balasubramaniam K. (2003) “Intellectual Property Rights & Herbal Medicine” Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Scientific Sessions, December 2003. Theme Seminar “Herbal Medicines for the People” Sri Lanka Foundation Institute 10th December 2003.

Gupta S. (2008) “Ayurvedic beauty” Beauty Vol 3 (Fall 2008), 36-42.

Lipsett A. (2009) “The opposite of science.” Education Guardian 24.02.09 p8

Ramesh R. (2009) “India acts to stop foreign drug companies seeking patents on traditional remedies.” Guardian 23.02.09 p22.

Technorati Tags: ayurveda,ayurvedic,biopiracy,patents on traditional remedies

Help Obama Win an Impossible Fight

Obama called for something in the State of the Union that numerous others have called for before - and all have failed. He said he wants to "end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don't need them."

Let me explain WHY this is so important (start thinking environment, energy, and global warming) and why it's so difficult to get through Congress. In short, the Big Ag lobby is going to be going bonkers over this, lobbying against this. What if the citizens of America - the VAST majority of this country - told Congress that WE WANT them to keep Obama's promise.

The bottom line is that our votes matter more than agribusiness's dollars in the end (dollars are nice but they are only useful if they buy you votes... and we are the ones who vote). So let's wield our power to help Obama.

I posted the following comment in response to the referenced blog post on Daily KOS blog. It’s very clear to me that we need to end our current agricultural support system that makes big payments to large agribusinesses and leaves the small farmers and ranchers out to dry (or to have a day job to support themselves. We also need to switch to a more sustainable system of agriculture.

When my grandmother was named Eminent Farm Homemaker of 1936 in South Dakota, one of paragraphs in the Citation starts [they] "are the greatly loved parents of 7 children, all of them true to agricultural interests and in some way connected with agricultural life." My father was an agronomist and worked for the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

Of my generation, I believe that my sister was the only one who returned to the middle part of the country after college and farmed for many years (but when my nephew was ready for school they moved to town and commuted back to the farm). Most of us went into engineering and other professions and stayed on the coasts. Now that I've retired from my engineering job I've gotten more involved in agriculture via our small aromatherapy and essential oil business and my participation in the aromaconnection blog.

I've recently become acquainted with some of my cousin's children on Facebook and I don't think any of them are engaged in farming or agricultural pursuits. Several years ago, I left the city and moved to 4 acres in a (sort of) rural area. But of the 200 or so residents of our rural community, there are only two agricultural related businesses--a blueberry farm and a (now-inactive) horse training arena. Most of us who are not retired as I am commute to the city to make a living. We spend much of our local activism fighting off the developments that are trying to move into the neighborhood. Although Washington state has fairly strong Agricultural land protection, there is still a lot of encroachment and many rural residents are very upset at attempts to protect the rural atmosphere and the farming activities because they want to eventually cash in on the "development" value of their property.

We've got to expand our efforts beyond that to reform our agricultural system and get back to a sustainable economy and ecology.

I'm sure my grandmother (who died over 60 years ago) would be appalled to see where we have gotten to.

Daily Kos: ACTION: Help Obama Win an Impossible Fight

Now that I’m looking this over, I realize that the tree farm at to north end of our community is also an agricultural business. But the owner doesn’t live here. . .

Cross-posted at Three Lakes

Technorati Tags: farm subsidies,agriculture,sustainable agriculture

Aromatics in Print

A review of some of the recent print magazines to come across my desk.  Links are supplied when articles are free online; otherwise you’ll have to visit your local library or subscribe.

• The January 2009 issue of Perfumer&Flavorist reports on the IFRA workshop on Allergy Prevalence in Fragrance held in November 2008 in Brussels; Reports on the Centifolia 2008 Conference featuring an article on “The Three Pillars of Smart Sustainability in F&F” that discusses how we can increase the usage of natural products while maintaining the natural environment; an article by Brian Lawrence “A preliminary Report on the World Production of Some Selected Essential Oils and Countries” (for example, did you know that 67% of orange oil, the #1 oil, comes from Brazil—or that Hungary is the largest producer of Blue Chamomile Oil?); and Brian Lawrence’s monthly column “Progress in Essential Oils” covers Orange Oil. The print magazine also provides links to online articles, particularly “FMA Ponders Green Fragrances”.
• The December 2008 issue of GCI (Global Cosmetic Industry) contains an article “What Do Ethical and Sustainable Mean to Today’s Beauty Consumer?” that raises some of the issues and discusses how some companies have dealt with the issues, concluding that “those companies seen to behave in an ethical and transparent manner are likely to win over today’s skeptical consumers.”
• The September 2008 issue of DAYSPA magazine discusses how organic applies to the Spa world in “You Say You’re Organic?”, something that seems to be open to interpretation in the Spa industry. [see previous note].
• The December 2008 issue of Economic Botany contains a paper “Traditional Tar Production from Cedrus libani A. Rich on the Taurus Mountains in Southern Turkey” (abstract) that describes how katran, a tar that has medicinal properties, from chips of old stumps that undergo a kind of distillation process involving burning them in a closed space. The katran is about half Monoterpenoids and Sesquiterpenoids, the remainder comprising hydrocarbons such as heptane. Not surprisingly, the chemical composition is similar to that of cedar essential oils.Traditional uses for katran include a number of medicinal uses for humans and animals, and as an insect repellant. Unfortunately the authors used “volatile oils” and not “essential oils” as a keyword, so the article may not be easily found by an online search.

Technorati Tags: sustainabiliity,essential oils,spa industry,essential oil production,katran,Cedrus libani

Cropwatch Newsletter Jan 2009 Published

The most recent Cropwatch Newsletter Jan 2009 [pdf] has been sent to subscribers and posted on the Cropwatch website. There is also an html format post elsewhere on the web, and several of the articles in it were previously posted on this blog, so we won’t do more than summarize it.

The Newsletter starts out with an Editorial on the theme 2008: A Bad Year for Natural Aromatic Ingredients.  A Good Year for Industry Consultants and Ingredient Clerks, in which Tony discusses the REACH Process, Corporate Influence over IFRA and its affect on the use of Natural Products, and the effects of increasing market demand for natural ingredients on the sustainability of the natural environment.

The articles included in the Newsletter are:

1. The REACH Pre-registration Exercise – an Autopsy
2. Sandalwood – A Critical View of Developments
3. IFRA Gives Up Supporting Two More Natural Aromatics:
Opoponax & Styrax Next for the Chop
4. Frankincense – A Brief Catch-Up
5. The Art of Natural Perfumery: Under Threat from Natural &
Organic Cosmetic Certifying Organisations?
6. The Oakmoss & Treemoss Saga – Slight Return
7. GM Fragrance Anyone? – Hopefully No Takers
8. IFRA Workshop - Allergy Prevalence in Fragrance, November
4, 2008, Brussels, Belgium
9. More on Ylang-ylang oil

Articles 2, 3 and 4 are updated and slightly expanded from articles previously published on this blog. Click on the number for links to the posts here: 2 3 4 however you may want to read the PDF version to get the latest information.

Article 5 on the Art of Natural Perfumery is a detailed analysis and response to the various attempts by various organizations to develop Organic and Natural Standards to control the ingredients used. This topic has been previously discussed on this blog; you can find the articles filed under the category Standards. Tony takes several of the standards to task and closes his article with:

We could review proposals from other organisations, but we think you get the idea ….. both natural & organic cosmetics are a long way from living up to the promise of their descriptions. The lack of common sense is also worrying – for example, banning added synthetics such as UV filters (one thing that Cropwatch would allow) which as well as increasing the shelf-life of the product, arguably
help protect against the risk of solar/UV-induced skin cancer. This ban, taken with other considerations, means that evolving versions of natural & organic cosmetics may be in danger of becoming considerably less safe than conventional cosmetics.

Regarding natural fragrances, it can be guessed that many of us who have been involved in the teaching, promotion & development of the art of Natural Perfumery over the past several years may be getting a bit hot under the collar when whole classes of raw natural aromatic ingredients are suddenly declared “not natural” by the self-proclaimed officials of certifying organisations, who don’t appear have experience across all the areas they are proposing to regulate. The exclusion of concretes, absolutes & resinoids from an inventory of natural aromatics for fragrances intended for natural cosmetics may well pander to the more chemophobic amongst cosmetics customers. But the banning of petrochemical solvents cannot be justified on health grounds relating to supposedly harmful amounts of solvent residues that remain in these materials – since there is no health risk. We should also mention that there is a move to allow solvent extraction in the form of allowing CO2 extracts and bio-ethanol. The protagonists of these proposals do not make clear how they are going to determine whether the CO2 used in such processes is natural (i.e. produced by fermentation of natural materials etc.), or how they will propose to police the matter. Cropwatch’s guess is that (a) they haven’t thought about it and (b) they can’t guarantee it (thanks to Daniel Joulain for bringing this to our attention). The
proposed allowable use of bio-ethanol is welcome, but does not substitute for the elimination of other solvents.

We can clearly see that attempts by these certifying organisations to redefine natural cosmetics, and natural cosmetic/aromatic ingredients clearly bow to the business interests of the major international cosmetic companies and their customers, who are the potential cash-cows that these organisations are trying to milk. The multinational’s interests in the natural personal care sector has been plain enough for all to see – L’Oréal bought out The Body Shop, Estée Lauder did the same with Aveda & Clarins took over Kibio, just to mention three. That doesn’t mean to say that those of us working with natural products now have to dance to a tune played by the big corporates, or the organisations that suck up to them. We feel that many of the above-cited proposals & guidelines will be rejected by those purists who have been involved with natural perfumery to its
present point. You probably do not need Cropwatch to tell you that many experienced older perfumers have been found surplus to requirements lately by some of the Aroma Giants, probably because they are too expensive compared with younger perfumers. Many of these more experienced professionals are now working independently, making a living by creating natural perfumes. It is
unlikely, we feel, that this group will accept many of the definitions currently proposed by these Natural & Organic Cosmetic Certifying Organisations, and hopefully this group will become a growing influence in this area, for better values, independent of big industry’s requirements.

The Oakmoss/Treemoss article updates an article in this blog several months ago and announces that a detailed review of the lichens is planned for publication in Flavour and Fragrance Journal by mid-February 2009.

The GM Fragrance article discusses the progress? made in the floral products industry to increase the fragrance of flowers through GMO manipulation and the possibility that this will be a back door entry into the aromatics industry in spite of public opposition (especially in the EU) to Genetic Modification. The article contains several references and additional reading.

Brief comments on the IFRA workshop on Allergy Prevalence in Fragrance suggest a possible out for IFRA on the current over-regulation of the European cosmetics industry with a report that

sensitization to fragrance ingredients has decreased considerably over the years, and for some weak allergens, the rate of incidence is now so low that several thousands of subjects now need to be tested
to obtain one genuinely positive result.

The Ylang Ylang article is an update and correction to comments made in the previous Cropwatch Newsletter (Sept 2008) having to do with coniferyl benzoate in (or not in) ylang-ylang oil. Tony goes on to clarify the current status of the Ylang market.

All in all, a useful and interesting issue. Recommended reading for a variety of topics and interests.

Technorati Tags: REACH,Sandalwood,IFRA,Frankincense,Natural Perfumery,Oakmoss,Treemoss,GM Fragrance,Ylang-ylang

Frankincense – A Brief Catch-Up

Copyright ã Tony Burfield. Jan 2009.

The year 2008 saw the publication of a number of papers on the analysis & therapeutic properties of Frankincense gum, extracts & distillates, and it is only in recent years perhaps, that we are gaining further insight into the true nature & therapeutic potential of these various exudations & preparations. The whitish-yellow or yellow-orange tears or lumps of Frankincense gum (syn. Olibanum) (syn. Incense) are obtained by tapping the trees of a number of Boswellia spp., and the gum & derivatives are valuable exported commodities for the Horn of Africa region (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia & the island of Socotra (Yemen)), but also for Sudan and other African regions. Frankincense gum is used to prepare incense, and extracts & distillates have been widely used as fragrance ingredients. Indian, Arabian & African Boswellia spp. have a number of uses in local ethnic medicine, which is starting to translate into uses in evidence-based conventional medicine (see for example, the major feature on Frankincense & derivatives in Phytomedicine, June 2008).

For a working definition, we can say that Frankincense is the dried exudation obtained from the schizogenous gum-oleoresin pockets in the bark of various Boswellia spp - the Boswellia group itself being placed within the Burseraceae family. The Boswellia group constitutes some 25 species of shrubs or small trees found in the dry tropical areas of N.E. Africa, S. Arabia and India (including N.E. Tanzania and Madagascar) growing at a height of 1000 to 1800 m.:

 

Boswellia Species.	Eritrea	Ethiopia	Somalia	Sudan	India	Kenya	Oman	Nigeria
Boswellia bhau-dajiana Birdw.*			X
B. dalzielii Hutch.								X
B. frereana Birdw.			X
B. microphylla Chiov.		X
B. neglecta S. Morre		X	X			X
B. ogadensis Vollesen		X
B. papyrifera (Del.) Hochst	X	X		X
B. pirottae Chiov.		X
B. rivae Engl.		X	X
B. sacra Flück **		X	X
B. serrata Roxb.					X		X

Table 1. Distribution of some Boswellia spp.
*some now say syn. B. sacra Flück ** syn. B. carteri Birdw.

Frankincense – Uses

Frankincense has been very highly valued for thousands of years, dating to pre- Roman times, and has many uses & applications. It is the Horn of Africa’s highest volume export, and apart from uses in incense/perfumery, the gum oleoresin & preparations thereof are also used in a number of medicinal systems, for flavourings (‘maidi’ type of frankincense preferred) & for skin cosmetic applications for toner, emollient & anti-wrinkle uses.

Survival Pressure on Boswellia spp.

Several Boswellia spp. are listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008, including several individual spp. from the island of Socotra, off Yemen. However, some Frankincense- yielding species of commercial importance would also appear to be under threat e.g. Boswellia papyrifera in Eritrea, Ethiopia & Sudan (see Cropwatch’s Updated List of Threatened Aromatic Plants Used in the Aroma & Cosmetic Industries v1.09 Dec 2008). The results of the analysis of the essential oils from three threatened Boswellia species from Socotra have recently been published (Awadh Ali et al. 2008).

Frankincense - Anti-inflammatory Effects

Given the use of Indian Frankincense (B. serrata) gum-oleoresin in treating inflammatory disease in Ayurvedic medicine, a number of researchers have investigated the anti-inflammatory & anti-arthritic effects of the Boswellia resins. Frankincense contains α- and β-boswellic acids from 3α-hydroxy-olean-12-en-24-oic acid and 3α-hydroxy-urs-12-en-24-oic acid respectively, amongst others. Boswellic acid & pentacyclic triterpene acids are marketed as anti-inflammatory & anti-arthritic drugs in India (Handa 1992). Examples of commercialised products containing boswellic acids include ‘H15’ and ‘Sallaki’. Another, ‘Boswellin’ (a patented product of Sabinsa Corporation) is described as the standardized ethanol extract of Boswellia serrata gum resin, containing 60% to 65% boswellic acids.

The mechanism of the anti-inflammatory action may occur via the inhibition of 5-lipoxygenase (and hence leukotriene biosynthesis: Ammon et al. 1993; Ammon 1996). This action taken together with inhibition of human leukocyte elastase (Safayhi et al. 1997) may constitute the basis of the anti-inflammatory effect, since both of these enzymes play key roles in inflammatory & hypersensitivity-based diseases. The most active inhibitor of 5-lipoxygenase seems to be acetyl-11-keto-beta-boswellic acid, which is also cyctotoxic to meningioma cultures (Park et al. 2000).

The use of Boswellia preparations to treat another inflammatory disease, ulcerative colitis, may also owe its beneficial action to 5-lipoxygenase inhibition (Gupta et al. 1997).

Anti-carcinogenic Effects.

Leading on from the above, extracts of B. serrata & boswellic acids & their derivatives have been investigated by a number of researchers for their (chemopreventive) anti-carcinogenic/anti-tumorigenic effects via their cytotoxic & apoptosis effects in various in vitro cell lines. In particular acetyl-11-keto-beta-boswellic acid shows strong cyto-toxic activity against meningioma cell-lines and is the strongest 5-lipoxygenase inhibitor yet tested amongst triterpenoids (Hostanska et al. 2002). See Cropwatch’s Frankincense Bibliography v1.02 Jan 2009 for further details.

Use in Treating Respiratory Disease.

Gupta et al. (1997) investigated the use of Boswellia serrata gum resin in patients with bronchial asthma in 23 males & 17 females with a history of the disease, in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, 6-week clinical study, 70% of the patients showed an improvement (against a 27% improvement in the control group).

Incense: the Purifying Smoke.

The smoke of incense is traditionally used in Arabia & NE Africa for its deodorizing and purifying effects. Basar (2005) showed that the pyrolysates of Boswellia carterii & B. serrata resins showed anti-bacterial inhibition for contained certain substances e.g. 24-norursa-3,12-diene, incensole acetate & cembrene A, in the case of B. carterii. The author concluded that the results could support the successful use of certain Boswellia resins as a disinfectants in traditional ceremonies.

Analysis.

The literature is beset with analytical investigations of non-botanically verified frankincense samples, often obtained from local markets. A few papers have been published more recently where proper botanical identification has been established. One such paper is that of Hamm et al. (2005) who analysed the mono-, sesqui- & di-terpene contents of 6 olibanum samples of botanically certified origin. For example the characteristic chemical compounds of Boswellia papyrifera were stated as the diterpenic biomarkers incensole and its oxide and acetate derivatives, n-octanol and n-octyl acetate.

References.

Ammon H, et al. (1993) “Mechanism of antiinflammatory actions of curcumine and boswellic acids.” J. Ethnopharmacol 38(2-3), 113-19.

Ammon H. (1996) “Salai guggal Boswellia serrata : from a herbal medicine to a non-redox inhibitor of leukotriene biosynthesis.” Eur J Med Res 1(8), 369-70.

Awadh Ali N.A., Wurster M., Arnold N., Teichert A., Schmidt J., Lindequist U. & Wessjohann L. (2008) "Chemical Composition and Biological Activities of Essential Oils from the Oleogum Resins of Three Endemic Socotraen Boswellia Species." Rec. Nat. Prod. 2(1), 6-12

Basar S. (2005) Phytochemical investigations on Boswellia species: Comparative studies on the essential oils, pyrolysates and boswellic acids of Boswellia carterii Birdw., Boswellia serrata Roxb., Boswellia frereana Birdw., Boswellia neglecta S. Moore and Boswellia rivae Engl. PhD Thesis, Universität Hamburg 2005.

Gupta I., Gupta V., Parihar A., Gupta S., Ludtke R., Safayhi H. & Ammon H. P. (1998). “Effects of Boswellia serrata gum resin in patients with bronchial asthma: results of a double-blind, placebo-controlled, 6-week clinical study.” Eur. J. Med. Res. 3, 511-514.

Hamm S., Bleton J., Connan J. & Tchapla A.(2005) "A chemical investigation by headspace SPME and GC-MS of volatile and semi-volatile terpenes in various olibanum samples." Phytochemistry. 66(12), 1499-514.

Handa S.S. (1992) Fitoterapia 63(10), 3.

Hostanska K., Daum G. & Saller R. (2002) "Cytostatic and apoptosis inducing activity of boswellic acid towards malignant cells in vitro.” Anticancer Research 22, 2853-62.

Gupta I., Parihar A., Malhotra P., Singh G. B., Ludtke R., Safayhi H. & Ammon H.P (1997) “. Effects of Boswellia serrata gum resin in patients with ulcerative colitis.” Eur J Med Res . 2(1), 37-43.

Park Y.S., Lee J.H., Bondar J., Harwalakr J.A., Safayhi H. & Golubic M. (2000) “Cytotoxic action of acetyl-11-keto-β-boswellic Acid (AKBA) on meningioma cells.” Planta Med. 68, 397-401.

Safayhi H., Rall B., Sailer E-R. & Ammon H.P.T. (1997) "Inhibition by boswellic acids of human leukocyte elastase." Pharmacology 281(1), 460-463.

Technorati Tags: Frankincense,boswellia,frankincense extracts,frankincense distillates,frankincense gum

IFRA Gives Up Supporting More Natural Aromatics: Opoponax & Styrax Next for the Chop

by Tony Burfield December 2008

For a long time, many of us have suspected, rightly or wrongly, that IFRA’s underlying policy agenda is primarily to support synthetic aroma chemicals at the expense of natural aromatic ingredients. This is because synthetics have attractions over natural aromatics for the major aroma industry players, who, after all, financially support the IFRA/RIFM/REXPAN toxicology juggernaut. These perceived advantages include the fact that synthetic aroma chemicals are compositionally non-complex, which infers paybacks for simpler regulatory safety compliance. They are invariably cheaper, they can sometimes be produced in-house, & they and their applications may be patentable. Their composition is constant, and unlike natural aromatic ingredients, their price stability & constancy of supply are variables which are not so subject to the vagaries of the world’s ever-changing climate.

To set the scene further, IFRA have failed recently to properly support the continued use of citrus oils in perfumery in relation to the EU Cosmetic Commissioner’s proposed draconian restrictions arising from possible photo-carcinogenic risks from contained FCF’s, and look equally likely to cave in over SCCP proposals to limit atranol & chloratranol in lichen products (oakmoss, treemoss, cedarmoss etc.). IFRA’s failure to support santolina oil and melissa oil can also be added to the list. This policy of abandoning of ingredients they regard as less important, indicates that IFRA are not supporting the wider interests of the perfumery art, but merely reflecting the narrower business interests of their major sponsors. There is a vacancy to be urgently filled, therefore, for a competent safety organisation with a wider brief.

In a new departure, IFRA’s Information Letter 815 indicates that opoponax (which they claim botanically derives from ‘Commiphora Erythrea var. glabrascens Engler’ – we have reproduced their incorrect botanical formatting) does not have robust enough data to allow application of Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) methodology, and that there is a need for more ‘up to date’ sensitization data. IFRA claims it cannot support the required studies financially, and without these studies there is a high risk that IFRA will prohibit the material. Similarly for styrax (which they claim, with slightly more botanical accuracy, is obtained from exudations of ‘Liquidambar Styraciflua L. var. macrophylla or Liquidambar Orientalis Mill.’). It is not our fault, however, that IFRA have adopted a policy over sensitiser potency estimation (i.e. the QRA methodology) which it seemingly can’t afford, and which both the SCCP & Cropwatch have widely criticised as being flawed in practice (see Cropwatch Newsletter at http://www.cropwatch.org/newslet13.pdf).

Bear with me whilst we revisit the botany again. Mabberley (1998), Langenham (2003), Gachathi (1997) and others, describe opoponax qualities deriving not only from Commiphora erythraea Engl. var. glabrescrens Engl. growing in Somalia, Kenya, E. Ethiopia, and S. Arabia, but also from other species such C. guidottii (Chiov) from S. Somalia & Ethiopia, which Mabberley, the ANLAP data-base and Cropwatch regard as the primary source of opoponax. Other species used as a source of opoponax include C. kataf (Forssk.) Engl., C. holtiziana Engl. spp. holtziana & C. pseudopaoli JB Gillet. Cropwatch previously briefly reviewed the chemistry of the essential oils from these species at http://www.cropwatch.org/cropwatch11.htm. Let’s also remember that the SCCP Opinion on opoponax oil (Sensitisation only) SCCP/0871/05 adopted 15^th March 2005 can be found at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/health/ph_risk/committees/04_sccp/docs/sccp_o_025b.pdf. Here the SCCP committee concluded that “The provided data do indicate that Commiphora Erythraea Glabrescens has an allergenic potential.” Cropwatch, you might remember, declared the SCCP Opinion on opoponax sensitization scientifically invalid on a number of points, not the least that the RIFM evidence cited failed to accurately identify the botanical & geographic origins of opoponax qualities used in the sensitivity protocol testing, and failed to establish the absence of adulteration, and dismissed the remainder of the evidence too flimsy to merit serious consideration.

Opoponax oil is a useful material that the perfumery art cannot afford to lose. Freshly dipped on a perfumers strip it is sweet, oily, and balsamic and almost effervescent in character, and is used in oriental accords, and to reinforce opoponax resinoids. It also finds use to freshen top notes in apple accords and to give a sweet lift to chypre fragrances. Whereas opoponax oil is primarily a top-note material, the sweeter, buttery, toffee-like and balsamic opoponax absolute is used in oriental-type fragrances as part of the sweet balsamic base notes. Under the existing IFRA Standard, opoponax extracts and distillates prepared from the gum must not exceed 0.6% concentration in product.

Styrax also, apparently, to be potentially abandoned by IFRA on QRA testing-cost grounds, also has an important place in the art of perfumery and is derived from a number of Liquidambar spp.: Liquidambar styraciflua L. var. macrophylla; L. styraciflua L. var. orientalis; L. styraciflua L. var. integriloba, & L. styraciflua L. var. formosana. Styrax gums have been banned IFRA since 1977; only extracts & distillates are permitted under the existing IFRA Standard, and the final concentration in product must not exceed 0.6%. Styrax resinoid has a complex odour comprising sweet, balsamic & fresh elements and possesses a great deal of lift & radiance. It has been used in perfumery as a fixative in oriental fragrances, and in chypres. It is also useful in constructing hyacinth and leather notes, and for powdery accords, with vanillin, heliotropin etc. As Cropwatch points out in its latest Threatened Species Data-base A-Z listing, styrax qualities used to be heavily used as fragrance ingredients, but IFRA requirements to produce a skin-neutral product have resulted in ingredients with less useful attractive odour characteristics, and so its fragrance ingredient usage has plummeted. So not only has IFRA been instrumental in the decline of styrax usage in perfumery, it is now apparently performing the last rites over a fatally disabled ingredient. Although commercially available from several producing areas, Honduras (‘American’) and Turkish (‘Asian’) styrax from Liquidamber styraciflua & L. orientalis respectively have dominated the market, but the US has always favoured the Honduras material. However with worries that the Liquidamber orientalis forest in the Eastern Mediterranean/Turkey is now greatly reduced through wood-felling and resin extraction (Topal et al. 2008 say the species is facing extinction), Cropwatch can no longer support the use of commodities from this species in perfumery.

The inevitable reduction in availability of Asian styrax as the Turkish forests disappear, will probably result in the increased extraction of other styrax sources. Just as long as they leave the styrax trees alone in the Valley of the Butterflies on the island of Rhodes.…

References.

Gachathi F. N. (1997) “Recent Advances on Classification and Status of Main Gum-Producing Species in the Family Burseraceae” available at http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/docrep/X0098e/X0098e01.htm

Langenham J. (2003) Plant Resins: Chemistry, Evolution, Ecology, Ethnobotany Timber Press, Portland, Oregon.

Mabberley D.J. (1998) The Plant Book 2^nd rev edn. Cambridge Univ. Press.

Topal U., Sassaki M., Goto M. & Otles S. (2008) “Chemical compositions and antioxidant properties of essential oils from nine species of Turkish plants obtained by supercritical carbon dioxide extraction and steam distillation.” International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition 59(7-8), 619-634.

Technorati Tags: IFRA,opoponax,Commiphora Erythrea,Styrax,Liquidambar Styraciflua,QRA,SCCP,Cropwatch

Sandalwood – A Critical View of Developments

by Tony Burfield December 2008

Four Santalum (Sandalwood) species are present in the IUCN Red List 2008, including the extinct Santalum fernandezianum. The more familiar Santalum album L. is one of the remaining three, being assessed as Vulnerable in 1998, but a more detailed breakdown of the eco-status of individual Santalum species from various geographical locations, with ancillary notes, is available on the Cropwatch website, in the A-Z Section of the latest update of the Threatened Aromatics Plants data-base, at http://www.cropwatch.org/Threatened Aromatic Species v1.09.pdf

A comprehensive Sandalwood bibliography, together with many abstracts & (often critical) Cropwatch comments, is also available at http://www.cropwatch.org/SandalwoodbibV.pdf. These two resources should help empower potential sandalwood oil buyers to decide for themselves, just how ethical their purchasing intentions might prove to be.

The shortage of Sandalwood oil East Indian has been caused especially by the ravages of spike disease and to a lesser extent by fire, vandalism, animal damage & by other factors, on the existing Indian Sandalwood forests in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and the ruthless over-exploitation of this declining resource by illegal distillers, smugglers and corrupt officials. Arguably the over-exploitation of Sandalwood only came about because of the persistent market demand for Sandalwood logs for incense, wood carving & furniture making, and the demand for Sandalwood oil itself (which some have estimated at 250 tons/annum), despite warnings of serious depletion from eco-aware groups. A few years back, some aromatherapy profession officials and certain aromatherapy essential oil trading group representatives belittled the threat to Sandalwood (see Cropwatch bibliography), and inferred that if any blame was to be apportioned at all, it should be laid at the door of the major users, the fragrance industry. You will note that even now, within the EU, nationally-run aromatherapy vocational courses still feature Sandalwood oil for study, in spite of representations from Cropwatch to the organisers. The incense trade, of course, have ignored their obligations almost completely, and as far as we can tell, many parts of the conventional perfumery trade have done the same.

Alexandre Choueiri (2008), head of Lancome UK, speaking at the Sandalwood Conference 2008, Kununurra, W. Australia , notes that of 7,000 classified fragrances since the year 1750, 3212 contain sandalwood notes. Drawing on data from Fragrances of the World by Michael Edwards, Choueiri makes the point that of (only) 106 current fragrances now listing Sandalwood, only 36 detail Indian Sandalwood, and of those, only 16 detail Mysore Sandalwood. Of the 36 fragrances marketed by leading fragrance houses, I counted 3 supplied by IFF, 2 by Robertet, 9 by IFF, 4 by Drom, 2 by Takasago & 3 by Firmenich Of these 16 current fragrances allegedly employing Mysore Sandalwood, 4 are supplied by IFF, 2 by Givaudin (Quest), 1 by Firmenich, and 1 by Symrise. So what are we to gather from this? That the use of Sandalwood oil in fragrances is in decline, but that major aroma corporates are still ruthlessly exploiting what remains of the world's Sandalwood reserves? If they are, they are not alone in doing this. Another speaker at the conference, Venkatesha Gowda, who works for the R&D Dept. of Karnataka Soaps & Detergents Ltd., a long-time manufacturer of Sandalwood soap, maintains that in spite of the official figures (14 tons/annum of Sandalwood oil exported from Tamil Nadu during 2007-8), the current (2008) annual production of Sandalwood is actually 3,000 - 4,000 tons and for Sandalwood oil it stands at 120-150 tons, of which 80 tons/annum of Sandalwood oil is consumed by the domestic market. Gowda also remarks that Sandalwood oil is adulterated by polyethylene glycols, African sandalwood oil (Osyris lanceolata), castor oil and coconut oil, and that he has been involved in planting Osyris lanceolata in India (but hopefully not with trees smuggled out of Tanzania!). As a passing comment, a simple solubility test with 70% ethanol can easily be carried out by prospective Sandalwood oil buyers (if you are unaware of the details, contact Cropwatch), which is often a good indicator of the presence of adulterants such as fixed oils. OK, its not rocket science, but sometimes it’s a good on-the-spot resort!

Also of interest, is the fact that the Lush company publicly own up to using 1 ton per annum of New Caledonian Sandalwood oil (see http://www.lush.co.uk/Shop/FeatureDetail.aspx?fdShopFeatureId=6888) and have forwardly contracted to buy TFS Australian sandalwood (Bird 2008), as confirmed by Mark Lincoln of Lush Australasia, speaking at the Kununurra Conference. Cropwatch has reservations about the ecological effects from the abstraction of such large volumes of Sandalwood oil from New Caledonia (bearing in mind that Lush are not the only buyers of the oil from this limited source); & none of the information presented on our various data-bases supports this rate of extraction (see for yourselves!). We remain open to persuasion that this policy can be truly sustainable, according to our strict interpretation of the word, but would only be too happy to review and post up any forwarded evidence to the contrary.

Of course it is well publicised that Australia has ambitions to become a major supplier of oil from Santalum album oil in the future (see the multitude of articles on this subject in the Cropwatch Sandalwood bibliography), and the Kununurra Sandalwood Conference 2008 can primarily be seen as a conference designed by TFS mainly to re-assure investors in Australian Sandalwood plantations. Indeed, the trade magazine Perfumer & Flavorist, once the flagship magazine for the industry, apparently reproduced the conference organiser’s promotional material without critical comment - to us, another sign of the slipping standards of this once-great magazine. Overall, Cropwatch remains skeptical of the ability of the Australian sandalwood machine to supply Sandalwood oils in the volumes estimated, of being an acceptable odour quality, & at a price that the market is prepared to pay, bearing in mind the current economic climate, the downward pressure on aroma ingredient prices, and the easy availability of cheap synthetic sandalwood aroma chemicals.

Cropwatch is persuaded that with proper policies & investments, some Sandalwood sources can be made truly sustainable, and we believe this may well the case in Vanuatu. However, taking pure Sandalwood oil East Indian as a benchmark, the odour profiles of Sandalwood oils from other geographical locations and/or other species are usually different in character, and lack fine notes, and may be over-sweet (as with East African Sandalwood oil) or predominantly woody-camphoraceous (as with Chinese Sandalwood oil), or just plain lacking in impact & character (as with Indonesian Sandalwood oil). From here, the future looks difficult for Sandalwood.

(All references can be located in the 68 pp. Sandalwood bibliography mentioned above).

Technorati Tags: Santalum,Sandalwood,Sandalwood bibliography,Mysore sandalwood,sandalwood sustainability Kununnurra Sandalwood Conference

Illegal Trade affects Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in Nepal

A headline article in the Telegraphnepal discusses the status of several medicinal and aromatic plants in Nepal and concludes that they are endangered because of illegal trade supported by "rampant illiteracy" prevailing in the local villages.

The article focuses on the mushroom Cordyceps sinensis, Fritillaria cirrhosa, (both important in traditional Chinese Medicine); Larix himalaica, (used for construction) and mentions Seabuckthorn (used in cosmetics) as well as essential oils.

The author of the article, Khilendra Gurung, is a Nepalese botanist and researcher in the non-Timber forest products of Nepal, especially including aromatic plants, with a number of published papers on the essential oils of Nepal. Eight of his papers are posted online on Scribd, an article site. They include a 44 page inventory of non timber forest Products (NTFPs) in the Manaslu Conservation Area, an an analysis of wintergreen oils, two papers on Sea Buckthorn, an MS-GC of Rhododendron oil, a specification for Lindera neesiana, and an overview of the the essential oil bearing plants of Nepal.

Technorati Tags: Nepal,Aromatic Plants,Traditional Chinese Medicine,Sustainability