The Story of Lavender

As aromatherapists, I believe we have a duty to use the best essential oils we can find. They are the tools of our trade. I know the quality of the vegetable oils we use as carriers is important, and that herbal oils, hydrolats and other aromatic products should form part of our repertoire. However, essential oils are what we use as the main catalysts for healing.

When I graduated in Aromatherapy, I didn't give much thought as to how the essential oils came to be in the little bottles I ordered. I probably thought there was a whole industry out there supplying us aromatherapists with therapeutic essential oils and that they were, of course, pure and unadulterated, just as the label said.

When I started working on the commercial side of essential oil supply, I began to learn (from sourcing essential oils in bulk) that our needs were being met in effect as a bi-product of a much bigger business – the flavour & fragrancing industries. The wholesalers I spoke to were happy to take our orders but their ‘bread and butter' is earned supplying vast quantities of commercial grade essential oils to the producers of big brand names of everything from washing powder and cleaning products to toothpaste. These huge customers are not necessarily looking for the same qualities in their essential oils as we are as therapists. Aromatherapy has grown in popularity enormously in the past ten years. Essential oils are now widely available all over the high street. So, how are these two very different markets were being fulfilled?

French Lavender:

The penny really dropped about the commercial realities of essential oil product when I took a group of aromatherapists on a lavender tour to Provence last year. For me, seeing lavender essential oil production was an eye-opener but I'm sure the same story could be adapted (for cultural and geographical variations) to any other essential oil production worldwide.

As far as I'm aware, what English-speakers call Provence (an area of South East France) is the ‘home' of lavender essential oil. It is certainly the capital of its production in terms of quantity. What I didn't know was that lavender was not commercially cultivated until the 1920s. Before then, the plants were weeds that grew in abundance on the hills and were picked by locals for their own use around the home and then also for the growing perfume industry based in nearby Grasse. As perfumery grew in popularity, mobile copper stills were taken into the hills and in 1924, 90 metric tonnes of lavender essential oil was produced. Local farmers began to take an interest in this potentially profitable crop and some cultivation trials were started. The commercial production of lavender essential oil was born.

To look further into modern-day production, we need to understand some lavender botany. Dozens of species and sub-species of the lavender family (lavandula) are indigenous to Provence (and the whole Mediterranean area). Those most of interest to us as aromatherapists are:

Spike Lavender (Lavandula latifolia):

Likes hot, dry positions and so favours south-facing slopes up to 500 or 600 metres above sea level. The long stalks usually have branches and several spear-shaped flower heads that blossom in August. The essential oil of Spike Lavender did not find favour with the perfume industry and so it is not widely cultivated in France.

True Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia syn. officinalis syn. vera):

(please don't be fooled into thinking one latin name is ‘better' than another – they are most definitely the same plant!) Has shorter flower stalks with no branches and therefore only one flowerhead per stalk. The flowerhead is wider at the crown than at the base and can vary significantly in colour and size. Can resist very low temperatures and prefers cooler slopes above 600 metres. Usually flowers in June or July but, depending on the weather, can also flower in August.

Lavandin (Lavandula hybrida, syn. x Burnati, syn. x intermedia):

Where True and Spike Lavender meet on the hills (at around 500-800 metres) they can reproduce, by way of insects carrying pollen from one plant to another. The plant that grows as a result of this cross-pollination is Lavandin. Lavandin plants are noticeably bigger and more developed than their parents. The people who collected from the wild at the turn of the last century noticed this and began cultivating Lavandin. Other advantages became apparent ... its adaptability to climate and soil conditions and especially that it yields up to ten times the quantity of essential oil.

All hybrids are, however, sterile. In other words, Lavandin does not produce fertile seed and cannot reproduce naturally. For cultivation, therefore, the plants have to be cloned. This process consists of taking small cuttings from a 'mother' plant and rooting them, or dividing the roots of a mother plant to make several new ones. A ‘mother' plant may be chosen for its size and colour or resistance to disease. So, we now have an entire crop of the same plant, genetically speaking. The plants will all flower at the same time and are the same size and shape which makes mechanical harvesting easier. They're uniform in colour and aroma year after year, which provides a standard, reliable product that is easy to market (especially to those industrial customers). All good news for the farmers but what about us? What are the implications of using the product of a cloned crop for healing? Would any of you recommend eating Dolly the Sheep as part of a health-inducing diet? Just look at the public outcry against genetically-modified food!

This doesn't mean to say that there isn't a market for Lavandin – there are several. The flowerheads are large and colourful so it is ideal for dried flower arrangements and pot pourri. Its essential oil is prized by the flavour & fragrancing industry because of the lower price, standardisation and availability in large quantities. One of its clones – Lavandin Super – is extremely close in aroma and chemical content to True Lavender. Its linalol, linalyl acetate and lavandulyl acetate content could easily be attributed to a True Lavender on GC analysis. Is the penny dropping for you too?

Unfortunately, it gets more complicated for us aromatherapists because True Lavender is also cloned for commercial production for some of the same reasons as Lavandin. In fact, less and less is being grown from seed. The French call the True Lavender grown from seed ‘Population Lavender' and the essential oil produced ‘Lavender Fine'. Here are some statistics:

The Plateau de Valensole is the capital of Lavandin production in France and probably the world. Here you can see the scenes of Provence postcards. Row upon row of big purple plants against a backdrop of mountains and a clear blue sky. In 1998, 13,000 hectares of Lavandin were farmed producing around 1,000 tonnes of essential oil. Lavandin Grosso is currently the preferred clone and makes up 70 to 80% of production.

By contrast, in the same year, there were 400 small farms growing True Lavender. They covered just 3,000 hectares and produced 50 metric tonnes of essential oil, of which half was from Clonal (cloned) and half was from Population Lavender. More recent figures show that 70 tonnes of True Lavender is produced each year and Population Lavender makes up only 30 of the 70 tonnes.

So, cloning aside, what's the difference in the oil? In aromatherapy, Lavender oil is sometimes referred to as a 'panacea' or cure for everything. Certainly, here in the UK it's the top-selling essential oil by far and is used for just about everything from headaches to insect bites but it's known mainly for helping sleep and reducing stress. Its main active ingredients are esters and alcohols – namely linalyl acetate and linalol. Esters are formed by the combination of acids and alcohols and are balancing in action. They are also anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, anti-spasmodic, healing to the skin and generally both calming and a tonic. Alcohols are anti-infectious, strongly anti-bacterial and stimulating. Both esters and alcohols are usually gentle in action although there are some exceptions.

Spike Lavender essential oil, on the other hand, contains few esters and less alcohol. It is higher in 1,8 cineole and camphor. 1,8 cineole is an oxide and an excellent expectorant but it can be irritating to the skin. Camphor is a ketone. Ketones are skin-healing, good at breaking down fat and mucus and pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory. They usually need to be used with care.

The essential oil of the hybrid, Lavandin, varies quite a bit according to the clone. Naturally it has a combination of the chemical content of True Lavender and Spike Lavender. As we have already mentioned, Lavandin Super most closely resembles True Lavender in chemical content and is calming and anti-inflammatory in action. Other types of Lavandin are higher in camphor and therefore resemble Spike Lavender.

So, when talking about lavender essential oil, it is important to know whether we are talking about True Lavender, Spike Lavender or one of the Lavandins. And if we are talking about True Lavender oil whether it is the result of cloning or seed farming. To me it makes sense that the best essential oil for healing would be the product of plants of True Lavender (lavandula angustifolia) grown from seed. The reason for this is that the plant that grows as a result has a unique combination of the genetic code of both its mother and father. A field of Population Lavender is therefore more resistant to disease – not all the plants will be affected because they are individuals. The essential oil is richer, deeper and more complex in aroma and so therefore in action.

How can we guarantee that's what we're getting? To quote one of my favourite aromatherapy writers, Kurt Schnaubelt in Medical Aromatherapy says: “The most reliable way to procure a true lavender oil is to purchase it from a supplier who can credibly assure the end-user that the oil originates from a clearly identifiable, even nameable source and has not been tampered with.”

Fortunately, the French government makes this easier for us. The Institut National des Appellations d'Origine (INAO) – part of the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries – awards “Appellation d'Origine Contrτlιe” certificates to lavender essential oils which meet their criteria.

AOC certification is government recognition of an agricultural product – raw or processed – which obtains its characteristics from a limited geographical area, taking into account natural and human influences. AOC products are the result of a close collaboration between an area and its production methods - in other words a specific geographic zone or zones, certain production methods which the local producers have adopted - and a name or title worthy of protecting. The most common use of AOC certification is for wines but it is also applied to cheeses and just about every other French agricultural product.

Lavender is the only essential oil that has AOC status and the process of obtaining certification is as follows. Essential oil producers who meet the basic criteria of geographic location, production methods and altitude may apply to the Lavender essential oil producers association based in Sault. They complete a distillation form and samples are taken and subjected to analysis by a laboratory at Marseille University specialising in perfumery and essential oils. The Certification Committee meets to smell and examine each application one by one. Certification is awarded by date, lot number and weight and can be refused on the grounds of chemical analysis or olfaction. During the whole process, that producer's crop is sealed by representatives of the Committee and subsequent marketing of the essential oil must be accompanied by proof of its AOC status.

I hope the Story of Lavender has opened your eyes a little too and will lead you to question your supplier more closely in future. Finding therapeutic essential oils is a minefield, but the good news is that there are specialist growers out there who share our holistic beliefs and are producing oils just for us. The downside is their products are not widely available and will usually be more expensive. By hunting them down and accepting their prices, we will be encouraging more growers to think holistically.

Bibliography:

© Jane Farrell, 2003

Jane Farrell is an IFPA aromatherapist living in Dorset. In addition to her hands-on practice, she has worked for Absolute Aromas and Fragrant Earth and is one half of the partnership that formed Fine Oils in 2003.

She lived and worked in France for many years and so speaks the language fluently and visits regularly. She can be contacted on jane@fineoils.co.uk.