Aromatherapist and social activist David Crow founded Floracopeia: Aromatic Treasures for Health, Beauty and Abundance [1] three years ago. Its mission is twofold: to bring organic [1], fair-trade, community-supported principles to the production, distribution, and sale of essential oils and to educate people about their benefits.

LIME chatted with the essential oil evangelist shortly before a "Fragrance and Consciousness [2]" workshop, one of many he conducts.

LIME: You've studied many traditions: acupuncture [2], Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda [2], and meditation. How do you answer, "So what do you do?"

The short answer is that I practice natural medicine. I'm not involved right now in clinical practice, which I did for 20 years, because now Floracopeia takes me all over the world. I've published a book, In Search of the Medicine Buddha [3]. I'm involved in social activism with community gardens and school gardens [through my other organization, the Learning Garden [4]]. I'm an herbalist. My license, professionally-I'm an acupuncturist. But all of these things fit together. In the traditional societies, it wasn't so compartmentalized.

LIME: Floracopeia sells essential oils and aromatherapy products, but there's more to it than that. What else does Floracopeia do?

Floracopeia is about the global benefits of herbal medicine. It came out of my studies of Ayurveda and Chinese medicine, and clinical practice. I spent a number of years studying in the Himalayas, in Nepal and India, and I learned that the traditional medical systems of the world are based on plants-and that many plant medicines are in danger from over-harvesting, deforestation, and global warming [4]. Because so many people depend on these forms of medicine, and because they offer the world so much in terms of their curative value, it's very important to start looking at the bigger picture of conservation and preservation of these plants, and the ethno-botanical wisdom of how to use them. Early on, a lot of the doctors I was working with actually didn't have access to the medicine that they were used to working with-and the situation in many ways has gotten even worse in the last 20 years-and so I wanted to do something about it.

What we're trying to do with Floracopeia is educate people about the global benefits of herbal medicines, which are summarized as four main points. The first is healthcare, the use of the plants for medicinal purposes. The second is that these plants are the world's most lucrative cash crops, and so that gives the opportunity for economic upliftment and development. The third is preserving, restoring, and protecting ecosystems through sustainable agroforestry and organic cultivation of these plants, and that helps to preserve traditional ethno-botanical knowledge and wisdom [the fourth point].

LIME: Why didn't they have access to those medicines?

For example, one of my primary teachers, Dr. Ngawang Chopel, a Tibetan Lama-physician I met in Nepal, was not able to get a lot of his traditional medicines because of deforestation [5] that has happened since the Chinese took over Tibet. There's been a tremendous amount of ecological destruction all over the Himalayan region [6]. Also, because the demand for herbal medicines is now so great, globally, people are just going out and harvesting them from the forest without any concern for long-term sustainability [6].

If we look at herbal medicines and specifically the essential oils, the aromatic plants, they give us the keys to solving a lot of global problems. They give us an opportunity to have a grassroots medical system where people have medicines in their communities which are affordable, non-toxic, and effective. And it gives communities a way to increase their economic well-being through doing things that are ecologically sustainable and healthy, which is very much based on a kind of ecological spirituality.

Medicinal plants have two functions that modern prescription drugs do not offer: they give the body nutrition, and they detoxify the body. Many essential oils are some of the world's most powerful natural antibiotic substances, and bacteria cannot develop resistance to many of these oils.

LIME: How does Floracopeia get its essential oils?

Floracopeia is now working with a whole network of distillers around the world. Most essential oil companies have to go to the world market, where you have many levels of purchasing agents and distributors; a lot of synthetic aroma compounds get mixed in to stretch the oils. The pure essential oils require a tremendous amount of plant material to produce. In order to have quality control you have to work directly with the farmers and the distillers-most companies cannot do that. What we're trying to do is along the lines of fair trade [6], certified organic, shade-grown coffee, where people buy the product and they know exactly where it's coming from. It's very exciting to take aromatherapy to this level because most people don't know anything about the production side of it, and they don't know anything about the link between the oil that they have in their hand, and the people in the rainforest in Madagascar or the people who are producing the tea tree in New Zealand, organically.

LIME: What is the "Pharmacy of Flowers?"

"Pharmacy of Flowers" is a program that's evolved over many years. It's a multimedia presentation that could be done either in one evening or a full weeklong intensive retreat. We talk about the four global benefits, and we sample each essential oil and talk about its therapeutic applications in medicine. It depends on the audience. I just came back from touring in Ecuador and Brazil. There's a tremendous amount of interest in the development of these crops as cash crops now, and so in this presentation, there was a lot of emphasis on sustainable agroforestry as an alternative to the destruction of the rainforest.

Sometimes we focus more on the meditative side, the concept of "Fragrance and Consciousness [7]." The aromatic molecules have a tremendous effect directly on the limbic system through the olfactory sense. The limbic system controls our general states of mind, our moods, emotions, emotional memories, and so forth, and so the integration of fragrance into meditation is a very natural kind of thing. You can see it in temples with the use of incense, sandalwood, frankincense-all these historical traditions.

There are also tremendous applications for the public school system. People are bringing aromatherapy into the classrooms. Something as simple as lavender oil can dramatically improve children's ability to concentrate, learn, and memorize.

We're trying to let people know about what science is finding out now about the benefits of these aromatic molecules and how powerful they are as antibiotics, as alternatives for antibiotic drugs, as anti-inflammatory agents, as immune-enhancing agents, as medicines for anti-depression, for anti-anxiety. They're finding incredible anti-cancer properties, wound-healing properties, and this is an aspect of aromatherapy that people don't know about, but it's leading edge science, actually.

LIME: LIME encourages people to "Live the Change [7]" by taking small steps towards healthier, more sustainable lives. With cold weather coming, what's a good essential oil for beating cold weather?

For immune enhancement against cold and flu, we look at a family of respiratory oils that come from trees, like eucalyptus oils and the conifer oils like spruce, pine, and fir. These are very uplifting-it's like the fragrance of a forest. The essential oils are actually the immune system of the tree, and when we breathe them in, they help our immune system. They also have a very nice effect of increasing mental energy and alertness, and part of the depression of winter is really a kind of neurological tiredness and fatigue. They're very nice to use in diffusers, or to inhale directly-just put a few drops on the palms.

The second category that's very nice for depression in the winter is the citrus oils. They're like solar energy. Orange, lime, grapefruit, and lemon; especially effective is neroli, orange blossom oil. These combine well with the respiratory oils. Then for some people, the flowers work really well. The main ones for depression are rose, jasmine, and geranium. Essential oils and herbal medicine are really part of a diet. Think in terms of having a collection.

LIME: What are the risks, if any, with essential oils and aromatics?

There is a general way of using essential oils that's safe for everybody; for example, atmospheric diffusing, and using it in carrier oil diluted for massage. But you also have unsafe uses. The oils are very concentrated, and some oils are dermal toxic-they can burn your skin. If you put oregano oil or thyme oil directly on your skin for a fungus, which is advocated by some people, you may end up getting a rash. There are basically two levels of aromatherapy: medical and non-medical. If you want to use the oils in a more medical way, they're very effective. At the same time, you must have a medical license, and you must practice it at a clinic.

LIME: Are you optimistic about aromatherapy and essential oils being accepted in Western medicine? Or covered by health insurance?

I do think there is tremendous source of optimism for a different kind of healthcare in this country, a grassroots, community-based, plant-based healthcare system. This is coming up already in response to the fact that people have no insurance, and that it's very difficult to get alternative medicine covered. . . What I do see happening is more people taking a higher level of responsibility for their health at the grassroots level. This is where community gardens of medicinal plants come in. This is the level that I am working to encourage in small communities.