Aromatherapy and Cannabidiolic Aromatherapy
Origin of Aromatherapy.
First of all, modern scientific Aromatherapy began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with the work of René-Maurice Gattefossé that is considered the father of modern Aromatherapy. The term Aromatherapy was coined by Gattefossé himself in his historical work, published in 1937, under the title Aromathérapie – Les Huiles essentielles – hormones végétales. (Gattefossé, 1937).
Cannabidiolic Aromatherapy
What is Aromatherapy
Contemporary aromatherapy involves the use of aromatic substances, of plant origin, that can be introduced into the body, not only by inhalation, but also through the skin and the nasal and oral mucosa (Fortuna, 2006).
The term Aromatherapy does not, in fact, refer only to the mode of use of the product -which, in this case, should be only inhalation- but also to the description of the compounds that are used and that come from essential oils, which are aromatic, that are endowed with the characteristic of emitting, in fact, aromas (Price, Price, 2012).
Therapy based on essential oils, namely Phyto-essential Pharmacology.
Nicolette Perry and Elaine Perry suggest, in fact, that the term Aromatherapy should be replaced by those of Therapy based on essential oils (Essential oil therapy) or, also, of Phyto-essential Pharmacology, which, in Italian, we could make with Pharmacotherapy based on essential phytocompounds. In other words, the essential term must refer to the plant essences from which these products are derived (Perry, Perry, 2006).
Nowadays, in Europe, Aromatherapy is practiced in England above all, where it has developed a wide activity, in this field, by many Aromatherapies. However, the discipline is not yet regulated by the State (Price, Price, 2012). In the United States Aromatherapy began to become popular during the 1980s (Cooke, Ernst E., 2000).
The development of an evidence-based Aromatherapy.
Today we are witnessing the attempt to develop a scientific Aromatherapy that is evidence-based. In fact, to date, there is a certain limitation of the scientific literature in this regard. In fact, Koo has carried out a bibliometric analysis regarding the time span between 1995 and 2014 (Koo, 2017), identifying 549 articles, between original contributions and articles of literature revision, including 1888 Authors. However, the largest number of articles were published in the United States. The most representative journal, with the most articles, is the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.
Process of defining a regulatory framework in the making.
In Italy, the sale of products for Aromatherapy, obtained from essential oils, and their derivatives, is currently not regulated. In fact, the European Community institutions and the Italian Government have not yet defined a legal framework that would give legal recognition to bio-natural disciplines and the sale of aromatherapy products. Moreover, in our country, the legislative measure is still in draft form, which is the latest proposal of 3 May 2010 (n.2152) on the regulation of the figure of naturopath, that is, the professional who uses natural remedies.
However, in Italy there is a regulation of natural products, which limits the preparations saleable in herbal medicine to those with little or no toxicity.
NegEnt, prepared with the method of supercritical CO2 excludes with absolute certainty the presence of contaminants harmful to human health.
Especially from this point of view, cannabidiol is a very safe substance, as it has an enormous literature that demonstrates its absolute tolerability, even at very high dosages. Moreover, the use, for the preparation of NegEnt Aromatherapy based on CBD, absolutely pure, obtained through the method of supercritical CO2, allows to exclude the presence of any contaminant with characteristics harmful to human health.