When a plant reaches the climax of its development, it flowers and re� leases

fragrance into the air. This means it communicates with the animal world and
attracts, for example, insects which make pollination, fructification and therefore
the survival of its species possible. Because the plant's pollen is a food, the
insects also benefit from the transaction. Since bees tum pollen into honey,
human beings also benefit. In the animal kingdom, smells are the major source of
information. They are essential to the survival of the species, providing
information about food, enemies and possible dangers.
During the fertility period, they stimulate the reproductive hormones and mating.
This latter function is apparently suppressed in human beings, al� though the
popularity of perfumes, most of which are artificially manufac� tured, is an
indication of efforts in this direction.
in essential. oils have effects that go beyond controlling the symptoms displayed
by an illness: they stimulate the body's natural defences and strengthen the
entire organism. When properly used, essential oils are capable of positively
influencing the terrain, which means rendering in� nocuous the temporary or
permanent influences which weaken an or� gan or a function and make it more
vulnerable to illness. It is therefore important to have a good knowledge of
plants and essential oils in order to make informed choices from this large
pharmacy of, nature. How� ever, people knowledgeable about working with
medicinal plants and essential oils are unanimous about one point in particular:
despite their complex composition, the whole plant or the entire essential oil is
more effective and successful in restoring the inner balance than any of its
individual parts. This is confirmed by Dr. P. Belaiche in his important treatise
on phytotherapy and aromatherapy: "The plant in its totality offers a great
many different possibilities for potential effects. This ex� plains why a more
complete and extensive effect is achieved on what is called the patient's
terrain."
If the plants or the essential oils are high quality, if a precise indica� tion has
been diagnosed, and if they are taken in correct doses, no unde� sirable side-
effects are to be expected.
At the heart of aromatherapy is the use of essential oils or aromatic plant
essences. This type of healing art is based on many thousands of years of
experience, as well as on extensive modem research work car� ried out over
several decades in many different places. It has good pros� pects of becoming a
form of therapy for the future: as an alternative to chemotherapy and hope for
the many afflicted
Finally, with the help of enzymes, plants also produce amino acids and proteins,
alkaloids, hormones and so forth. Plants are therefore a very rich source of
many substances indispensable to life, as well as those which ~re beneficial in
the treatment of human disorders: sugars, starches, lipids, proteins, vitamins.,
mineral salts, trace elements, essen� tial oils, antibiotics, hormones, lactic
acids and so forth.
Plants benefit from the great variety found in nature. The organic substances
which they contain are present in physiological doses, which is why they are more
easily assimilable and more potent than chemical substances manufactured with the
same constitution: their own chemi� cal constituents have been naturally
synthesized and balanced by the environment of the plants and the biological
transmutations which oc� cur inside of them.
One example of this is that scurvy cannot be cured with synthetic vitamin C
(commonly called antiscorbutic), even when taken in large quantities. However,
it is easily healed with natural vitamin C extracted from lemons or cabbage.
Drug manufacturers are well aware of this fact. Their vitamin C tablets
contain 1000 mg of synthetic vitamin C and must be taken once or twice daily.
Yet, the daily requirement for adults is only 75 mg. which a single small orange
provides!
As a link in the natural chain of life, it is generally easier for human beings to
make use of products extracted from nature itself than those which are
artificial. As Professor Lucienne B~ranger-Beauquesne points out: "All
biosynthetic processes in the plant or animal kingdom take place by using
the same enzymes and have identical or similar receptors; synthetically-produced
substances, however, are generally foreign to the