Pregnancy and Essential Oils (Sorta Long)

[Guest guest]

Butch,

 

as always, thanks for all the education.

 

And by the way, someone sent me this quote.

I don't know who said it, but it gave me much food for thought and I immediately

thought of

how much you would like it.

 

<A nation that draws too broad a difference between it's scholars and it's

warriors will have it's thinking done by cowards, and it's fighting done by

fools.>

 

I would feel better if more fightning was done by people of Butch's ilk.

(my preference is for less fighting, period)

 

Ien in the Kootenays

****************************

I can finish my own sentences again!

muddled

****************************

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Butch Owen <butchbsi

Sun, 03 Apr 2005 01:55:27 -0800

Pregnancy and Essential Oils (Sorta Long)

 

 

Aloha Connie,

 

> 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 (including Tisserand) 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

emmenogogue .. 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?) of the

traditional dishes here in Turkey.

 

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

abortifacient.

 

My opinion is that there is NO danger to using the essential oils 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 emmenogogue 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 emmenogogue

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 Tony 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.

 

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

writers in the past .. and regurgitated by those who write today and are

too lazy 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

took 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 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.av-at.com/plantaromaticsavnp.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. There is a lot of good

information on Toxicity in Sylla's AT Practitioner Reference Manuals

http://www.av-at.com/manual01.html

 

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 and he will use it in his next 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 .. 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

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 .. 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 " emmenogogue " we'll be surprised at how much we DO find .. and

here (though it discusses herbs) it states that Celery is an emmenogogue

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

laundry list of plants used for emmenogogue 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 emmenogogue than it would be

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

 

There is one other common emmenogogue .. 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 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. :-P

 

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. ;-)

 

> Connie

 

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