A review of the incorrect information on the airase.org website
Safety, toxicity and related issues/
20.03.24
By Martin Watt 2015
This page is no longer functional.
They are the 'Association for the International Research of Aromatic Science and Education'. They claim to“promote scientific validation of essential oils for their global standardization for home, health care, and medical uses”.Strange, but there are no experts on that subject listed on their site. In addition, the claims made in their therapeutic uses and history files do not stand up to close examination. The fact that there are huge factual errors indicates an organization who do not have enough expertise to ascertain the accuracy of information that they are providing.
The organization seems to be registered in Utah yet claims it is not associated with any company. Utah is the home of large multilevel essential oil suppliers. It is suspicious because claims made by Airase are similar or identical to those made by the multilevel suppliers in the past.
“AIRASE will solicit donations from the public to fund this research”
This is rather strange since there are thousands of research papers available, some free of charge, on the Internet, and also, in good technical publications which have been proving the efficacy of some essential oils for almost 100 years. However, rarely are the uses proven for the conditions Airase mention in their therapeutic use page. This organization seems a bit like someone trying to reinvent the wheel.
The page on the GRAS status of essential oils
This page is misleading as it fails to say that the GRAS status only applies to the volumes of essential oils commonly used in foods by manufacturers. Here the volumes used can be tiny compared to the way people use them for health problems. GRAS status does not apply to any other uses. This is a major and potentially dangerous omission commonly found on the blog sites of multilevel essential oil distributors.
Therapeutic Properties of Essential Oils page
It looks like they have listed everything they could find in aromatherapy books and on blog sites. There are so many gross errors here that it is hard to know where to begin but lets examine just a few claims:
Black text is theirs. Blue text is mine.
“anesthetic - anise, cinnamon, clary sage, clove, German chamomile, ginger, helichrysum, Roman chamomile, peppermint, myrrh, tansy, blue (tanacetum annuum), wintergreen”
I do not think they understand what that term means, it is: “a drug that causes temporary loss of bodily sensations”. There is no way that most of the oils indicated do that, indeed the opposite is true for cinnamon and ginger which are strong skin irritants. Peppermint is only a temporary anesthetic and depending on the amount used, can be a powerful irritant. Wintergreen can have a pain killing action, but it is not a true essential oil and really should not be listed as such.
“anti-aging -clove, eucalyptus globulus, oregano, thyme”.
Putting it politely that is just a heap of beauty trade hype.
“anti-cancerous - white fir, palo santo, white lotus.”
I am not sure what that term means and how those oils are supposed to help. Without detail it is meaningless hype.
“anti-tumoral - anise, clary sage, clove, cumin, douglas fir, fennel, geranium, German chamomile, grapefruit, white fir, frankincense (boswellia carteri), lavender, ledum, lemon, mandarin, myrrh, orange, peppermint, ravintsara, ravintsara, rosemary, sage(salvia officinalis), sandalwood, tangerine”. Does this mean all tumors? It is reprehensible and disreputable to give people false hopes that if they take these oils as medicines it will clear their cancer. In addition, most of these oils are widely used as food and drink flavors yet I have seen no evidence that their consumption does as suggested. Some taken as an herbal extract might help keep the body healthy, but the oils mentioned are unproven other than in unreliable lab and animal tests.
“anti-coagulant - angelica, anise, balsam fir, (Idaho), clary sage, clove, cassia, cinnamon bark,geranium, helichrysum, laurus nobilis.”
I can only presume this complete nonsense was based on the use of some of these as herbal extracts, but it is wrong to attribute it to essential oils.
“anti-diabetic - clary sage, blue cypress, fennel, pine, ylang ylang.”
There is no research on humans validating such a claim; it is very misleading and wrong.
“anti-parasitic - carrot seed, Roman chamomile, cinnamon bark(worms), citronella, clove, fennel, hyssop, lemongrass, melaleuca alternifolia, melaleuca cajeput, melaleuca ericifolia, melaleuca quinquenervia, mountain savory, mugwort, myrrh, neroli, nutmeg, oregano, peppermint (worms), rosemary, rosewood, spruce (picea mariana), ylang ylang bay laurel), nutmeg, orange, tansy, Idaho(tanacetum vulgare), wintergreen”. While some of these if consumed as herbal extracts might have a mild effect, their essential oils would have to be consumed in doses so large that they would be toxic. It looks like a huge list from sources of doubtful merit.
“anti-viral - basil!” and a great list of other oils.
I know from years of experience and research that there are very few essential oils with antiviral activity outside of lab tests. Several of the oils they list have had confirmed antviral activity when tested as water or alcohol herbal extracts. The same plants essential oils do not contain significant amounts - or often any - of the chemicals believed to have antiviral activity.
“astringent-bay”, and a great list of other oils.
By their very nature all essential oils are “rubifacient” which means they cause warming of theskin. You cannot have warming caused by capillary dilation as well as an astringent action; this is impossible. Again this looks to me like the lack of knowledge of the differences between herbal extracts and essential oils.
“detoxification” and a great list of other oils.
Here we go, classic beauty therapy hype without a shed of evidence to justify such a claim. Instead it is classic multilevel company marketing hype.
“tonic - basil”, and a great list of other oils.
Firstly, there is no such thing as a “tonic” it is a long outdated term. Secondly, some of the plants mentioned contain high amounts of vitamins and minerals, but their essential oils do not !!!
I could go on for hours listing the gross errors on this page but there is little point. I
suggest my readers just ignore the whole page.
The page “Melissa Triumphs over Diabetes Airase”
The paper being referred to 'Hasanein P. Riahi H. (Iran) Med Princ Pract 2015;24:47-52' does not provide an analysis of which melissa oil was being used. Since melissa plants vary hugely around the world and thus also their chemical composition, it cannot be assumed that any melissa oil will have the same effects as that tested in this paper.
Diabetes was first induced in the rats by injecting Streptozotocin into their peritoneum. Formalin was injected into the paws of the rats to induce pain. Melissa oil (type undetermined) was given in the food at a rate of .02 and 0.04 mg/day. At the end of the trial the rats were decapitated and their blood was sampled.
These experiments on rats may or may not have any relevance to the use of melissa oil in humans. However, with the emotive words airase use 'The Best, Most Wonderful Finding! And 'Melissa Triumphs over Diabetes' this is disreputable. Not only do they twist experiments of little relevance to human health, but by so doing exploit animal cruelty!!
'History Of Essential Oils'
This file contains the same old tired incorrect information that can be found on the blogs and websites of multilevel companies and their distributors.
“Essential oils are mentioned numerous times in the religious texts of the Jewish and Christian faiths.” Untrue, the herbs were mentioned as well as “anointing” oils which were infusions of the herb in a base oil such as sesame or olive.
“Essential oils were highly valued”. Untrue, they did not have essential oils.
“Ancient writing tells of scented barks, resins, spices and aromatic vinegars….. The evidence certainly suggests that the people of ancient times had a greater understanding of essential oils than we have today”. The first line is correct but then why corrupt this by going on to talk about essential oils which they did not have in those days?
“Egyptians used many different essential oils and were masters in using essential oils”. As far as we know the Egyptians used aromatic infused oils. There is no distillation apparatus drawn on any of their highly detailed temple walls and no remains of distillation apparatus have been found.
“Egyptians may have been the first to discover the potential of fragrance”. This is nonsense as no one society can claim to be the first to discover the uses of aromatic plants.
“Many hieroglyphics on the walls of Egyptian temples depict the blending of oils and describe numerous oil recipes”. Sure, this is valid only for infused oils. There is a huge difference between those and modern distilled oils in uses and dangers.
“Well before the time of Christ, the ancient Egyptians collected essential oils”. As above, this is a deliberate corruption of the truth found on numerous websites of multilevel sales outlets. It is neither historically correct, nor scientifically correct.
“Alabaster jars found in King Tut’s tomb that were used for storing essential oils and aromatic balms”. Deliberate corruption of the truth. No remains of essential oils were found.
“All of the essential oil history research suggests that the people of ancient times understood essential oils better than we do now”. How could they if the ability to distil essential oils had not yet been discovered?
“It wasn't until the early 20th century that people began to rediscover essential oils”. Rubbish, essential oils are listed in National pharmacopeias throughout the 1800s including in medical textbooks on pharmacology. They are in the British Pharmacopeia 1867 along with amounts to use, US Pharmacopeia 1890, the Pharmacographica 1879, to name just a few. Strikes me the author of this page has never done any literature research on the subject.
“In 1990, Dr. Daniel Penoel, a French medical doctor and Pierre Franchomme”. Would that be the book which editors had to complete to avoid a financial disaster? A book which is packed with invented therapeutic uses based on the authors lack of knowledge of essential oil chemistry?
Summary: In my opinion this Airase organisation is simply a front to promote the sale of essential oils via the multilevel selling companies, but principally Young Living. It presents identical errors to those found on their distributors blogs. It perverts academic scientific studies to back its claims. It presents incorrect history as facts.
This page is no longer functional.
They are the 'Association for the International Research of Aromatic Science and Education'. They claim to“promote scientific validation of essential oils for their global standardization for home, health care, and medical uses”.Strange, but there are no experts on that subject listed on their site. In addition, the claims made in their therapeutic uses and history files do not stand up to close examination. The fact that there are huge factual errors indicates an organization who do not have enough expertise to ascertain the accuracy of information that they are providing.
The organization seems to be registered in Utah yet claims it is not associated with any company. Utah is the home of large multilevel essential oil suppliers. It is suspicious because claims made by Airase are similar or identical to those made by the multilevel suppliers in the past.
“AIRASE will solicit donations from the public to fund this research”
This is rather strange since there are thousands of research papers available, some free of charge, on the Internet, and also, in good technical publications which have been proving the efficacy of some essential oils for almost 100 years. However, rarely are the uses proven for the conditions Airase mention in their therapeutic use page. This organization seems a bit like someone trying to reinvent the wheel.
The page on the GRAS status of essential oils
This page is misleading as it fails to say that the GRAS status only applies to the volumes of essential oils commonly used in foods by manufacturers. Here the volumes used can be tiny compared to the way people use them for health problems. GRAS status does not apply to any other uses. This is a major and potentially dangerous omission commonly found on the blog sites of multilevel essential oil distributors.
Therapeutic Properties of Essential Oils page
It looks like they have listed everything they could find in aromatherapy books and on blog sites. There are so many gross errors here that it is hard to know where to begin but lets examine just a few claims:
Black text is theirs. Blue text is mine.
“anesthetic - anise, cinnamon, clary sage, clove, German chamomile, ginger, helichrysum, Roman chamomile, peppermint, myrrh, tansy, blue (tanacetum annuum), wintergreen”
I do not think they understand what that term means, it is: “a drug that causes temporary loss of bodily sensations”. There is no way that most of the oils indicated do that, indeed the opposite is true for cinnamon and ginger which are strong skin irritants. Peppermint is only a temporary anesthetic and depending on the amount used, can be a powerful irritant. Wintergreen can have a pain killing action, but it is not a true essential oil and really should not be listed as such.
“anti-aging -clove, eucalyptus globulus, oregano, thyme”.
Putting it politely that is just a heap of beauty trade hype.
“anti-cancerous - white fir, palo santo, white lotus.”
I am not sure what that term means and how those oils are supposed to help. Without detail it is meaningless hype.
“anti-tumoral - anise, clary sage, clove, cumin, douglas fir, fennel, geranium, German chamomile, grapefruit, white fir, frankincense (boswellia carteri), lavender, ledum, lemon, mandarin, myrrh, orange, peppermint, ravintsara, ravintsara, rosemary, sage(salvia officinalis), sandalwood, tangerine”. Does this mean all tumors? It is reprehensible and disreputable to give people false hopes that if they take these oils as medicines it will clear their cancer. In addition, most of these oils are widely used as food and drink flavors yet I have seen no evidence that their consumption does as suggested. Some taken as an herbal extract might help keep the body healthy, but the oils mentioned are unproven other than in unreliable lab and animal tests.
“anti-coagulant - angelica, anise, balsam fir, (Idaho), clary sage, clove, cassia, cinnamon bark,geranium, helichrysum, laurus nobilis.”
I can only presume this complete nonsense was based on the use of some of these as herbal extracts, but it is wrong to attribute it to essential oils.
“anti-diabetic - clary sage, blue cypress, fennel, pine, ylang ylang.”
There is no research on humans validating such a claim; it is very misleading and wrong.
“anti-parasitic - carrot seed, Roman chamomile, cinnamon bark(worms), citronella, clove, fennel, hyssop, lemongrass, melaleuca alternifolia, melaleuca cajeput, melaleuca ericifolia, melaleuca quinquenervia, mountain savory, mugwort, myrrh, neroli, nutmeg, oregano, peppermint (worms), rosemary, rosewood, spruce (picea mariana), ylang ylang bay laurel), nutmeg, orange, tansy, Idaho(tanacetum vulgare), wintergreen”. While some of these if consumed as herbal extracts might have a mild effect, their essential oils would have to be consumed in doses so large that they would be toxic. It looks like a huge list from sources of doubtful merit.
“anti-viral - basil!” and a great list of other oils.
I know from years of experience and research that there are very few essential oils with antiviral activity outside of lab tests. Several of the oils they list have had confirmed antviral activity when tested as water or alcohol herbal extracts. The same plants essential oils do not contain significant amounts - or often any - of the chemicals believed to have antiviral activity.
“astringent-bay”, and a great list of other oils.
By their very nature all essential oils are “rubifacient” which means they cause warming of theskin. You cannot have warming caused by capillary dilation as well as an astringent action; this is impossible. Again this looks to me like the lack of knowledge of the differences between herbal extracts and essential oils.
“detoxification” and a great list of other oils.
Here we go, classic beauty therapy hype without a shed of evidence to justify such a claim. Instead it is classic multilevel company marketing hype.
“tonic - basil”, and a great list of other oils.
Firstly, there is no such thing as a “tonic” it is a long outdated term. Secondly, some of the plants mentioned contain high amounts of vitamins and minerals, but their essential oils do not !!!
I could go on for hours listing the gross errors on this page but there is little point. I
suggest my readers just ignore the whole page.
The page “Melissa Triumphs over Diabetes Airase”
The paper being referred to 'Hasanein P. Riahi H. (Iran) Med Princ Pract 2015;24:47-52' does not provide an analysis of which melissa oil was being used. Since melissa plants vary hugely around the world and thus also their chemical composition, it cannot be assumed that any melissa oil will have the same effects as that tested in this paper.
Diabetes was first induced in the rats by injecting Streptozotocin into their peritoneum. Formalin was injected into the paws of the rats to induce pain. Melissa oil (type undetermined) was given in the food at a rate of .02 and 0.04 mg/day. At the end of the trial the rats were decapitated and their blood was sampled.
These experiments on rats may or may not have any relevance to the use of melissa oil in humans. However, with the emotive words airase use 'The Best, Most Wonderful Finding! And 'Melissa Triumphs over Diabetes' this is disreputable. Not only do they twist experiments of little relevance to human health, but by so doing exploit animal cruelty!!
'History Of Essential Oils'
This file contains the same old tired incorrect information that can be found on the blogs and websites of multilevel companies and their distributors.
“Essential oils are mentioned numerous times in the religious texts of the Jewish and Christian faiths.” Untrue, the herbs were mentioned as well as “anointing” oils which were infusions of the herb in a base oil such as sesame or olive.
“Essential oils were highly valued”. Untrue, they did not have essential oils.
“Ancient writing tells of scented barks, resins, spices and aromatic vinegars….. The evidence certainly suggests that the people of ancient times had a greater understanding of essential oils than we have today”. The first line is correct but then why corrupt this by going on to talk about essential oils which they did not have in those days?
“Egyptians used many different essential oils and were masters in using essential oils”. As far as we know the Egyptians used aromatic infused oils. There is no distillation apparatus drawn on any of their highly detailed temple walls and no remains of distillation apparatus have been found.
“Egyptians may have been the first to discover the potential of fragrance”. This is nonsense as no one society can claim to be the first to discover the uses of aromatic plants.
“Many hieroglyphics on the walls of Egyptian temples depict the blending of oils and describe numerous oil recipes”. Sure, this is valid only for infused oils. There is a huge difference between those and modern distilled oils in uses and dangers.
“Well before the time of Christ, the ancient Egyptians collected essential oils”. As above, this is a deliberate corruption of the truth found on numerous websites of multilevel sales outlets. It is neither historically correct, nor scientifically correct.
“Alabaster jars found in King Tut’s tomb that were used for storing essential oils and aromatic balms”. Deliberate corruption of the truth. No remains of essential oils were found.
“All of the essential oil history research suggests that the people of ancient times understood essential oils better than we do now”. How could they if the ability to distil essential oils had not yet been discovered?
“It wasn't until the early 20th century that people began to rediscover essential oils”. Rubbish, essential oils are listed in National pharmacopeias throughout the 1800s including in medical textbooks on pharmacology. They are in the British Pharmacopeia 1867 along with amounts to use, US Pharmacopeia 1890, the Pharmacographica 1879, to name just a few. Strikes me the author of this page has never done any literature research on the subject.
“In 1990, Dr. Daniel Penoel, a French medical doctor and Pierre Franchomme”. Would that be the book which editors had to complete to avoid a financial disaster? A book which is packed with invented therapeutic uses based on the authors lack of knowledge of essential oil chemistry?
Summary: In my opinion this Airase organisation is simply a front to promote the sale of essential oils via the multilevel selling companies, but principally Young Living. It presents identical errors to those found on their distributors blogs. It perverts academic scientific studies to back its claims. It presents incorrect history as facts.
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