Durban - Intrigued by a leaflet promoting a tour of Highland Essential Oils – a chance to learn about the manufacture of oils, and mix your own perfume from plants while learning the history and secrets of perfume – I decided to travel over 100km to participate. It proved heady stuff, and not just because of the aroma of plants growing in the fields.
Part of the main house on Vlakbult Guest Farm in the Clocolan area, where Highland Essential Oils is located, dates back to 1864. Riana Minnaar started her growing, distilling and producing business in 1992.
My main interest was the use of plants through the ages. Minnaar points to a chart, tracing the treatment of something as simple as earache.
In 2000BC, a healer would have prescribed: “Eat this root.” By 1000AD, this had changed to: “Say a prayer.” By 1850, the sufferer would have been told to “Drink this potion.” By 1940 they would have been prescribed a pill; by 1970 an antibiotic; and by 2000AD we have come full circle – back to eating the products of certain roots.
In ancient times myrrh, frankincense and other aromatic gums were the currency in demand.
“In Egypt, the pharaohs and upper classes put flowers in lard so that the oil of the flowers was extracted by the lard. They then put this nice-smelling lard on their heads. As it melted, it dripped off their heads onto their bodies, helping to protect them from the sun’s rays,” says Minnaar.
In the Biblical book of Esther, we learn that in order to win the heart of the king she was massaged with oil of myrrh and for six months with “sweet odours and other things.” Nowadays, we call this aromatherapy.
We hear of olives being carried by the Israelites when they escaped from pharaoh into the desert. Oil, gently pressed from the olives, was used in the Tabernacle. A less pure oil was acquired by beating it out of the fruit with sticks.
“The priests in the temple were instructed to purify themselves with salves,” explains Minnaar.
The cure-all plant of old, frankincense, is to this day used in medicines in many European hospitals and finds its way into some cancer treatments, says Minnaar.
Hyssop was used to banish evil spirits during Roman times, while Minnaar believes Mary Magdalene used spikenard oil to anoint and bathe Jesus’s feet. This oil comes from the roots of the Nardostachys jatamansi plant, which grows at an altitude of 3 300m to 6 000m above sea level in the Himalayas. In Jesus’s time it would have been worth its weight in gold, which was why the apostles had objected to such extravagance.
Cedarwood, used to build royal palaces of yore, gives off an aroma which is said to keep the brain alert by aiding the distribution of oxygen. “Nowadays cedarwood oil is used in products targeting senility and Altzheimer’s,” says Minnaar.
Angelica got its name during the Black Plague of the Middle Ages when an angel is said to have appeared to a monk, instructing him to use this plant as a cure.
“During the reign of France’s King Louis XIV, women wore wigs and heavy dresses,” she says. “They put oils on their scalps, and as these heated under the wigs, it released a pleasant smell. So France became the leader in perfume.”
Back to more modern times, I learn that geranium helps with inflammation brought on by breast-feeding; that fungus under the nails can be treated with tea-tree oil; lavender helps with sleeplessness; lemongrass has antifungal properties and can also be used as a pesticide; helicryssum and rosehip help with skin infections; while rosemary can sharpen the mind.
Less pleasant-smelling items such as garlic are very quickly absorbed into the body. If you rub garlic onto the soles of your feet, within just five minute the smell permeates the entire body.
By the same principle, if you apply just a small amount of oil, within 20 minutes it will have reached every cell of the body.
Minnaar explains harvesting, and the processes of distillation, extraction, pricking, or pressing, required to produce essential oils. It takes five tons of rose petals to make a litre of rose oil and four tons of camomile flowers to make a litre of camomile oil.
Even khakibos has its uses. This pungent weed is apparently used in Channel No.5 perfume.
Booking is essential if you wish to visit the farm.
Call: 082 789 3035 or 083 761 7621
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.highlandessentialoils.co.za