Pregnancy and Essential Oils ** Sorta Longish

[Guest guest]

Howdy y'all,

 

A post I wrote to one of the Aromatherapy News Groups back in 2004. Some of the

links are no longer available but they were at the time I wrote it. I don't

have the desire to update them now because though I am still working with John

as a consultant .. I sold my company to him last October and I am trying my best

to retire-retire now .. so my priorities have changed. ;-)

 

Martin Watt has started to put a shorter version of this post on his site and

has been bugging me to edit it but I had to get my priorities in order .. deer

season just closed last week but duck season is still open .. so I am a busy

Kunty Boy now. I do expect to see some more comments from Martin on this

subject .. and for Bob Tisserand .. I quote you a bit below .. and expect you

have more to say .. and both of you could say it in less words than I have used

... but it seems that discussing this subject one feels a tad like Peter must

have felt when he was sticking his finger in all those leaks in the dike .. he

keep doing it and the water kept coming in when he ran out of fingers.

 

Take it or leave it .. but that is the case with all the info in this highly

regulated and highly commercialized industry. :-) Butch

 

Aloha XXXX,

 

> Butch,

>

> Although there are many essential oils that are safe during

> pregnancy,

 

Excuse me for breaking your sentence apart .. I want to comment on the

above. It is my belief .. and I think it is the belief of the folks who write

the books that I try to avoid quoting that inhalation of essential oils during

pregnancy is SAFE.

 

Dermal application of EO is a horse of a different color because it is

not unusual for mothers-to-be to develop hypersensitive skin at some

point during pregnancy .. and even eczema. I'll qualify that by saying that IF

one is 100% certain of the purity of an EO then odds are VERY SLIM that they

would have a problem with dermal application during pregnancy if they had no

problems with the same oil prior to pregnancy.

 

It is always possible that they could have slid by using a less than

quality oil prior to becoming pregnant .. an oil that might cause a

" minor " skin problem during pregnancy.

 

Ingestion is tricky and risky under any conditions and especially for

pregnant ladies .. not because of a risk of aborting the fetus but due

to the potential for causing development problems in a fetus due to

possible trace amounts of undesirable chemicals in a less than pure oil.

 

> what about apiol in parsley seed oil being abortifacient?

 

Apiol (known as Parsley Camphor and a dozen or so other names) can

be an emmenagogue .. but its not an abortifacient. I'm not aware of any

pregnant lady having been advised to avoid parsley or parsley seed .. or dill ..

or celery. Apiol is also found in dill and celery. Parsley, parsley seed,

dill and celery are commonly used in many (most?) traditional dishes here in

Turkey.

 

Apiol is an emmenagogue ..which is a totally different thing from an

abortifacient.

 

My opinion is that there is NO danger to using the essential oil of

Petroselinum sativum during pregnancy .. however, if one devours parsley seed by

the cupful who can say what the danger would be? That is pretty much how they

determine this or that is carcinogenic or toxic .. feed a rat the same thing day

in and day out and the lack of proper nourishment is enough to cause a cancer

and the dosage of the tested ingredient will become toxic in time. Apiol is an

active ingredient in many commercial medications.

 

From the early 19th century Apiol was used to produce menstruation for

women whose periods have stopped. It was openly sold in pharmacies,

along with mercury, opium, cocaine, arsenic and many other old time

" kill or cure " preparations. Like Pennyroyal, Apiol soon picked up a

reputation for being a good means for self abortion. We are talking

about long, long ago .. and like Pennyroyal, there was confusion with

toxicity .. but old tales like this die slow deaths. Many young ladies have

killed themselves (and their fetus) by poisoning themselves but such actions can

not be classified as abortifacient.

 

King's American Dispensatory

http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/eclectic/kings/petroselinum.html

 

States .. in part .. under Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.

 

APIOL. In doses of from 7 to 15 grains apiol occasions a cerebral

excitement similar to that caused by coffee, a sensation of vigor and

composure, and warmth about the stomach; in doses of from 30 to 60

grains it causes intoxication, giddiness, flashes of light, vertigo and ringing

in the ears, etc. It is highly recommended as a substitute for quinine in

intermittent fevers, and has proved very efficient. It has likewise been found

valuable in menstrual derangements; as fetid menstruation, neuralgic

dysmenorrhoea, neuralgic uterine colic, amenorrhoea, etc.; also in the night

sweats of consumption. The dose is 3 to 6 grains, several times a day,

beginning a couple of days prior to menstruation, given in gelatin capsules, or

formed into pills with medicinal amygdalin soap, and magnesia, gum, or yellow of

egg.

 

The Dispensatory of the United States of America

http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/eclectic/usdisp/petroselinum_oleo.html

 

States .. in part .. under uses:

 

Glatard (Journ. de Mod. et Chir. Prat., 1910, p. 674) reports a case of apiol

poisoning in a pregnant woman who took six grammes in a period of forty-eight

hours. There was vertigo, nausea and vomiting, urticaria, liver swollen and

painful, mild icterus, urine scanty and high colored, but free from albumen;

pregnancy was not interrupted. Sardou (A. G. M., 1906) recommends apiolin as an

antispasmodic in intestinal colic.

 

Note that the pregnancy was not interrupted .. and also note that they

are talking about one heckuva lotta Apiol .. six grams .. and they are

talking about toxicity .. not abortion.

 

Here ..

http://healthinfo.healthgate.com/GetContent.aspx?token=e0498803-7f62-4563-8d47-5\

\fe33da65dd4 & chunkiid=21834#ref13

 

It States .. in part .. " Maximum safe intake of parsley in young

children, pregnant or nursing women, or people with severe liver or

kidney disease has not been established. "

 

Bottom line .. when we talk about Apiol we are talking about toxicity .. about

poisoning.

 

> Also sabinyl acetate in Spanish sage ..

 

One test has shown that Sabinyl acetate in high dosage can cause

teratogenic (malforming) effects on rat embryos. The essential oil that was

tested (and caused the effect) was Plectranthus fruticosus - which is not

available commercially .. and the sabinyl acetate content was more than 60%.

 

As for abortive effects, Spanish Sage (Salvia lavandulifolia) generally has less

than 10% sabinyl acetate .. and it is an oil we don't ingest anyway .. so I

stand on what I have written above. Spanish Sage is not all that common and

the LD-50 test for this shows something like 26 ml being lethal for a 3 year old

child.

 

Purdue University says ..

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/med-aro/factsheets/SAGE.html

 

" Spanish sage is also recognized as safe for human consumption as a

plant extract (21 CFR section 182.20 [1982]). " UNQUOTE

 

> and Savin?

 

Savin (Juniperus sabina, syn. Sabina cacumina) is VERY TOXIC if taken

orally .. so we don't ingest it .. and its a powerful irritant if used on the

skin .. so we don't do that either. I doubt anyone could ingest it anyway

because its bitter as quinine and as repulsive as maggots on a gut wagon.

Savin is a powerful emmenagogue and like Pennyroyal, fatal cases of poisoning

have resulted when pregnant ladies tried to use as an abortifacient. Its

banned in some countries .. its toxic .. it has NO PLACE in Aromatherapy and I

know of not one seller who offers it.

 

We can even add horseradish and mustard to the toxic category too .. the pure

stuff. We can include them in oral and dermal toxic categories.

 

We can also add various brands of Rat Poisons .. none of which act as

an abortifacient but are highly toxic and can kill a mother .. thus, in the

absence of immediate medical assistance .. the fetus is destroyed.

 

I don't buy all that anyone writes .. but I buy the following portions

taken from Rob Guba's article " Toxicity Myths - the Actual Risks of

Essential Oil Use "

 

" The use of essential oils during pregnancy is perhaps the most emotive area of

Aromatherapy, giving rise to a variety of highly conservative statements. This

ranges from recommending that no essential oil be used during pregnancy (15) to

the more common suggestion of using very low doses of only the most non-toxic

essential oils; any " emmenagogic " essential oil (those with any possible effect

on the menstrual cycle) should definitely be avoided. This appears again to be

due to the " when in any doubt, don't use it " philosophy, the misuse of toxicity

values and the fear of public misuse and subsequent lawsuits. As well, there

appears to be a general misunderstanding of the hormonal and physiological

processes that occur during pregnancy. " UNQUOTE

 

And I buy his comments on essential oils and abortive effects ....

 

" There are a number of reported cases of large oral doses of essential

oils causing either severe toxic effects or death in unborn children.

(16) These cases are almost exclusively due to pregnant women taking

large, toxic doses of essential oils, notably Pennyroyal (rich in the

ketone, pulegone, which is metabolised to the highly toxic furan

epoxide, menthofuran) and Parsley Seed (rich in the dimethyl ether,

apiol) in an attempt to abort the foetus. Such compounds are very poor

abortifacients indeed; the woman would be severely poisoned, often fatally,

sometimes without aborting the unborn child. It should be noted that studies

utilising isolated samples of the human uterus were exposed to the essential

oils that have attempted to be used as abortifacients in the past (Juniper,

Pennyroyal, Rue, Savin and Tansy). The essential oils did not directly

stimulate the uterine muscle (which would cause spasm and possible expulsion of

the foetus). (17) Other studies have also shown that such essential oils also

do not create spontaneous abortion by causing the death of the foetus. (18)

Certainly in the case of pulegone, it is only abortifacient in large quantities.

By causing acute hepatotoxicity (liver damage), the body is unable to maintain

the pregnancy. (19) In the case of Pennyroyal, ingested doses as high as 7.5mL

and 10mL have failed to create an abortion. (20) With apiol, the lowest dose

that induced abortion was equivalent to the ingestion of from between 1.5mL to

6mL of Parsley Seed oil daily, for eight consecutive days. (21) Therefore, when

many Aromatherapy authors extrapolate the use of doses that are a small fraction

of such huge ingested toxic doses, this is simply a wrong interpretation of the

facts. " UNQUOTE

 

And I buy some of his comments on the confusion regarding emmenagogue

and abortive effects ..

 

" The process of pregnancy specifically overrides the menstrual cycle,

both physiologically (via the growth of the corpus luteum) and

hormonally. Therefore, respecting those with potential toxicity (such

as large oral doses of Rosemary CT camphor), these " emmenagogic "

essential oils are quite safe to use during pregnancy. " UNQUOTE

 

> There is excellent information which explains the differences

> between toxic and abortifacient oils in Robert Tisserand and > Balacs " Essential Oil Safety " book.

 

There is " excellent " information (to some degree) in most any of the 40 plus

books I have collecting dust here now. ;-) There is also a lot of

contradictory information in various books written by the same person so it is

difficult to track the truth.

 

Nobody is perfect and Tisserand and Balacs weren't perfect in presenting all

their data back in 1995. I'll use a bit of referencing in this post but its

not something I like to do often .. for reasons I won't go into but I will hint

at .. has to do with contradictions and misinformation.

 

Tisserand and Balacs claimed (in 1995) that the combination of Camphor

and Sabinyl acetate that Sage contains makes it " potentially " harmful.

But they also claimed that Rosemary, Hyssop and Spike Lavender should

not be used by folks who suffered from epilepsy .. but Tisserand won't

say that today. (I have talked with him about this).

 

Almost without exception .. the overly cautious claims made by many

writers in the past .. and regurgitated by teachers and some writers today who

fail to do their own research .. were based on lab experiments using rats ..

oils were taken internally .. little firm evidence was found but there were

signs of potential problems under those conditions .. so they take the easy road

and made such claims.

 

I do not believe we will find any responsible writer TODAY (including

Tisserand) making a claim of ANY essential oil being an abortifacient!

 

Pennyroyal is an Oral Toxin .. we DO NOT ingest Pennyroyal under any

circumstances but we also do not ingest Rat Poison. Both will kill us but

neither of them will effect an abortion!

 

I do believe that we can find many flaky writers today who will make

statements like .. " It (this or that) has been reported to have an

abortifacient effect in rodents. "

 

Did y'all know that Sabinyl acetate is used in making some commercial

food flavorings? Now you know it. ;-)

 

Abortion is NOT one of the three potential hazards of essential oils

use. Those hazards are Toxicity, Irritation and Sensitization.

 

The definition of an abortifacient is an easy one to remember .. its any drug or

agent that effects an abortion. There are no essential oils that I am aware of

... no essential oils that Martin Watt is aware of .. and I'll bet 20 to 1 that

there are none known by Robert Tisserand or any of the other writers out and

about .. that are truly abortifacient.

 

The definitions of toxic are many .. but ALL of them include the word

" poison " in them. If one checks out the information on toxicity in

" Plant Aromatics " .. http://www.aromamedical.com/paper.html we

find a list of LD 50 percentages. LD 50 was the class of test used many years

ago to determine Oral & Dermal toxicity levels .. using animals.

 

These tests are not conducted now and of course we must extrapolate the results

when applying them to humans. The point is .. the most toxic of all the

essential oils is Pennyroyal .. 0.4 grams per 1 kilogram of body weight is

fatal. How do we translate that to a more easily understood percentage? Like

this .. 3 ml would be considered a lethal dose for a three year old child. But

... 3 ml is a heckuva lotta oil. I think it would be easier to drown oneself in

a toilet bowl than it would be to ingest 3 ml of Pennyroyal.

 

Bottom line .. toxicity is dose dependent and when we are talking about

accidental poisoning we are talking about Acute Toxicity .. such as drinking

Pennyroyal. With dermal application of oils like Wintergreen and Sweet Birch ..

we're talking about Chronic Toxicity which occurs over a period of time. Even a

less than lethal dose of any toxic substance can cause liver and kidney damage.

 

Most of the other oils run from 15 to 70 ml for toxicity.

 

If we want to quote Tisserand then we can quote him from page 14 in his

" Aromatherapy to Heal and Tend the Body. " It states:

 

" It is worth mentioning here that aromatherapy is an especially

appropriate treatment for helping in pregnancy, and for most 'female

disorders'. *** In pregnancy aromatherapy helps to relieve many of

the minor irritations, such as morning sickness and backache, and the

massage part is especially useful in preparing the body of the mother-

to-be for birth. Labor pains, stretch marks and post-natal depression

can all be minimized with aromatherapy. Re-toning the body after birth and

helping to balance out mood swings can be the most important part of all. "

UNQUOTE

 

I'll also mention that I had some back and forth communication with

Robert Tisserand in the Summer of 2003 .. I provided some information

on Turkish oils he was considering using in a book. Point is .. one thing he

said was " *** ultimately the reader will make their own decisions. " This is a

significant comment .. and it applies to those who are now reading my post. If

you want to believe that EO can be harmful during pregnancy you will disregard

any information to the contrary.

 

Tisserand also mentioned that if one takes a dose related approach the

presence of a carcinogenic or neurotoxic component may be below the

no-effect-level, depending on how much of the oil one plans to use. He also

mentioned something I have written often .. but folks seem to want to disregard

it because of bad info they get from flaky AT teachers .. that is that thujone

is not as hazardous as the community thinks it is.

 

On a more humorous note .. I pointed out the fact that the majority of

the information found in AT " novels " is hawg warsh and Tisserand said

he was probably responsible for a good bit of that. ;-) He also said we

must move on and not stick our heads in the sand .. a good attitude this is and

I told him .. " *** you are one of the pioneers so I guess its fair to say roads

can more easily be improved after someone has blazed a trail. " UNQUOTE ;-)

 

If we want to quote ANY of the authors out and about we can find where

they take a soft shoe approach on EO and pregnancy .. that is .. they will leave

the subject open to the interpretation of the reader. And Dr. Kurt Schnaubelt

explains this on page 129 of his " Medical Aromatherapy: Healing With Essential

Oils. " He writes:

 

" A large number of women in their child-bearing years are attracted to

aromatherapy and the instinct to protect a growing baby is undeniable.

Any evaluation of the safety of essential oils must begin with the

consideration of possible alternatives. Say a pregnant woman contracts

bronchitis of the lower respiratory tract. Should she choose the appropriate

use of oregano oils, despite the fact that some books recommend against it, or

should she turn to traditional medicine for her condition with a round of

hard-hitting, immune-suppressing, and otherwise unpredictable antibiotics? Is

it safer to expose the fetus to these modern drugs or to substances that have

been around for millions of years? Not much is known about the safety of

essential oil use during pregnancy. Sweeping disclaimers are constantly

established, banishing every essential oil that exhibits only a hint of a

problem potential from use during pregnancy. But these highly defensive

statements mostly ignore the potential for problems from the conventional drug

alternatives. Obviously, disclaimers really are set up to protect the vendor

and are of little help for women trying to decide between aromatherapy and drug

therapy " UNQUOTE

 

If we want to be as confused as possible about use of essential oils

during pregnancy all we have to do is try to research it. There is NO valid

information pointing to a problem .. but its a hot potato and not many writers

(and fewer teachers) want to be held responsible if a lady has a natural

miscarriage .. when that occurs there is often a desire to find a cause (even

though there is none to find) and to fix blame (even though there is normally

none to fix) and being in the line of fire is not a pleasant place to be so

folks try to cover their asses as best they can in case a fire fight should

begin.

 

I don't normally quote the many authors out and about because if I want to spend

a lot of time reading their works carefully .. I am sure I can find some

information that contradicts previous points made. This is one of the hazards

of taking on an industry such as this .. and its one of the reasons I will never

publish a book on AT or EO .. it is easier to critique a book than it is to

write it. The other good reason is .. to me .. publishing a book is not near as

important as going to dinner with a pretty lady, catching an 8 pound Large Mouth

Bass or riding an all terrain vehicle through isolated valleys in the wild and

beautiful mountains around the Gila National Wilderness. ;-)

 

To wrap it up ... if we do a Search Engine quest for " abortifacient "

we'll be surprised at just how much we do NOT find! If you search for the word

" emmenagogue " we'll be surprised at how much we DO find .. and here (though it

discusses herbs) it states that Celery is an emmenagogue

http://www.earthmamaangelbaby.com/herbs_to_avoid.html If one wants

a laundry list of plants used for emmenagogue they can check it out here

http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/duke/ethno-actlist.pl?Emmenagogue

 

It might be easier to list what is NOT an emmenagogue than it would be

to list what is .. http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=1590

 

There is one other common emmenagogue .. sex .. orgasm!

 

I have always tried to make my position on using EO during pregnancy

clear .. they are safe .. but if someone doesn't want to buy that its fine with

me .. but I will not back off of that position unless I am presented with VALID

and PERTINENT information that is contrary to my position.

 

I could have scrapped up forty-eleven other references but I have done

more here than I normally like to do .. and if I ain't bored the dawg

crap outta y'all yet .. then lemme quit while I'm ahead. ;-)

 

Mahalo for the question .. been a long time since I've written this much and I

need to get back into the swing of things.

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch .. http://www.AV-AT.com

[Guest guest]

Hi Butch,

 

I don't think risks in pregnancy are really about skin reactions, but let me add

that the skin reactivity of an essential oil often has very much more to do with

its degree of oxidation that its purity per se, though oils that have oxidized

are in a sense no longer " pure " . Yes, some oils are adulterated, or otherwise

not of good quality, but that doesn't mean they are necessarily any more skin

reactive.

 

A substance is not of course " safe " or " dangerous " - it depends on dose, as well

as other factors. I don't agree with the notion that an ingested substance is

necessarily more toxic than an inhaled, or dermally applied one. Again, it

depends on dose, and how much gets into the body.

 

The risks with essential oils in pregancy are not really about abortion, as you

say, and the only doses of most essential oils/constituents that have caused

abortion are fatal, or almost fatal doses. The real risks are harder to quantify

- damage to the fetus.

 

Robert

 

ATFE , " Butch " <butchowen wrote:

>

> Howdy y'all,

>

> A post I wrote to one of the Aromatherapy News Groups back in 2004. Some of

the links are no longer available but they were at the time I wrote it. I don't

have the desire to update them now because though I am still working with John

as a consultant .. I sold my company to him last October and I am trying my best

to retire-retire now .. so my priorities have changed. ;-)

>

> Martin Watt has started to put a shorter version of this post on his site and

has been bugging me to edit it but I had to get my priorities in order .. deer

season just closed last week but duck season is still open .. so I am a busy

Kunty Boy now. I do expect to see some more comments from Martin on this

subject .. and for Bob Tisserand .. I quote you a bit below .. and expect you

have more to say .. and both of you could say it in less words than I have used

... but it seems that discussing this subject one feels a tad like Peter must

have felt when he was sticking his finger in all those leaks in the dike .. he

keep doing it and the water kept coming in when he ran out of fingers.

>

> Take it or leave it .. but that is the case with all the info in this highly

regulated and highly commercialized industry. :-) Butch

>

> Aloha XXXX,

>

> > Butch,

> >

> > Although there are many essential oils that are safe during

> > pregnancy,

>

> Excuse me for breaking your sentence apart .. I want to comment on the

> above. It is my belief .. and I think it is the belief of the folks who

write the books that I try to avoid quoting that inhalation of essential oils

during pregnancy is SAFE.

>

> Dermal application of EO is a horse of a different color because it is

> not unusual for mothers-to-be to develop hypersensitive skin at some

> point during pregnancy .. and even eczema. I'll qualify that by saying that

IF one is 100% certain of the purity of an EO then odds are VERY SLIM that they

would have a problem with dermal application during pregnancy if they had no

problems with the same oil prior to pregnancy.

>

> It is always possible that they could have slid by using a less than

> quality oil prior to becoming pregnant .. an oil that might cause a

> " minor " skin problem during pregnancy.

>

> Ingestion is tricky and risky under any conditions and especially for

> pregnant ladies .. not because of a risk of aborting the fetus but due

> to the potential for causing development problems in a fetus due to

> possible trace amounts of undesirable chemicals in a less than pure oil.

>

> > what about apiol in parsley seed oil being abortifacient?

>

> Apiol (known as Parsley Camphor and a dozen or so other names) can

> be an emmenagogue .. but its not an abortifacient. I'm not aware of any

pregnant lady having been advised to avoid parsley or parsley seed .. or dill ..

or celery. Apiol is also found in dill and celery. Parsley, parsley seed,

dill and celery are commonly used in many (most?) traditional dishes here in

Turkey.

>

> Apiol is an emmenagogue ..which is a totally different thing from an

> abortifacient.

>

> My opinion is that there is NO danger to using the essential oil of

> Petroselinum sativum during pregnancy .. however, if one devours parsley seed

by the cupful who can say what the danger would be? That is pretty much how

they determine this or that is carcinogenic or toxic .. feed a rat the same

thing day in and day out and the lack of proper nourishment is enough to cause a

cancer and the dosage of the tested ingredient will become toxic in time.

Apiol is an active ingredient in many commercial medications.

>

> From the early 19th century Apiol was used to produce menstruation for

> women whose periods have stopped. It was openly sold in pharmacies,

> along with mercury, opium, cocaine, arsenic and many other old time

> " kill or cure " preparations. Like Pennyroyal, Apiol soon picked up a

> reputation for being a good means for self abortion. We are talking

> about long, long ago .. and like Pennyroyal, there was confusion with

> toxicity .. but old tales like this die slow deaths. Many young ladies have

killed themselves (and their fetus) by poisoning themselves but such actions can

not be classified as abortifacient.

>

> King's American Dispensatory

> http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/eclectic/kings/petroselinum.html

>

> States .. in part .. under Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.

>

> APIOL. In doses of from 7 to 15 grains apiol occasions a cerebral

> excitement similar to that caused by coffee, a sensation of vigor and

> composure, and warmth about the stomach; in doses of from 30 to 60

> grains it causes intoxication, giddiness, flashes of light, vertigo and

ringing in the ears, etc. It is highly recommended as a substitute for quinine

in intermittent fevers, and has proved very efficient. It has likewise been

found valuable in menstrual derangements; as fetid menstruation, neuralgic

dysmenorrhoea, neuralgic uterine colic, amenorrhoea, etc.; also in the night

sweats of consumption. The dose is 3 to 6 grains, several times a day,

beginning a couple of days prior to menstruation, given in gelatin capsules, or

formed into pills with medicinal amygdalin soap, and magnesia, gum, or yellow of

egg.

>

> The Dispensatory of the United States of America

> http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/eclectic/usdisp/petroselinum_oleo.html

>

> States .. in part .. under uses:

>

> Glatard (Journ. de Mod. et Chir. Prat., 1910, p. 674) reports a case of apiol

poisoning in a pregnant woman who took six grammes in a period of forty-eight

hours. There was vertigo, nausea and vomiting, urticaria, liver swollen and

painful, mild icterus, urine scanty and high colored, but free from albumen;

pregnancy was not interrupted. Sardou (A. G. M., 1906) recommends apiolin as an

antispasmodic in intestinal colic.

>

> Note that the pregnancy was not interrupted .. and also note that they

> are talking about one heckuva lotta Apiol .. six grams .. and they are

> talking about toxicity .. not abortion.

>

> Here ..

>

http://healthinfo.healthgate.com/GetContent.aspx?token=e0498803-7f62-4563-8d47-5\

\fe33da65dd4 & chunkiid=21834#ref13

>

> It States .. in part .. " Maximum safe intake of parsley in young

> children, pregnant or nursing women, or people with severe liver or

> kidney disease has not been established. "

>

> Bottom line .. when we talk about Apiol we are talking about toxicity .. about

poisoning.

>

> > Also sabinyl acetate in Spanish sage ..

>

> One test has shown that Sabinyl acetate in high dosage can cause

> teratogenic (malforming) effects on rat embryos. The essential oil that was

tested (and caused the effect) was Plectranthus fruticosus - which is not

available commercially .. and the sabinyl acetate content was more than 60%.

>

> As for abortive effects, Spanish Sage (Salvia lavandulifolia) generally has

less than 10% sabinyl acetate .. and it is an oil we don't ingest anyway .. so I

stand on what I have written above. Spanish Sage is not all that common and

the LD-50 test for this shows something like 26 ml being lethal for a 3 year old

child.

>

> Purdue University says ..

> http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/med-aro/factsheets/SAGE.html

>

> " Spanish sage is also recognized as safe for human consumption as a

> plant extract (21 CFR section 182.20 [1982]). " UNQUOTE

>

> > and Savin?

>

> Savin (Juniperus sabina, syn. Sabina cacumina) is VERY TOXIC if taken

> orally .. so we don't ingest it .. and its a powerful irritant if used on the

skin .. so we don't do that either. I doubt anyone could ingest it anyway

because its bitter as quinine and as repulsive as maggots on a gut wagon.

Savin is a powerful emmenagogue and like Pennyroyal, fatal cases of poisoning

have resulted when pregnant ladies tried to use as an abortifacient. Its

banned in some countries .. its toxic .. it has NO PLACE in Aromatherapy and I

know of not one seller who offers it.

>

> We can even add horseradish and mustard to the toxic category too .. the pure

stuff. We can include them in oral and dermal toxic categories.

>

> We can also add various brands of Rat Poisons .. none of which act as

> an abortifacient but are highly toxic and can kill a mother .. thus, in the

absence of immediate medical assistance .. the fetus is destroyed.

>

> I don't buy all that anyone writes .. but I buy the following portions

> taken from Rob Guba's article " Toxicity Myths - the Actual Risks of

> Essential Oil Use "

>

> " The use of essential oils during pregnancy is perhaps the most emotive area

of Aromatherapy, giving rise to a variety of highly conservative statements.

This ranges from recommending that no essential oil be used during pregnancy

(15) to the more common suggestion of using very low doses of only the most

non-toxic essential oils; any " emmenagogic " essential oil (those with any

possible effect on the menstrual cycle) should definitely be avoided. This

appears again to be due to the " when in any doubt, don't use it " philosophy, the

misuse of toxicity values and the fear of public misuse and subsequent lawsuits.

As well, there appears to be a general misunderstanding of the hormonal and

physiological processes that occur during pregnancy. " UNQUOTE

>

> And I buy his comments on essential oils and abortive effects ....

>

> " There are a number of reported cases of large oral doses of essential

> oils causing either severe toxic effects or death in unborn children.

> (16) These cases are almost exclusively due to pregnant women taking

> large, toxic doses of essential oils, notably Pennyroyal (rich in the

> ketone, pulegone, which is metabolised to the highly toxic furan

> epoxide, menthofuran) and Parsley Seed (rich in the dimethyl ether,

> apiol) in an attempt to abort the foetus. Such compounds are very poor

abortifacients indeed; the woman would be severely poisoned, often fatally,

sometimes without aborting the unborn child. It should be noted that studies

utilising isolated samples of the human uterus were exposed to the essential

oils that have attempted to be used as abortifacients in the past (Juniper,

Pennyroyal, Rue, Savin and Tansy). The essential oils did not directly

stimulate the uterine muscle (which would cause spasm and possible expulsion of

the foetus). (17) Other studies have also shown that such essential oils also

do not create spontaneous abortion by causing the death of the foetus. (18)

Certainly in the case of pulegone, it is only abortifacient in large quantities.

By causing acute hepatotoxicity (liver damage), the body is unable to maintain

the pregnancy. (19) In the case of Pennyroyal, ingested doses as high as 7.5mL

and 10mL have failed to create an abortion. (20) With apiol, the lowest dose

that induced abortion was equivalent to the ingestion of from between 1.5mL to

6mL of Parsley Seed oil daily, for eight consecutive days. (21) Therefore, when

many Aromatherapy authors extrapolate the use of doses that are a small fraction

of such huge ingested toxic doses, this is simply a wrong interpretation of the

facts. " UNQUOTE

>

> And I buy some of his comments on the confusion regarding emmenagogue

> and abortive effects ..

>

> " The process of pregnancy specifically overrides the menstrual cycle,

> both physiologically (via the growth of the corpus luteum) and

> hormonally. Therefore, respecting those with potential toxicity (such

> as large oral doses of Rosemary CT camphor), these " emmenagogic "

> essential oils are quite safe to use during pregnancy. " UNQUOTE

>

> > There is excellent information which explains the differences

> > between toxic and abortifacient oils in Robert Tisserand and > > Balacs " Essential Oil Safety " book.

>

> There is " excellent " information (to some degree) in most any of the 40 plus

books I have collecting dust here now. ;-) There is also a lot of

contradictory information in various books written by the same person so it is

difficult to track the truth.

>

> Nobody is perfect and Tisserand and Balacs weren't perfect in presenting all

their data back in 1995. I'll use a bit of referencing in this post but its

not something I like to do often .. for reasons I won't go into but I will hint

at .. has to do with contradictions and misinformation.

>

> Tisserand and Balacs claimed (in 1995) that the combination of Camphor

> and Sabinyl acetate that Sage contains makes it " potentially " harmful.

> But they also claimed that Rosemary, Hyssop and Spike Lavender should

> not be used by folks who suffered from epilepsy .. but Tisserand won't

> say that today. (I have talked with him about this).

>

> Almost without exception .. the overly cautious claims made by many

> writers in the past .. and regurgitated by teachers and some writers today who

fail to do their own research .. were based on lab experiments using rats ..

oils were taken internally .. little firm evidence was found but there were

signs of potential problems under those conditions .. so they take the easy road

and made such claims.

>

> I do not believe we will find any responsible writer TODAY (including

> Tisserand) making a claim of ANY essential oil being an abortifacient!

>

> Pennyroyal is an Oral Toxin .. we DO NOT ingest Pennyroyal under any

> circumstances but we also do not ingest Rat Poison. Both will kill us but

neither of them will effect an abortion!

>

> I do believe that we can find many flaky writers today who will make

> statements like .. " It (this or that) has been reported to have an

> abortifacient effect in rodents. "

>

> Did y'all know that Sabinyl acetate is used in making some commercial

> food flavorings? Now you know it. ;-)

>

> Abortion is NOT one of the three potential hazards of essential oils

> use. Those hazards are Toxicity, Irritation and Sensitization.

>

> The definition of an abortifacient is an easy one to remember .. its any drug

or agent that effects an abortion. There are no essential oils that I am aware

of .. no essential oils that Martin Watt is aware of .. and I'll bet 20 to 1

that there are none known by Robert Tisserand or any of the other writers out

and about .. that are truly abortifacient.

>

> The definitions of toxic are many .. but ALL of them include the word

> " poison " in them. If one checks out the information on toxicity in

> " Plant Aromatics " .. http://www.aromamedical.com/paper.html we

> find a list of LD 50 percentages. LD 50 was the class of test used many

years ago to determine Oral & Dermal toxicity levels .. using animals.

>

> These tests are not conducted now and of course we must extrapolate the

results when applying them to humans. The point is .. the most toxic of all the

essential oils is Pennyroyal .. 0.4 grams per 1 kilogram of body weight is

fatal. How do we translate that to a more easily understood percentage? Like

this .. 3 ml would be considered a lethal dose for a three year old child. But

... 3 ml is a heckuva lotta oil. I think it would be easier to drown oneself in

a toilet bowl than it would be to ingest 3 ml of Pennyroyal.

>

> Bottom line .. toxicity is dose dependent and when we are talking about

accidental poisoning we are talking about Acute Toxicity .. such as drinking

Pennyroyal. With dermal application of oils like Wintergreen and Sweet Birch ..

we're talking about Chronic Toxicity which occurs over a period of time. Even a

less than lethal dose of any toxic substance can cause liver and kidney damage.

>

> Most of the other oils run from 15 to 70 ml for toxicity.

>

> If we want to quote Tisserand then we can quote him from page 14 in his

" Aromatherapy to Heal and Tend the Body. " It states:

>

> " It is worth mentioning here that aromatherapy is an especially

> appropriate treatment for helping in pregnancy, and for most 'female

> disorders'. *** In pregnancy aromatherapy helps to relieve many of

> the minor irritations, such as morning sickness and backache, and the

> massage part is especially useful in preparing the body of the mother-

> to-be for birth. Labor pains, stretch marks and post-natal depression

> can all be minimized with aromatherapy. Re-toning the body after birth and

helping to balance out mood swings can be the most important part of all. "

UNQUOTE

>

> I'll also mention that I had some back and forth communication with

> Robert Tisserand in the Summer of 2003 .. I provided some information

> on Turkish oils he was considering using in a book. Point is .. one thing he

said was " *** ultimately the reader will make their own decisions. " This is a

significant comment .. and it applies to those who are now reading my post. If

you want to believe that EO can be harmful during pregnancy you will disregard

any information to the contrary.

>

> Tisserand also mentioned that if one takes a dose related approach the

> presence of a carcinogenic or neurotoxic component may be below the

> no-effect-level, depending on how much of the oil one plans to use. He also

mentioned something I have written often .. but folks seem to want to disregard

it because of bad info they get from flaky AT teachers .. that is that thujone

is not as hazardous as the community thinks it is.

>

> On a more humorous note .. I pointed out the fact that the majority of

> the information found in AT " novels " is hawg warsh and Tisserand said

> he was probably responsible for a good bit of that. ;-) He also said we

must move on and not stick our heads in the sand .. a good attitude this is and

I told him .. " *** you are one of the pioneers so I guess its fair to say roads

can more easily be improved after someone has blazed a trail. " UNQUOTE ;-)

>

> If we want to quote ANY of the authors out and about we can find where

> they take a soft shoe approach on EO and pregnancy .. that is .. they will

leave the subject open to the interpretation of the reader. And Dr. Kurt

Schnaubelt explains this on page 129 of his " Medical Aromatherapy: Healing With

Essential Oils. " He writes:

>

> " A large number of women in their child-bearing years are attracted to

> aromatherapy and the instinct to protect a growing baby is undeniable.

> Any evaluation of the safety of essential oils must begin with the

> consideration of possible alternatives. Say a pregnant woman contracts

bronchitis of the lower respiratory tract. Should she choose the appropriate

use of oregano oils, despite the fact that some books recommend against it, or

should she turn to traditional medicine for her condition with a round of

hard-hitting, immune-suppressing, and otherwise unpredictable antibiotics? Is

it safer to expose the fetus to these modern drugs or to substances that have

been around for millions of years? Not much is known about the safety of

essential oil use during pregnancy. Sweeping disclaimers are constantly

established, banishing every essential oil that exhibits only a hint of a

problem potential from use during pregnancy. But these highly defensive

statements mostly ignore the potential for problems from the conventional drug

alternatives. Obviously, disclaimers really are set up to protect the vendor

and are of little help for women trying to decide between aromatherapy and drug

therapy " UNQUOTE

>

> If we want to be as confused as possible about use of essential oils

> during pregnancy all we have to do is try to research it. There is NO valid

information pointing to a problem .. but its a hot potato and not many writers

(and fewer teachers) want to be held responsible if a lady has a natural

miscarriage .. when that occurs there is often a desire to find a cause (even

though there is none to find) and to fix blame (even though there is normally

none to fix) and being in the line of fire is not a pleasant place to be so

folks try to cover their asses as best they can in case a fire fight should

begin.

>

> I don't normally quote the many authors out and about because if I want to

spend a lot of time reading their works carefully .. I am sure I can find some

information that contradicts previous points made. This is one of the hazards

of taking on an industry such as this .. and its one of the reasons I will never

publish a book on AT or EO .. it is easier to critique a book than it is to

write it. The other good reason is .. to me .. publishing a book is not near as

important as going to dinner with a pretty lady, catching an 8 pound Large Mouth

Bass or riding an all terrain vehicle through isolated valleys in the wild and

beautiful mountains around the Gila National Wilderness. ;-)

>

> To wrap it up ... if we do a Search Engine quest for " abortifacient "

> we'll be surprised at just how much we do NOT find! If you search for the

word " emmenagogue " we'll be surprised at how much we DO find .. and here (though

it discusses herbs) it states that Celery is an emmenagogue

http://www.earthmamaangelbaby.com/herbs_to_avoid.html If one wants

> a laundry list of plants used for emmenagogue they can check it out here

http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/duke/ethno-actlist.pl?Emmenagogue

>

> It might be easier to list what is NOT an emmenagogue than it would be

> to list what is .. http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=1590

>

> There is one other common emmenagogue .. sex .. orgasm!

>

> I have always tried to make my position on using EO during pregnancy

> clear .. they are safe .. but if someone doesn't want to buy that its fine

with me .. but I will not back off of that position unless I am presented with

VALID and PERTINENT information that is contrary to my position.

>

> I could have scrapped up forty-eleven other references but I have done

> more here than I normally like to do .. and if I ain't bored the dawg

> crap outta y'all yet .. then lemme quit while I'm ahead. ;-)

>

> Mahalo for the question .. been a long time since I've written this much and I

need to get back into the swing of things.

>

> Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch .. http://www.AV-AT.com

>