Using Aromatherapy in Fall: Bring the Spirit of the Season Indoors

Fall has arrived! And, right on its heels, cooler weather. The good news … there is a lot to love about the fall: pumpkin patches, rich colors, root vegetables, warm herbal teas, and essential oils.

Just as nutritionists recommend eating with the seasons, there are aromatherapeutic essential oils that complement the seasons too. Select spicy, earthy, rich aromas to bring the spirit of the season indoors and to create feelings of warmth. We suggest a blend of sweet orange, cinnamon, ylang ylang, and lemon (the Festive Spice blend from our Apothecary Shoppe).

Sweet orange Citrus sinensis essential oil helps to support emotional well-being and has a sweeter, fruity scent. It blends well with basil, cinnamon, clary sage, clove, lavender, neroli, lemon, and nutmeg. For more information about sweet orange visit here.

Cinnamon Cinnamomum zeylanicum essential oil supports healthy digestion and stress management and has a spicy, earthy aroma. It blends well with ginger, nutmeg, rosemary, frankincense, and the citrus oils. For more information about cinnamon, visit here.

Ylang ylang Cananga odorata essential oil is attributed with analgesic, antidepressant, and aphrodisiac properties. It has a sweet aroma with long-lasting woody undertones and blends well with lavender, bergamot, the citrus oils, and sandalwood. For more information about ylang ylang, visit here.

Lemon Citrus limonum essential oil supports a healthy respiratory system and has a refreshing aroma. It blends well with cedarwood, chamomile, clove, eucalyptus, fennel, juniper, lavender, neroli, oakmoss, petitgrain, pine, sandalwood, and ylang ylang. For more information about lemon, visit here.

Festive Spice Blend
6 drops Sweet Orange
1 drop Cinnamon
2 drops Ylang Ylang
1 drop Lemon

We hope your first day of fall is fantastic and look forward to hearing more about your fall aromatherapy blends. Post any blending tips, photos, recipes …. here!

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Highlights from "What is Aromatherapy?" at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland

Have you seen our new photos on Facebook? Click here to see photos from today's lecture "What is Aromatherapy?" at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in downtown Portland, Oregon.

Check out our new photo album “What is Aromatherapy? at the Lan Su Chinese Garden” from ACHS President Dorene Petersen’s lecture today.

Most of the photos are from within the Scholars’ Room, where the lecture took place, but there is also a beautiful picture of a big rhododendron right outside the lecture hall, in the Fragrance Garden.


For those of you who weren’t able to attend in person today, Dorene is going to give a complementary aromatherapy lecture at the Garden next week, on March 30, at 1pm, which is a continuation of the Garden’s Festival of Fragrance.

But, don’t worry if you’re not able to attend that event either, we filmed it! “What is Aromatherapy?” will be available for download on our College channel, ACHStv, on YouTube soon. Here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/ACHStv It’s easiest to subscribe to ACHStv and an email will automatically be sent to you when the video is available (and all educational holistic health videos we post for free download!).

In the meantime, here are some interesting points from Dorene’s lecture:

• Aromatherapy is the use of aromas for their healing properties.
• An essential oil is the distilled (or sometimes expressed) product of the volatile components synthesized by various plant tissues of a single plant species.
• Essential oils are produced in different parts of the plant depending on the oil. Some examples include: Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) is from seeds; eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) from leaves; and bitter orange (Citrus sinensis) is from the peel.

Some essential oils you might want to get started with include (note, before apply essential oils to the skin, a skin patch test is recommended):

• Peppermint (Mentha piperita), which is attributed with antiseptic, germicidal, and antibacterial properties.
• Lavender (Lavandula officinalis), which is attributed with soothing, balancing, and antibacterial qualities.
• Sweet orange (Citrus sinensis), which is attributed with antidepressant and anti-inflammatory properties.

>> All of these essential oils, as well as a large variety of additional oils and organic base oils (including camellia, aloe vera, and jojoba) can easily be ordered from ACHS’s Apothecary Shoppe College Store here: www.apothecary-shoppe.com. Just click on Essential Oils and/or Carrier Oils on the left-hand toolbar.

Two parting thoughts: First, when you have a quiet moment to yourself, ponder these words from Helen Keller: “Smell is a potent wizard that transports us across thousands of miles and all the years we have lived.”

Second, the Moon Gate at the Garden has a plaque above the arch on each side. On one side it reads, “Read the landscape,” and on the other side, “Listen to the fragrance.” According to the Lan Su Chinese Garden’s website, “In Chinese tradition, garden landscape without poetry is not complete.”

What do the words “Listen to the fragrance” whisper to you? We’d love to hear your thoughts!