Plant Aromatics safety manual
laid to rest 2010.

Although it was announced that Plant Aromatics was being discontinued. I still had people asking me why? As there are still a number of references to it on the Internet I better explain:

Things have changed since it was first produced. The publication was created based on what I considered the most relevant safety data which was mainly from testing on humans, or from clinical reactions. The fragrance trade have since switched to making guesses based on tests of individual chemicals contained in the oils. The International regulators have simply followed the trade organisations and are now producing legislation which is faulty because of these unsound methods. Due to all this, I was not prepared to revise my publication to take account of their misleading and inaccurate data.

So I will let the data based on the tests of the whole oils lie as an historical document. However, please note that no matter how old, those tests on humans will always be valid unless new information shows them to be in error.

I must here take this opportunity to thank the individuals who helped me in a variety of ways to publish Plant Aromatics. It started life in 1992 as an A5 document in ring binders.

I am greatly indebted to John Mitchell M.D. for granting me permission to photocopy an edition of his book 'Botanical Dermatology'. This book, written by Dr. Mitchell and Dr. A. Rook, was last published in 1979. It remains the most comprehensive study ever undertaken of the documented adverse effects on the human skin of thousands of plants and their various extracts. Having access to the references in this book enabled me to search for additional information on essential oils from sources that I would not otherwise have been aware of. Much of that information can now be found here: http://www.botanical-dermatology-database.info/

I thanked the late Bernie Hephrun for tracing a copy of the above book enabling me to add further research and greatly improve this publication.

Thank you to the past owners of Gerard House Ltd., for providing the funding for a six month research project on their essential oil range. Without that funding this publication would have taken many more years to finalise.

A big thank you to Clive Bendon of Quality Analysis for his help on Edition 1 and his expertise in essential oils.

A big thank you to Butch Owen past owner of AV-AT.com who sold many copies of the newest edition in the Americas.

Thanks to Sylla Sheppard-Hanger and the late Lynn Bosman for distributing the early editions in the USA and Canada.

Thanks to Glyn and Maureen for doing the first edition typesetting at short notice.

Thanks to my ex assistant Dorielle, for undertaking the mind numbing process of inputting masses of technical information and complex references.

Thanks to my ex assistant Dawn for aiding with library research and office work as well as cutting the grass when my hayfever was rampant.

Thanks to John, my son, for helping with some of the extremely tiring and monotonous research at the science reference libraries.

Doubtless there are others I may have forgotten to thank, if so my apologies.

A big thank you to the many therapists who purchased the original sets, without the funding obtained from those sales, this work would have never been completed.

For those who have copies, please bear in mind the copyright issues. If you photocopy the manual you are not just breaching my copyright, but copyrights of major publishers. I am past caring about my copyright on the manual, but they may care and might take action.

Martin Watt

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