The Guild endorses this letter from Cropwatch

[Guest guest]

Hello Everyone:

 

For those of you who know me and know how long and how hard I have

fought against the creeping over-regulation of natural aromatics, please

be aware that here is a new threat: a thesis from a student who seems to

be on track with the bad science and agenda of RIFM. For those who lurk

and don't give back to the community by particpating here, I hope you

can perhaps give back by paying attention to our fight against the US

Food and Drug Administrations Global Harmonization Act of 2009, which is

the way the EU anti-naturals, anti-small business agenda makers are

getting their foot in the door of our government. It will mean the end

of our businesses, and perhaps even the end of our access to natural

oils for home use.

 

I've already posted this on the Natural Perfumers Guild blog and my

blog, and I urge you to do the same if you have a blog, and also send it

to relevant aromatherapy or perfumery groups you may be on.

 

Here is Tony's open letter - please spread it across the internet and if

you can, work in any way possible to help turn back this bad science.

 

*

*

 

*The Trouble With Theories About The Oxidation of Essential Oils.*

 

*by Tony Burfield Feb 2009. http://cropwatch.org*

 

* *

 

Judging by the response from Cropwatch supporters, many of you may have

already read about a doctoral thesis and remarks made by Lina Hagvall,

distributed via the cosmetics trade press. Many professionals have found

the reported remarks condescending, as we are well aware and may have a

wider understanding of the context of oxidized aroma materials than the

source of the remarks. But I digress. The thesis in question is entitled

" Formation of skin sensitizers from fragrance terpenes via oxidative

activation routes: Chemical analysis, structure elucidation " , and Katie

Bird (Bird 2009) recently covered the story for /Cosmetics Design

Europe/, although, as with any news knocking natural products, the

article is being very widely circulated on websites dealing with health

interest and other matters. Many of us have found the Bird-penned

article makes for confusing reading: for example what is 'geraniol oil'?

A better recourse is maybe to download the thesis itself from the

University of Gothenburg website at

http://gupea.ub.gu.se/dspace/handle/2077/18951.

 

You will then be able to gather that the thesis is primarily concerned

with the consideration of substances without contact allergenic

properties, but which can be activated either via autoxidation in

contact with air, or via cutaneous metabolism, to reactive products

which can cause contact allergy. Primarily the study looks a five

published articles for which the author has had a major involvement,

studying the oxidation of geraniol, geranial (a conformational isomer of

citral), linalool, linalyl acetate & lavender oil. For convenience these

articles are referenced below (Hagvall /et al/. 2007; Hagvall /et/ /al/.

undated; Hagvall /et al/. 2008; Skold /et al./ 2008; Hagvall /et al/.

2008a).

 

If I were one of Hagvall's invigilators, I would have insisted on a

re-write of a number of parts of the thesis, where the science as

presented is dubious, incomplete or, most importantly, does not present

an accurate overview of the topic. Some knowledge of industrial

practices would have aided its general acceptability as well, and a

collection of these points will constitute a future article from this

author.

 

Overall this author is not saying that the elucidation of underlying

mechanisms whereby oxidized essential oils, which may be the cause of

type IV allergy and acute contact dermatitis, is not important. But an

overview to enable to put this work in perspective is importantly

missing. Further, the mention of Axel Schnuch's work (Schnuch /et al.

/2007) is selective, and a major omission to include the toxicological

reviews of Hostyneck & Maibach's on geraniol & linalool (Hostyneck &

Maibach 2007a; Hostyneck & Maibach) is almost unforgivable, however

inconvenient their conclusions to Hagvall's work.

 

The reader is thus left to form his/her own independent opinion on the

relevance of the study, especially against a background of an increasing

number of published studies on the anti-oxidative properties of

essential oils, the declining concentrations & use of essential oils in

fragrances generally, the use of cold-storage & nitrogen-blanketing

(amongst other measures) to prevent the oxidative deterioration of

stored essential oil and natural isolate ingredients, and the addition

of anti-oxidants, UV-filters and stabilizers to finished fragrances &

cosmetics to extend shelf-life One is also tempted to mention that a

major contributor to the cost of the studies was RIFM, a primary

instigator to the culture of toxicological imperialism which has

overtaken the regulation of cosmetics/fragrances in the West.

 

How does this thesis change anything? The lack of evidence of a clear

cause-effect relationship between geraniol and linalool and cases of

allergic contact dermatitis has been previously emphasized by Hostyneck

& Maibach (2004 & 2008), and Cropwatch would guess from its' own

experience that adverse end-user effects would tend to support the same

conclusion for lavender oil. Hostyneck & Maibach (2008) also comment on

the relative stability of linalool, its low oxidation rate kinetics and

speculate negatively about how readily linalool would oxidize in

fragrances & cosmetics, as well as low consumer exposure levels to the

ingredients. Great store seems to have been put on the Hagvall thesis by

IFRA/RIFM juggernaut, but considering the importance of the sensitiser

issue to the perfumery trade, and its impact on the use of natural

ingredients in perfumery, the sponsoring of just one researcher to look

(mainly) at the oxidation of geraniol & lavender oil seems an

exceptionally disproportionate response to the problem.

 

Unless of course you believe that RIFM sees the future of perfumery as

entirely synthetic.

 

Cropwatch is trying to work towards the sponsorship of toxicological

research which emphasises a risk/benefit approach towards the

elucidation of the safety of natural products - otherwise we will all

drown in a sea of over-cautious toxicological negativity, which, it is

becoming clear, has little relevance in terms of safety risks presented

to the general public from natural-product containing products.

 

 

 

*References.*

 

Bird K. (2009) " Essential oils can become allergens on contact with air

and skin, says researcher. " /Cosmetics-Design Europe/ 5^th Feb 2009.

 

 

 

Hagvall L. (2009) " Formation of skin sensitizers from fragrance terpenes

via oxidative activation routes: Chemical analysis, structure

elucidation. " /PhD// Thesis University// of Gothenberg./

 

 

 

Hagvall L., Bäcktorp C., Svensson S., Nyman G., Börje A. & Karlberg A-T.

(2007)

 

" Fragrance Compound Geraniol Forms Contact Allergens on Air Exposure.

Identification and Quantification of Oxidation Products and Effect on

Skin Sensitization. " /Chem. Res.Toxicol//./ *20*, 807-814.

 

 

 

Hagvall L., Börje A. & Karlberg A-T. (date unknown) " Autoxidation of

Geranial. " (Unpublished?) Manuscript.

 

 

 

Hagvall L., Baron J. M., Börje A., Weidolf L., Merk H. & Karlberg A-T

(2008) " Cytochrome P450 mediated activation of the fragrance compound

geraniol forms potent contact allergens. " /T//oxicol. Appl. Pharmacol/.

233, 308-313.

 

 

 

Hagvall L., Sköld M., Bråred-Christensson J., Börje A. & Karlberg, A.T.

(2008a) " Lavender Oil Lacks Natural Protection Against Autoxidation,

Forming Strong Contact Allergens on Air Exposure. " /Contact Dermatitis/

*59*, 143-150.

 

 

 

Hostyneck J.J. & Maibach H.I. (2004) " Is there evidence that geraniol

causes allergic contact dermatitis? " /Exogenous Dermatology/ *3*(6),

318-331.

 

 

 

Hostyneck J.J. & Maibach H.I. (2008) " Allergic contact dermatitis to

linalool. " /Perf. & Flav/. *33* (July 2008), 52-56.

 

 

 

Schnuch A., Uter W., Geier J, Lessmann H. & Frosch PJ. (2007)

" Sensitization to 26 fragrances to be labelled according to current

European regulation. Results of the IVDK and review of the literature. "

/Contact Dermatitis/ *57*(1), 1-10.

 

 

 

Sköld M., Hagvall L. & Karlberg A-T (2008). " Autoxidation of linalyl

acetate, the main component of lavender oil, creates potent contact

allergens. " /Contact Dermatitis/ *58*, 9-14.

 

 

 

--

Perfumes

 

Natural Perfumers Guild

http://NaturalPerfumers.com

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Anya...the link to the thesis is not working, is the paper posted somewhere

else? 

 

Rachel A. MarkelManaging PartnerEOILCO LABORATORIES,

LLCwww.eoilco.comhttp://ingredientmanager.eoilcolab.com

www.GreenTerpene.com

 

 

--- On Sun, 2/8/09, Perfumes <anya wrote:

 

Perfumes <anya

The Guild endorses this letter from Cropwatch

artisan_natural_perfumers_guild ,

NaturalPerfumery , , " Burfield " <tony

Sunday, February 8, 2009, 2:37 PM