Essential Oil Safety Second Edition
By Robert Tisserand & Rodney Young
Churchill Livingstone Elsevier Copyright 2014
As a lay person simply looking at this book can be intimidating. However, if you are going to embark into the fascinating world of essential oils it is important to either purchase this book or have access to it. This is not a book you will sit down to read cover to cover, unless you enjoy chemistry and lots of technical jargon. This is a large reference manual intended to provide users of essential oils with a comprehensive place to find safety information.
Chapters 1-12
If you are new to essential oils chapter two will provide you with a detailed understanding of essential oils. This includes how they are obtained, the composition, and possible ways they are contaminated as a brief overview. Chapter three is a detailed summary of toxicity. Chapter four provides information about dosing and the ways that essential oils may be used. Chapters five through twelve include information on the individual body systems: the skin, respiratory, cardiovascular, urinary, digestive, nervous, and reproductive system. The authors have broken down how the systems work and how essential oils will work or react within the system. Due to the sensitive nature of cancer there is dedicated chapter to safety issues for this.
Chapter 13
This chapter is almost 300 pages. It includes profiles for 400 different essential oils. Within each profile the authors included the botanical name, possibly synonyms for the common and botanical name, and the plant family. There is detailed information about the constituents in the oil and various studies relating to the constituents or oils. As an example, there are just over two pages (325-328) dedicated to information on Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia). They also provide a summary of safety and other comments that a professional may need to be aware of.
Chapter 14
This chapter helps us better understand the chemical constituents that make up the essential oils. If we reference the Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) from above linalool or linalyl acetate are the top two. Pages 584-589 will help us learn about these and what other essential oils contain these constituents.
Chapter 15
This summarizes the clinical safety considerations. Things to think about including definitions for allergic contact dermatitis, drug interactions and the use of undiluted essential oils.
We are fortunate in this day to have such a detailed guide available. This book gives you a good starting point for research about the safety considerations of an essential oils. It is important to note that research is constantly being done so newer information may be found. Consider renting this book to see ensure it is a valuable resource.
If you are ready to purchase make sure to shop around sometimes you can find it for a good price.
