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A
Tale of a Rose in the wood
I
think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
~Joyce
Kilmer (1886-1918) , "Trees," 1914
Few of the
people who can remember a wartime song taken from the above poem are left and
fewer still will recall who wrote it.1 Joyce Alfred Kilmer’s words,
a member of the fallen in World War I whom we remember on Poppy Day at the
eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month every year, seems to
have particular empathy with failing, fallen and disappearing trees worldwide.
We maybe
aware that trees look lovely in wild woodlands and such as the common Hawthorn
provide sources of herbal healing growing in our country hedgerows. The Lime and
the Plane trees or joyful spring blossoming trees grace our city streets and
shade our formal parks. Those in our back gardens often provide us with
delicious fruit and colours in summer and autumn. Take a lunchtime break from
work and walk under a Willow tree as a stress-buster, or as Martin Luther King
put it: “If I knew that the world was going to fall apart tomorrow, I would
still plant my apple tree.”
Trees are a
basic need in our lives, not just to create an attractive environment in which
to live, work and relax or to be used for many and various methods of healing or
practically as a source or renewable fuel and useful craft products; they reduce
air pollution, soil erosion and flooding. They moderate the climate, locally,
nationally and globally and as the Earth’s lungs they are fundamental to our
breathing and staying alive.
Do you
remember the tree-killer Dutch elm disease that scourged the British countryside
in 1973? Many did and celebrated 30 years since planting a tree in National Tree
Week 26th November – 7th December 2003.2 But
what of trees in the rest of the world that are being eradicated by
deforestation or under threat of either extinction or dire regulation against
Western demand for them and their products and need of their exploitation by
their local communities?
Plantation
of tree seedlings - www.adote.ufam.edu.br
The Rosewood
Tree
One such tree
is the Rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora var.
amazonica A. Duke), an evergreen tree that grows in the South American
rainforests of Brazil and is also found in Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana,
Peru and Surinam. It was extensively felled, but now legislation requires
distilleries, which use the heartwood to extract its essential oil, to plant new
trees for each tree cut down.
You may be
more ‘household’ familiar with one of its siblings Brazilian Rosewood (Dalgergia nigra), which is a wonderful variegated brown to violet
coloured heartwood with black streaks. Rosewood has been esteemed for centuries
by cabinet-makers as one of the finest woods for furniture and used for
functional domestic items such as knife handles, brush backs and bowls. It was
much favoured for piano cases, musical instrument fingerboards, billiard tables
and for use in marquetry and carving.3 I still have a carved pedestal
bowl made from a rescued turned old Victorian grand piano-leg that exuded its
warm roseate scent into the air in the process – a rather unusual example of
recycling.
Rosewood
oil
Rosewood oil
(Aniba rosaeodora), also known as
‘Bois de rose’, has an earthy, woody, seductive slightly spicy-floral, sweet
aroma. It is perhaps best known for its use in perfumery, until the rising
popularity of Aromatherapy in the 1980s. Currently there are at least some 341
perfumery products containing Rosewood oil for women and 335 for men, and 2
described as unisex.4 Many major perfumers employ Rosewood oil, among
the well known scents that contain it are Calvin Klein’s “Eternity”,
Chanel’s “Platinum Egoiste”, “Ombre Rose” by J. C. Brosseau, “Paco
Rabanne”, “Equipage” by Hermes, modernist “Colors” and “Hot” by
Benetton and that most exclusive of perfumes “Joy” by Patou.
Use of
Rosewood oil (Aniba rosaeodora var.
amazonica A. Duke), which is steam distilled from the chipped wood of the
tree, has like many other natural products that play a part in fragrances, been
declining. According to some, it epitomizes the ‘slow death’ of a natural
product in favour of a synthetic alternative. This may be caused by price
increase or tightening of supply due to natural or market conditions, thus
allowing synthetics to take over. It may also be caused by origin or import
regulations and be due to ecological pressures.5
In the case
of Rosewood oil, synthetic linalool has been used to replace it in the cheap
fragrance sector in the early 1960’s and saw its Brazilian export decline from
1043 drums per annum in the 1940s to 262 drums per annum in the 1990s6,
as well as the competition of escalating sales of Chinese Ho-Wood and Ho-leaf
oils.7 It takes 15 tons of wood (about 6 adult trees of 20cm
diameter) to produce one 180kg net drum of oil. It is estimated that 780 trees
are felled to produce the current allowable 130 drums of oil for export and
calculated that there are enough trees currently present to last the next 1000
years.8 Another important factor to consider regarding the production
of Rosewood oil is that in Brazil about 1,000 local Indians and Mestizos9
living in the Amazon region still make their living from the production of
Rosewood oil.
Rosewood oil
has always been known as non-toxic, non-sensitizing, and a non-irritant.
However, science or the EU is also hot on the trail for the demise of Rosewood
oil because it contains a high percentage of linalool, as do Coriander and the
Ho oils, to prevent the build up of the skin sensitizing substance linalyl hydro
peroxide that occurs on oxidation. The EU’s 38th Amendment to the
IFRA Standard requires that manufacturers add 0.1% Rosewood oil only or a-tocopheral
(Vitamin E) to the oil. This may cause problems for the perfume industry rather
than its use in products that contain Vitamin E.
Rosewood
Oil - Aromatherapy
Aroma-therapy
is a relatively new or a revived form of healing,
but it is interesting that the ancient Egyptians in the Ebers Payrus made no
distinction between orally and topically applied herbs and the beneficial
effects of perfumed oils and perfume (‘par fume’ through
smoke) commonly called incense.
There is no
doubt that a pleasant perfume can uplift the spirits and give the user a sense
of well-being. However, we have learned over time that topically applied
essential oils in correct proportions in a carrier oil via the process of
osmosis can also achieve many benefits. In fact, the pharmaceutical industry who
at one time pooh-poohed aromatherapy are now using the exact same modus
operandae from HRT patches, and increasingly ‘patches for everything’, to
more recent ‘puffer’ applications of drugs to be absorbed through the skin
into the system. They have cloned Aromatherapy’s alternative ‘third way’,
which is its ability to apply concentrated remedial essential oils or plant
essences to be absorbed into the system whilst bypassing the alimentary canal,
which by so doing may avoid various ill effects.
Science also
teaches us that the first step to proving the worth of any remedial substance
that could be beneficial is: anecdotal evidence, followed by case work,
experiments, tests, studies and finally controlled trials to proof. Where plant
collectors in Victorian times roamed the world looking for exotic plants to
bring back to the UK, which we still enjoy in Botanical gardens such as The
Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, scientists are now combing the rainforests and
other parts of the world in search of plants for new drugs.
Rosewood
Oil Benefits
A good
starting point is to find out the benefits of any indigenous plant or its
derivatives is to discover what the native peoples use it for. In the case of
Rosewood oil, in Brazil it is used for acne, colds, coughs, dermatitis, fevers,
frigidity, headaches, infections, nausea, nervous tension, skin and wounds. In
Venezuela, it is used for arthritis, catarrh, edema, leucorrhea, nerves and
venereal problems. So, from indigenous use it would appear that Rosewood oil has
at the very least respiratory, neurological and skin benefits.
In the West,
Rosewood oil’s therapeutic properties are variously given as being useful as
an anti-depressant, mildly analgesic, antiseptic, aphrodisiac, bactericidal,
anti-fungal, anti-viral, deodorant, an insecticide, a stimulant and tonic that
may help colds, coughs, fever and infections. As an aphrodisiac it may have an
effect on sexual problems such as impotence and frigidity and be helpful for
headaches, nausea, nervous tension and stress related conditions. It is also
used for skin in cases of dull, dry or oily skin as a balancer, for acne,
dermatitis, scars, wounds. Soothing Rosewood is said to stimulate the
circulation and new cell growth, regenerate tissues, create skin elasticity and
help minimize lines and wrinkles in ageing or mature skin.12 Although
most Rosewood oil production is for the perfume industry, as it is quite an
important ingredient of many fragrances, that’s obviously not the only reason
why Rosewood oil should not disappear.
Christmas is
coming, so what can we do to help?
Adopt
a Tree in the Amazon Programme
According to
the Federal University of the Amazon: “Research has shown that the essential
oil of Rosewood can be extracted from the leaves, so that we can envisage a rose
wood oil industry based on the periodic pruning of plantations, rather than the
destruction of adult trees. What is perhaps the most attractive element of this
idea is the potential for small-scale farmers to increment their income through
the growing of trees, which is a direct counterpoint to the current tendencies
for destructive forms of land-use in Amazonia.
“Today,
many agricultural colonists receive land on which they cultivate annual crops
and then follow with the planting of pasture grasses. In this piecemeal process,
forest is converted to pasture land, and ranchers buy up several adjacent lots
to establish cattle ranches, while the settlers move further away on the
agricultural frontier to begin the
process again. Although surveys
have shown that farmers who invest in perennial crops such as coffee, cacao and
black pepper have more stable incomes, most farmers do not have the capital to
invest in tree crops of any sort. We believe that a paradigm shift is sorely
needed, with funding available for farmers to invest in tree crops as an
alternative to the conversion of forest to pasture. Rose wood trees, along with
other tree crops, can be important, cash-earning components of agroforestry
systems.”
The
Proposal to Preserve the Threatened Species:
“The
different regions of Amazonia have separate histories of natural resource use
and cultural characteristics. We believe that agroforestry systems should
incorporate tree species that are a part of local and regional histories and
culture. In the case of Central Amazonia, the rose wood tree is a species that
is well known and was once very important economically. We propose to support
the planting of rose wood seedlings in a matrix of other trees that produce
fruit, timber and other extractive and medicinal products. Planting will be done
in an agroforestry system, interspersed with staple crops such as manioc
(cassava), ensuring that seedlings will receive the necessary care during the
critical first few years of establishment. In addition to supplying seedlings,
the ADOTE programme provides a stipend for participating farmers to help them
cover the initial labor costs of seedling establishment.
“The
expansion of the ADOTE programme is only possible with help of donations for
adoption of a tree to cover the costs of seedling production planting and care,
as well as travel of students and professors to the communities to provide
technical assistance.”
To learn more
about how to adopt a tree in the Amazon and receive information, go to the
website www.adote.ufam.edu.br and/or
contact: Manuel de Jesus Vieira Lima Junior by Email: mjlima@ufam.edu.br
. The scheme comes under the AFCEA (Forest Association for the Conservation of
the Amazon Ecosystem) a non-profit, non-governmental organization, whose
objective is to support an develop activities to protect the Amazon ecosystem
and improve the quality of life of its communities, through education, research
and professional development.13
References:
1.
Kilmer, (Alfred) Joyce: b. 6th December, 1886, New Brunswick,
N.J., U.S. d. 30th July 1928, near Seringes, France. American Poet
known chiefly for his 12-line verse entitled “Trees”. His most famous poem
“Trees” appeared in Poetry magazine in 1913. Its immediate and continued
popularity has been attributed to its combination of sentiment and simple
philosophy. Kilmer was killer in action during World War I and was posthumously
awarded the Croix de Guerre.
2.
http://www.treecouncil.org.uk/projects/ntw2003.htm
3.
http://www.woodbin.com/ref/wood/rosewood_brazilian.htm
4.
Well-known
Brand names using Rosewood oil: Alfred
Dunhill, Annick Goutal, Avon, Azzaro, Balenciaga, Benetton, Bijan, Bill Blass,
Bulgari, Calvin Klein, Carolina
Herrera, Caron, Cartier, Carven, Cerruti, Chanel, Chaumet, Chopard, Christian
Dior, Clinique, Elizabeth Arden, Escada, Estee Lauder, Fendi, Ferragamo,
Geoffrey Beene, Georgio Armani, Givenchy, Guerlain, Hanae Mori, Hermes, Issy
Myakie, Jacomo, Jean Charles Brosseau, Jean Patou, Karl Lagerfeld, Kenzo, Krizia,
Lalique, Lancome, Laura Biagiotti, Lucky Brand, Michael Kors, Mont Blanc,
Morgan, Moschino, Nautica, Nina Ricci, Oleg Cassini, Paco Rabanna, Paul Smith,
Ralph Lauren, Revlon, Rochas, Romeo Gigli, Workshop, Salvador Dali, Dupont,
Ungaro, Van Cleef & Arpels, Yohji Yamamoto, Yves Saint Laurent.
5.
David Cookson &
Co. Inc. - http://www.cooksonco.com/ROSEWOOD.HTM
6.
Ibid.
7.
http://members.aol.com/aromavitae/rosewood.html
8.
David Cookson &
Co. Inc. - http://www.cooksonco.com/ROSEWOOD.HTM
9.
Mestizos: (Sp. Latin mixtus meaning ‘mixed’) Male descendants of
Spanish or Portuguese and American Indians.
10.
The Ebers Papyrus was
purchased in Luxor by Edwin Smith in 1862. It is unclear from whom the papyrus
was purchased, but it was said to have been found between the legs of a mummy in
the Assassif district of the Theben necropolis. The
papyrus remained in the collection of Edwin Smith until at least 1869 when there
appeared, in the catalog of an antiquities dealer, and advertisement for "a
large medical papyrus in the possession of Edwin Smith, an American farmer of
Luxor."(Breasted 1930) The Papyrus was purchased in 1872 by the
Egyptologist George Ebers, for who it is named. In 1875, Ebers published a
facsimile with an English-Latin vocabulary and introduction. The Ebers Papyrus
comprises 110 pages, and is by far the most lengthy of the medical papyri. It is
dated by a passage on the verso to the 9th year of the reign of Amenhotep I (c.
1534 B.C.E.), a date which is close to the extant copy of the Edwin Smith
Papyrus. However, one portion of the papyrus suggests a much earlier origin.
Paragraph 856a states that : "the book of driving wekhedu from all the
limbs of a man was found in writings under the two feet of Anubis in Letopolis
and was brought to the majesty of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt
Den."(Nunn 1996: 31) The reference to the Lower Egyptian Den is a historic
anachronism which suggesting an origin closer to the First Dynasty (c. 3000
B.C.E.) Kahun Gynecological Papyrus
The
Kahun Papyrus was discovered by Flinders Petrie in April of 1889 at the Fayum
site of Lahun. The town itself flourished during the Middle Kingdom, principally
under the reign of Amenenhat II and his immediate successor. The papyrus is
dated to this period by a note on the recto which states the date as being the
29th year of the reign of Amenenhat III (c. 1825 B.C.E.). The text was published
in facsimile, with hieroglyphic transcription and translation into English, by
Griffith in 1898, and is now housed in the University College London. http://www.crystalinks.com/egyptmedicine.html
11.
http://www.rain-tree.com/rosewood.htm
12.
Properties
given Among others by : http://www.essentialoils.co.za/essential_oils/rosewood.htm
- http://antiagingchoices.com/Aromatherapy/rosewood_oil.htm
- http://www.herbalremedies.com/rosewood.html
- http://www.ashburys.com/oil/eo_rosewood.htm
13.
www.adote.ufam.edu.br
Programmme Manager Email: mjlima@ufam.edu.br
– Address: The Federal University of Amazonia, Rusa Sao José, 43 – Bairro:
Presidente Vargas CEP: 69025-260 Manaus-AM.
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