Customer Reviews

375 Essential Oils and Hydrosols

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a major guide to most (all) the known essential oils and at least 50 of their hydrosols.Jeanne Rose is at it again-profiling, illuminating and conversing intimately on her favorite field of herbs and aromatherapy. I missed her personal revelations and fragrant and funny discussions of the plants that are her friends and health keepers,but I truly enjoyed the many essays that are included. She discusses the botany, family, growth habits, therapeutic uses, chemical components and actions of these volatile oils., The hydrosols are described as 21st century aromatherapy-the homeopathy of aromatherapy..."a true synergy of herbalism and aromatherapy. This is another well-written book by this prolific writer who actually uses this gentle healing art. I can't wait to see the reissue of her well-documented The Herbal Body Book...

This is an excellent, cost-effective, professional-quality reference book for lay people just starting to explore the world of aromatherapy. Ms. Rose includes sections on latin names and botanical classifications, which are very helpful in understanding the provenance of the oils in the book.
The Guide itself is a pretty exhaustive list of oils, and includes the chemical components of each oil as well as descriptions of the oil's appearance and smell. Ms. Rose does not waste our money with full-page color plates of plants most of us are unlikely to ever see!
I also highly recommend Kurt Shnaubelt's "Advanced Aromatherapy" as a companion volume to this book. Dr. Schnaubelt explains more of the chemistry behind the oils and includes some safety information that is sadly lacking from Ms. Rose's book. Like one of the reviewers of one of her other books, I downgraded a star because of safety information that I felt was either incomplete or conflicted with other professional sources I have researched.
I also recommend Prima Fleur Oils, mentioned in her "sources" section, as an ethical and fairly-priced Essential Oil supplier. These days, everyone is selling essential oils and it's hard to know what kind of product you're getting. These guys are the real deal.

This book is a wonderful reference book for the world of essential oils. It distills (pun intended) a wealth of information into a user friendly format. This book is not meant to be used as a guide to using the oils nor is it a recipe book for remedies. Ms. Rose has written other books to cover those topics. This book lists the plant name (common and scientific), counterindications (very helpful to have on hand!), color, scent and other necessary attributes to help the EO user understand the oils, where they come from (plants and geographical region), and uses.

This is an excellent resource for the person who is serious about essential oils. If you take Jeanne Rose's home study course, this book is required reading. Every oil is discussed in detail. The section on hydrasols is interesting.

I was disappointed with this book. I was looking for a book which would give in-depth discussion of the fragrances of various essential oils and perhaps some guidance as to how they can be combined to create new fragrances both for perfumery and aromatherapy purposes. But this book has relatively little on these subjects. If you want brief listings on many essential oils giving: name of plant, family of plant, growth habit, chemical components, aroumatherapy uses, and scent - a lot of information but presented only briefly and not in depth - then you might like the book. I should have been more careful (and used the 'look inside the book' feature) before ordering it and discovering that it wasn't suitable for my purposes.

As I migrate further and further into the world of herbs and essential oils and learn more and more, I have discovered hydrosols. What, you may ask is a hydrosol? Quoting Kurt Schnaubelt's book MEDICAL AROMATHERAPY, which suggests aromatic hydrolsols are the product of the steam distillation process used to produce essential oils, Jeanne Rose, author of 375 ESSENTIAL OILS AND HYDROSOLS says the word comes from the Latin `hydro' meaning water and `sol' meaning (collidal) solution. Sol is also the name of the old Egyptian sun god and the root of the word solace, which hydrosols can provide along with their brethren the essential oils and herbs.

Rose includes photographs of a hydrosol still or `old spirit well' used to distill essential oil and hydrosols. In olden times these powerful substances were known as `sprits' owing to their magical properties and ability to heal and provide comfort as well as kill. Sol was also the name the alchemists gave gold. Was it gold the alchmists sought? After all, fluids that could cure as well as maim or kill must have been worth their weight in gold.

Rose says hydrolsols are being produced in the California wine country by wineries involved in The Aromatic Plant Project which sets an example for sustainable agriculture and respect for the environment. One of the things I best like about this book is that Rose discusses the habitat and environmental impact of each plant used to produce a specific oil/hydrosol. For example, if you use Rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora) as a single or a blend, you are contributing to the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest, because wild trees in the forest must be destroyed to produce the Rosewood hydrosol/oil. On the other hand, you can go on using Frankincense (Boswellia carterii) without a care because the economies of Somaliland and Southeast Arabia produce this 5,000 year-old substance (used by the Egyptians to mummify bodies) in an environmentally friendly and agriculturally sustainable manner. For each oil/hydrosol verbotan for "green" reasons, Rose suggest an alternative substance.

In her appendix, Rose provides a list of sources (2000), including the Aromatherapy Plant Project in California (a non-profit resource that promotes American agriculture).

Jeannie Rose's 375 Essential Oils and Hydrosols is one of the best new books on aromatherpay along with the World of Aromatherapy by the women of NAHA. They have put together a great collection of educational information. One of the best she has yet! I love all of Jeannie Roses books and her new Herbal body book is greatly more detailed and informative also. Love her and everything she writes.

I am available for online discussion. I am an aromaherbalist in the Chicago area. BViolet11@aol.com

I have been using essential oils in my products for several years now. I was looking to add a nice directory to my bookshelf at my skin care studio for co-workers or clients to look at. I have several books on essential oils and Suzanne Catty's Hydrosol book(which is amazing)I have other resource information from well respected aromatherapists as well. Many of intended uses for skin care in this book differ from all my other sources. Her description of the smells differ from my experience as well as all my books also. There also wasn't enough information on the use of oils on the skin though probably just as well since it doesn't seem like I will ever use this book for anything but knowing the Latin names for each. I may even just send it back.

This is a book for those who just want a little bit of info. It was a good starter book but I couldn't go very far with it.

I live in a rural area, so I ordered several books to learn the most. This book is for the pros. I was overwhelmed and found out that once again, I was over my head. It will be a great book, when I learn the basics.