What we already knew.

I love it when research comes out "proving" what we already know to be true.

For years I've been saying, on our website and in various forums, that Peppermint Essential Oil is stimulating, and that Ylangylang Essential Oil is relaxing.

I just recently came across some research on the cognitive effects of both essential oils, as well as their effects on mood.  Unsurprisingly, the researchers found that the smell of peppermint enhanced memory, while Ylangylang impaired memory and seemed to slow mental processing.  At the same time, tests of mood before and after the cognitive tests showed that subjectively, the peppermint increased alertness, while the ylangylang decreased awareness, but significantly increased calmness.

Not a surprise, but confirmation of what we already knew is always welcome!

The full paper is available at Pubmed as well as other online sources.

Text Book Time

We just shipped another carton of The Complete Guide to Aromatherapy by Sal Battaglia off to another college. It is amazing how many schools are using this guide as a textbook in their Aromatherapy, Natural health, or Spa courses.  And we've had a flurry of orders from Amazon.com for it, as well. (People would be better off buying it directly from us; they would save money, but I guess folks just automatically go to Amazon to bookshop. I know I tend to.) Our price is higher on Amazon than on our website, but we are still the lowest price reseller there.)  I don't see how people can be asking over $200 for a used copy!

We just placed a reorder from the Australian publisher today, and the decline of the dollar has done us in.  The exchange rate when I last ordered was 78%...ie, One Australian Dollar cost roughly $0.78...Seventy Eight cents, American.  Today, the exchange rate was 90%..an increase of 12% in our cost.  For awhile we are going to hold the price steady; but if you are looking for a copy, I'd suggest ordering before my accountant sees the cost increase.

You can read my review of the contents at the link above.  Martin Watt disliked it, if you google for book reviews; but a lot of others rave about it.   Make very sure, if shopping elsewhere, that you are ordering the second edition.  The first edition was quite a bit shorter, omitted several chapters.  If they don't show a photograph of the cover, I would beware.