Customer Reviews
Brilliant - By: Mrs. S. A. Dimond-Garcia, 24 Sep 2007 
This is THE best reference guide book to aromatherapy I have read & used from a home learning point it is very useful & informative. I fully recomend it for students professionals & the amature araomatherapist.
~WOW~ - By: Mrs. Lisa Ransom, 17 Jun 2007 Get this book before you start your aroma course, you won't regret it, I wish I had had it before I started mine!
Improving on the anyway excellent first edition - By: titaniamoth, 04 Apr 2007 Battaglia, rightly has become the 'set text' for many aromatherapy schools, as he writes comprehensively & sensibly about the oils, as well as with imagination & an easy style. The book is not only fascinating, but set out well for the student & practising therapist, with a linking of oils to physiological applications - the well written physiology & pathology sections, divided into systems & functions, is particularly useful.
The second edition has rectified an area battaglia knew was missing - energetics & the psychospiritual actions of the oils. He makes (as he must, as almost everyone must) great acknowledgement of the work of Gabriel Mojayin this field, whose marriage of aromatic notes to the Five Element theory, gives a more 'holistic' understanding of the widespread actions of an oil, than just the recitation of therapeutic properties & applications would do.
Very much a Bible for the practicing aromatherapist, this book covers the ground explored by most other books - i.e monographs of a wide reange of essential oils, history of aromatics, extraction methods, etc etc - & much much more. Battaglia provides excellent anatomy, physiology & pathology chapters, linking the use of essential oils therapeutically with clinical science. He goes into pharmacologyin some depth & also covers aspects of the therapeutic encounter itself - practitioner self development, the clinical environment, etc. Rightly, this book is being used as a 'set text' by some aromatherapy schools. It is clear, well written & informative. Essential for the serious student & a marvellous reference for the practitioner
A good reference book - By: Darren Koh, 09 Jan 2005 The Complete Guide to Aromatherapy (2nd Edition, 2003)
Paperback 606 pages
By: Salvatore Battaglia
Publisher: The International Centre of Holistic Aromatherapy
ISBN: 0 646 42896 9
This book is truly one of the modern masterworkin Aromatherapy. In a space of 606 pages spanning 7 units & 8 appendices, Battaglia manages to provide the reader with not just an overview or a taster, but a good solid helping of what it is that makes aromatherapy.
The book ranges from the background, which introduces the history of aromatherapy, the extraction of essential oils & the issues of quality control & quality assurance; through essential issuesin aromatherapy, which looks to the role of scientific research into essential oils, the chemistry of oils, the pharmacology, psychology & pharmacokinetics of the oil & essential oil safety; through to practical matters such as the requirement for practice, the consultation, the art of blending, methods of administration & even a consideration of the holistic approach to prescribing essential oils.
The best part of the book must be the monographs of more than 60 essential oils, ranging from the more common oils (e.g., lavender) to the exotic oils (e.g. galangal) & even to the hazardous essential oils such as thuja. For each of the oils, Battaglia gives not only the botanical name & family, but also the synonyms, the origins of the oil, the method of extraction, the physical characteristics of the oil, the historical & traditional uses of the plant, the chemical composition, the results of some pharmacological & clinical studies, the therapeutic actions & how they relate to the various systemsin the body. There are also short sections on method of administration & safety issues with the oils. Battaglia also bringsin personality profiles (what personalities are aided by the oils) as well as the energetic properties of the oil (whether the oil was heaty, cooling, very much analyzing the oil on a Traditional Chinese Medicine approach.) For these energetic properties, extensive reference was made to Gabriel Mojay's book, which is mentioned by Candie above. For each monograph there is a reference section for those interestedin further study.
The other section that makes Battaglia the good book that it is, is the unit entitled "Clinical Index". Here Battaglia takes each systemin the body, & after a brief description of the physiology of the particular system, walks through what could go wrong with the system, & how aromatherapy could help, before taking the reader through each therapeutic effect (e.g. analgesic, antispasmodic et al) of the relevant oils. Again there is a reference section for those interestedin further study.
The risein the use of aromatherapy has led Battaglia to include two chapters on common spa treatments, & how aromatherapy could assist the meeting the needs of the client.
Now for the downside. There are some who consider aromatherapy a science, & one where all therapeutic claims must be backed up with 'hard' science such as controlled studies etc. And there are also those who consider aromatherapy more an art, where even if many of the claimed therapeutic effects are not backed up by too many peer-reviewed scientific studies, their own experiences with the oils leads them to conclude that some of the claims for the essential oils are true. The simple fact is that most of us started of learning the art of aromatherapy from the starter books of Louise Tucker (An Introductory Guide to Aromatherapy - ITEC) or Francesca Gould (Aromatherapy for Holistic Therapists - VTCT). After these we waded into deeper waters of practice, & CPE, & all of us to one extent or other, have found where we are comfortable on the art/science spectrum. For those on the science side of the equation, Battaglia is another of those "novels" which quote a book, which quotes another book, which further quotes another book for a proposition whichin the end, has no basis. For example, Battaglia makes extensive reference to Gabriel Mojay's Aromatherapy For Healing The Spirit as basis for the energetic properties of the oils. Mojay however, has little or no published research to back up the claim or propositions set outin that book.
Be that as it may, as a book to flesh out the practice of aromatherapy today, as a reference & a sourcebook for aromatherapy as currently practicedin the mainstream, Battaglia's book stands as a great tome to have on the shelf, to be dipped into & enjoyed.
Complete Guide to Aromatherapy - By: Mk Book Services, 07 Aug 2004 This is the second edn which is very good a bit as the first.
Publishedin early 2004. 602 pages.Goes into depth on a
subject which is very popular. COvers pathology,anatomy
the oils themselves like Himalayan Cedarwood.
Great book for College classes & but also very useful
for the layman.
