Guest guest Posted November 1, 2000 Report Share Posted November 1, 2000 Hello everyone I've just come back from three weeks of travelling in Madagascar. They make essential oils there like the ravensara I'm so fond of. I also came across one they call katrafay (Cedrelopsis grevei). The huge tree grows in the rain forests to provide food for the lemurs, and has a large buttressed base that oozes a sticky gum. As this dries it turns white and powdery; the essential oil is distilled from this. Locally it is used for muscular aches and pains; I had two massages in my Tana hotel using a mix of copra oil, the katrafay and eucalyptus citriodora. I'm sure the Cedrolopsis must have respiratory uses too; does anyone have any information? I have the chemical breakdown but would like to know of anyone else who has used it. There are some good projects going there where the local people are encouraged to use the rainforest to provide products like essential oils to earn money, instead of the usual practice of cutting it all down, selling the wood, burning the undergrowth and then growing food and grazing cattle. Unfortunately not enough such projects though; only 15% of the original forests remain, and flying over the country, you can see horrific erosion scars where the deforested land is simply collapsing into the rivers that run red with topsoil into the sea. Man's gotta eat though - it's a tragic situation. Helen in Cape Town Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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