Essential Chemistry for Safe Aromatherapy

In many ways, this book is simply another source of basic chemistry knowledge for aromatherapists. All the key texts for aromatherapists include such a section. The author points out there is no new information in this publication but states that the material has been drawn together in this format to help the reader to appreciate safe aromatherapy through an understanding of essential oil chemistry.

Thus, the first five chapters explain the fundamentals of chemistry, families of compounds that occur in essential oils, processing, extraction and purity and analytical techniques. The final chapters are probably of more use to the practising aromatherapist. Chapter 6 describes the composition of essential oils, with a detailed breakdown on 12 of the most popular oils in aromatherapy. The final chapter describes the practical application of oils with a strong focus on safety.

Each chapter is written in a clear and easy to understand manner. The author uses summary statements called ‘aromafacts’ to highlight key points of these chapters.

Overall, it is a compact chemistry text for training aromatherapists, a reference guide for practising aromatherapists and would also probably work well as a teaching aid for aromatherapy courses.