Patricia Davis - Aromatherapy An A-Z: The most comprehensive guide to aromatherapy ever published

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Copyright Patricia Davis 1988, 1995, 1999, 2000
Illustrations Sarah Budd 1999

Patricia Davis has asserted her moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner

First published in the United Kingdom in 1988 by The C. W. Daniel Company Ltd

Revised and enlarged edition published in 1999 by The C. W. Daniel Company Ltd

This edition published in 2005 by Vermilion an imprint of Ebury Publishing Random House UK Ltd

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A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library

ISBN: 9780091906610

ISBN: 009190661X

I offer my sincere thanks to the following people who have helped to make this book possible:

To Carola Beresford-Cooke, Yves de Maneville, Germaine Rich, Frances Treuhertz and Dr. Michael Weztler of Bristol Cancer Help Centre for so generously sharing their knowledge. To Robert Tisserand for permission to use material from the Essential Oil Safety Data Manual and to reproduce the list of hazardous oils prepared for the International Federation of Aromatherapists, who I also thank. To Gordon Burns for the enthusiasm and sensitivity he brought to the task of decorating the book, and an especially big thank you to Anne Chance who read and corrected the manuscript and made very many valuable suggestions.

Finally, to my family, colleagues and students who have nagged, cajoled and encouraged me to complete the book, and to Ian Miller of C.W. Daniel for his patience and support during the long time it took me to do so.

I would like to offer my sincere thanks to these people, who contributed valuable information to the Enlarged Edition:

Gill Farrer-Halls, for talking to me about her work with people with AIDS, Jan and Linda Kusmirek for technical information, Richard Offutt for sharing his experience of using Rosemary for people with epilepsy and Sheila Tozer for insights into acupuncture.

I would like to offer a huge vote of thanks to Sarah Budd for her illustrations, which have added so much to the information in this book, as well as to its appearance.

Thanks also to Carolyn Swain for winkling out a few faux pas in the last edition, thereby enabling me to correct them.

Seven years have passed since this book was first published (eight since I finished writing it) and a great deal has changed in that time so I am very glad to have had the opportunity to revise the book where it no longer reflected the current situation and to respond to feedback from readers.

In particular, a far greater variety of oils is available to therapists now than then, and it is easier to get organically-produced oils. Conversely, a lot of poor quality oils are widely available and falsification of all kinds is rife, in some cases very sophisticated, so we need to be aware of the pitfalls that implies.

Far more people are now aware of aromatherapy and make use of it to maintain their own health and well-being. New patterns of disease have emerged, and new approaches to healing. Aromatherapy is being used increasingly alongside conventional medicine. This spread and popularisation of aromatherapy has many obvious benefits, but also some dangers, as more untrained people experiment with essential oils. One of my primary concerns has always been with safety and I hope that this revised and enlarged edition will contribute to the safe use of essential oils by professional and lay readers alike.

It amazes me that a whole decade has passed since the first edition of this book appeared it must be true that time passes quickly when you are happy!

A great deal has changed, though, in that time, and I am delighted once again to have had the occasion to make a few additions and adjustments to the book. Major changes were made when preparing the Enlarged Edition, published in 1995, but I have welcomed the opportunity to add one or two more oils, correct some errors that had crept in (mea culpa!) and make certain other adjustments.