Using Flower Essences with Essential Oils: The basic difference is that essential oils are derived from the actual plant material, i.e., flowers, leaves, seeds, roots and bark by distillation or with citrus oils by cold expression method. These methods are used to create the essential oil found in colored bottles used in different aromatherapy applications. Flower Essences, on the other hand, are prepared by infusing the energy of the actual plant material into pure spring water preserved with brandy or an organic vegetable glycerin via the action of sun or moon light. The flower essences can be taken internally, either under the tongue or in water. They can also be applied topically or mixed with a lotion, as in the Bach 'Rescue' cream. Another difference between flower essences and essential oils is that flower essences do not posses the actual scent of the plant.

Brief History of Hydrosols: When discussing hydrosols, many of my students don't realize that the distillate waters (hydrosols) predate essential oils by hundreds if not thousands of years. There is evidence of distillation as long as 5000 years ago. It is not clear whether they were distilling alcohol that early, though there is some evidence that the Chinese had spirits many, many hundreds of years ago. It is more likely these ancients were distilling for the herbal waters. One very old description is of a crude distillation that involved a pot of water filled with cedar and water with lamb's wool stretched over the top to catch the rising vapors. The wool was periodically wrung out and collected resulting in an early distillate water.

Essential oils for acute bronchitis: I pride myself on having consistent robust health since I haven't had anything more serious than a pesky cold or tummy ache in over 10 years. I'm just never sick. I attribute this to working with essential oils every day, washing my hands frequently and generally being a pretty happy soul. Well, in mid-October, I fell hard. Out of the blue I began to ache in my joints and mostly everywhere, making me wonder if I'd been hit by a truck in my sleep. This fun was followed by three days with a fever of 102 which morphed into a cough the likes of which I've never known. My husband, James, insisted I see our family doc or he would bind my hands and feet and take me himself. I broke down and saw Dr. Sally, who took one listen to my lungs and said, "Woah, girl, you've got acute

Anointing and Love: Anointing with essential oils has been used in ritual and ceremony for thousands of years, with one of the most widely known rites being the art of perfuming as an attractant for love. While most everyone today is familiar with the use of perfume and cologne as a tool for attracting a mate, most people don't know that essential oils were the original form of perfume. The word perfume comes from the Latin phrase "per" meaning through, and "fumus" meaning smoke. The original form of perfume was actually incense and has been traced back over 4,000 years to the use by Mesopotamians, who used resins and woods to burn in their religious ceremonies. Often, they would soak the resins and woods in water and then anoint themselves by rubbing the fragrant water over their bodies.

Aromatherapy and Weight Control: The use of essential oils in aromatherapy can be effective in supporting the weight loss process. Every diet and weight loss book, website and guru tries to offer something new to the debate about how to lose weight. The weight-loss industry is a fast-growing, multi-billion dollar industry and shows no sign of slowing down. For decades there has been an assortment of outlandish and unhealthy fad diets circulating - the Cabbage Soup Diet, the Grapefruit Diet, the Brussels Sprouts Diet, even the Tape Worm Diet - but the fact remains that the most sensible way to lose weight is to watch what you eat and get regular exercise.