A Growing Market for Hydroponics… Aromatherapy and Essential Oils

Since the time of the ancient Egyptians, essential oils or oil extracts of plant materials, have been used for medicines, massage oils, fragrances, embalming oils, and protecting against disease and insects. In the New Testament frankincense and myrrh are brought as precious gifts to the baby Jesus.

Perhaps as many as 9,000 plants are used around the world for traditional medicines. (Farnsworth and Soejarto 1991). According to World Health Organization, over 80% of the world’s population use plant-based medicine for primary health care (Bannerman et. al. 1983).

Today we know that many plant-based oil extractions have a broad number of active phytochemicals. Many such as the rosy periwinkle have been found to be important new medicines to fight cancer. Research in this area is exploding with new findings every day.

The global herbal healthcare industry is estimated to be worth 63 billion dollars and increasing 25% each year. However, there are problems within this industry, and most pertain to fears and concerns of contamination in soil grown products.

Between 1994 and 1999 herbal sales increased in the US due to the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act (DSHEA) that helped the marketing of supplements. But this has now declined due to low quality raw plant materials with soil-based contamination.

This has created a serious demand for a high grade pure plant product, and this can be obtained using hydroponic culture. Hydroponics do not need to use herbicides, one of the worst of the contaminants, and pesticides to control insects can be replaced with herbal sprays. Careful management of a herbal crop can produce a very high grade pure product.

Scientific research and articles by Tom Papadopoulous and others in Canada (Dorais et. al, 2001) are showing that the medicinal properties of hydroponic plants are as good or superior to soil-based plants. Work by some amateur researchers in Holland are finding ways to increase the medicinal properties of almost any herb. Hydroponic garlic grown with excess selenium is being used as a cancer reducer and preventive by research by C. Ip at John Hopkins

Hydroponics can produce a lot of material a lot faster than soil-based production. One product is basil, now grown in hydroponics for fresh herb culinary use. There are several successful producers of fresh basil. Many restaurants report that the hydroponic basil has a stronger and better aroma and flavor than soil-produced product.

Basil is just one of the many plants used in aromatherapy. Another which is reported to have a very high value is rose oil. A recent article in an Afghanistan paper pointed out that the illegal drug trade farmers could make more money raising rose oil. Hydroponics is a well established technology for producing roses and 97% of all commercial roses grown in Israel are grown in hydroponics.

Essential Oils

The oils begin as fresh plant material. For example, basil oil is made from fresh basil plant material. Leaves, blossoms and stems are picked fresh and then used to form an oil. There is a current technology on what plants are used, what parts are used for each plant and what method is used for extracting the oil (see Table 1 on next page).

Economic Considerations

The percent yield column of Table 1 shows that only a small percentage of oil can be extracted from a large amount of fresh plant material. So the value of the oil has to be considered when designing a hydroponic operation for aromatherapy.

Herbs grown in hydroponic culture can produce as much as one-half pound of fresh plant material per square meter per year. This is about 90 kilos of fresh plant material per year. However, a more general production figure is 25 kilos per square meter per year.

Some herbs such as the mints and basil, can be grown in a table grower of one square meter growing surface and can be picked every day. These herbs continue to grow as harvested and produce several harvests.

Hydroponic Production of Plants

When producing plants for essential oils, it is very important to use high grade pure products throughout the process. The substrate should be free of contaminants, and the best for this is probably either perlite or rock wool. The containers for growing should be food grade plastic, not recycled materials that could have contaminants.

The hydroponic nutrients used for essential oils should be complete, with all 13 minerals the plants require, but also an additional nine that are known important for human health. As we complete research on medicinal properties of produced plants, we may be formulating specific nutrients for specific plants, with added trace minerals to improve properties.

The trace minerals in the hydroponic nutrients should be provided in chelate form, so they are readily available to the plants. This increases the cost of the nutrient.

Also there should be three separate nutrients for the parts of the plants, Grow for green plant parts, root for root products and blossom or bloom for flower based plant products.

The phosphorous source in the hydroponic nutrient should never be from a super phosphate unless it can be proved it is not at all radioactive. To be certain, the phosphorous source should probably be a mono potassium phosphate.

The water used for essential oils may have to be purified before use on the crop. This added cost can insure a product that meets a tough purity test. Many possible pollutants can be in the water.

To produce a very high grade essential oil for medicine it could be necessary to set up a greenhouse system similar to the clean rooms used in computer chip manufacture. This includes filtering the air for any impurities.

Systems Used to Manufacture Essential Oils

Cold Pressed Oil

Most citrus oil is cold pressed, usually from the fruit rind. This makes it a great byproduct industry for the citrus food processing industry where the rinds are removed from fruit.

The rind and pith are soaked in warm water to make it more pliable. After the fruit has absorbed water it is turned upside down to help rupture the oil in the rind and a sponge is placed next to the rind.

As soon as the sponge becomes saturated with oil, it is squeezed and the essential oil is collected in a vessel and then decanted.

Distillation

Water Distillation

Raw plant material is completely immersed in water and the still is brought to a boil. The steam is gathered above in a condenser and when this material cools down, the water and oil are separated. The oil is one product but the water is also gathered and used as a product, named for the plant material, rosewater, or lavender water.

Steam Distillation

In this process the plants are placed in a still and steam is forced over the material The steam opens the pockets of oil in the plant materials. The oils then escape and evaporate into the steam.

The temperature of the steam needs to be carefully controlled - just enough to force the plant material to let go of the essential oil, yet not too hot as to burn the plant material or the essential oil.

The steam, which then contains the essential oil, is passed through a cooling system to condense the steam, which forms a liquid from which the essential oil and water is then separated.

Rectification

Sometimes the gathered essential oil still contains impurities and it can be further refined by re-distilling the material. This is called rectification.

Solvent Extraction

Solvent extraction is particularly suitable for botanical material that has a very low yield of essential oil, or where it is made up of mostly resinous components and as such delivers a far finer fragrance than that of distillation.

Essential oils can be extracted by using solvents such as petroleum ether, methanol, ethanol or hexane and is often used on fragile material such as jasmine, hyacinth, narcissus and tuberose, which would not be able to handle the heat of steam distillation.

The solvent extraction is thought by some to not be of high quality because a residual of the solvent might remain in the final product. For the purposes of most plant materials grown in hydroponics, steam extraction is the most recommended and the one that produces a higher quality product.

Products That Can Be Made With Essential Oils

The aromatherapy uses essential oils directly for a variety of purposes. Usually these are rubbed onto the skin, sometimes with added carrier oils such as olive oil or sweet almond oil to increase the available oil. The essential oils sell from $4.00 per ounce to over $100 an ounce depending upon the plant used and the extraction process.

Candles can be made using the essential oils as a fragrance, and these become aromatherapy candles that often command a higher price than regular candles. There is a new trend to create candles out of soy. This cleaner burning candle is made of renewable resources and is another product we can produce hydroponically.

Soaps are also made using the oils. There are decorative molds that can be used to produce a high value gift soap. Both the candles and soaps can be made at home.

The oils and the raw herbs can be added to pillows to create herbal pillows for aid in relaxing or sleeping. These include pillows that are said to help with headaches, especially sinus headaches. A favorite recipe is peppermint, spearmint, rosemary, chamomile, flax seed, lavender oil and eucalyptus oil. This mixture is placed into a pillow and used hot or cold to help with headaches.

There are many commercial uses for the oils, including frangrance, medicinal and cosmetic uses that create a rather stable global market. These are used for traditional, conventional and alternative medicines and treatments.

Internet Resources

http://www.essentialoils.co.za/steam_distillation.htm Esoteric Oils Ltd.

http://www.leydenhouse.com/Oils/Oils.html An extensive aromatherapy table

http://www.herbamalaysia.net/portal A Herbal Malaysia site on aromatherapy

Ip, C et al, http://carcin.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/15/9/1881 Abstract online about Ip research on Selenium garlic. Many other articles have been published.

Bannerman, Robert H., John Burton, and Ch’en Wen-Chieh (1983). Traditional medicine and health care coverage: a reader for health administrators and practitioners. Geneva: WHO

Dorais, M., A.P. Papadopoulos, X. Luo, S. Leonhart, A. Gosselin, K. Pedneault, P. Angers, L. Gaudreau (2001)

Soilless Greenhouse Production of Medicinal Plants in North Eastern Canada online at: http://www.actahort.org/books/554/554_32.htm

N.R Farnsworth and D.D.Soejarto. 1991. Global Importance of Medicinal Plants. In Conservation of medicinal plants. Akarele, A., et al (eds)

Books

Complete Aromatherapy Handbook, Susanne Fischer-Rizzi, Sterling Pub Co, 1991.

The Book of Massage and Aromatherapy, Nitya Lacroix, Sharon Seager, Crescent Books, 1996.

Healing Gardens, Romy Rawlings Rory Willow Creek Press Gardening, 1998

“Concerning Odors” In Enquiry Into Plants. 2 vols. -- Theophrastus (4th century BC.) Reprint. Sir Arthur Hort, trans. 1916.

“Concerning Odors” In Enquiry Into Plants. 2 vols. -- Theophrastus (4th century BC.) Reprint. Sir Arthur Hort, trans. 1916.