A scent therapy, a Dano bath, and a book by Robert Tisserand

Aromatherapy, the notes write, is a compound of aroma, for scent, and therapy, for a method of treatment. It is also placed among modern alternative medicines: a practice that draws scent from plants and uses essential oils. A story of washing the hair and bathing in a changpo infusion on Dano, they add, can be read as one form of the same idea. Robert Tisserand’s book on scent therapy, they say, helped aromatherapy spread widely, and his research made it known that essential oils could be used as a form of treatment. The rest of the note then asks what, exactly, an essential oil is, what a carrier oil is, and how the two differ.

What an essential oil is, and why the notes say it should be diluted

Scent rises from a plant, and that scent, in this telling, is essential oil. A plant uses carbon dioxide to make the glucose and oxygen it needs; that photosynthetic work is called primary metabolism, and the making of essential oil is called secondary metabolism. The oil collects in special tissues the notes name as glandular hairs, oil pouches, oil ducts, and oil chambers. In the plant, they write, it helps to fend off insects, to block bacteria and viruses, to heal a wound, to keep the plant from drying out, and to stir physiological activity.

The same oil is then given a long list of helpful actions in the human body — antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, easing a cough, stirring bodily function, easing stress, strengthening the nerves, an aphrodisiac action, easing pain, regulating sebum, aiding digestion — all as the writer claims them, not as a later official finding. Because it is an undiluted raw material, the notes warn, essential oil that meets the body directly can damage the skin and provoke an allergy, and can also harm the brain, the nerves, the liver, or the kidneys. It should therefore be diluted, or used under a specialist’s hand.

Carrier oil, as the name suggests, is treated as a means of carrying the stronger oil into the body. It is also called a base oil or a vegetable oil, and is taken from a plant’s seeds, flowers, fruit, or kernels, usually by cold pressing. It has the structure of a fatty acid, and is divided into saturated and unsaturated fats by the presence or absence of a double bond in the molecule. The unsaturated fatty acids, the notes say, are absorbed well through human skin, and can work together with an essential oil. Each kind of carrier oil has its own character, so the pairing should be chosen with care. One example in the notes is jojoba as a carrier, blended with lavender and peppermint, as a massage oil said to be useful for tired muscles. A third difference they mark is simple: a carrier oil may meet the skin on its own; an essential oil, on its own, may not.

Salvia sclarea, and a constituent list left as written

The essential oil the writer uses is clary sage, given the scientific name Salvia sclarea. The chemical constituents are listed as monoterpene alcohols: linalool 10–25 percent, α-terpineol 2–5 percent; a diterpene alcohol: sclareol about 5 percent; esters: linalyl acetate 60–80 percent, geranyl acetate about 2 percent, neryl acetate about 2 percent; a sesquiterpene hydrocarbon: germacrene D about 10 percent; and, in trace amounts, β-caryophyllene and geraniol. The list is left as the notes give it, and is not tidied into a later official composition. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. The notes’ account of essential and carrier oils, and the constituent list they give for Salvia sclarea

Last updated: 14 November 2026