Cynthia Olsen is the author of several books, a successful publisher, researcher, and speaker on complementary health, healing, ecology and spiritual awareness. In addition to her role as mother and grandmother, she is a successful entrepreneur and business person and a lifelong supporter and exponent of holistic living. Her managerial experience in the health food industry in the 1980s led her to form an import company, becoming a leading figure in the introduction of Australian tea tree oil to the United States health market.

In 1990, Ms. Olsen founded Kali Press, a publishing house committed to works addressing the full spectrum of life awareness, with concentration on natural healing modalities. Her book "Essiac: A Native Herbal Cancer Remedy," won the Small Press Book Award in 1997. As a result of her research into this remarkable herbal treatment, Ms. Olsen and Kali Press participated in a program to bring its benefits to the Second Mesa Pueblo of the Hopi Nation.

Ms. Olsen’s books have been translated into a number of languages. She has appeared on television, radio, and has addressed various conventions and meetings on health and natural living. From her Hawaii home, she continues to actively pursue her varied interests in nature and the spirit of joyful living.

Introduction to Birth of the Blue: Australian Blue Cypress Oil

Preface

The history of essential oils reaches back into antiquity, with uses spanning therapeutic to the aesthetic, from repellency to attraction. What remains of the development of those particular oils and their properties is a large body of evidence, with surprisingly good agreement, given the bewildering range of chemical variation between most of those essential oils. For example, John Gerard’s The Herbal, published in 1633, is still regarded as a valuable source of information by researchers of European herbs.

Where does one go when an essential oil is unknown to Europe, Asia or America? What information source exists for Australian essential oils, outside of the 19th and 20th century development of Eucalyptus Oil and Tea Tree Oil? The Original source, naturally! Indigenous Australians, with a history reaching back perhaps as far as 70,000 years, have used plants from their environment as medicines, insect repellents, foods, and for spiritual purposes, and have passed down those uses through countless generations. What a privilege to have access to many levels of that oral tradition!

In Australia today there is a surge of activity in assisting regional and tribal Aboriginal groups to collate and write down those oral traditions of plant use, while at the same time respecting the spiritual aspects. The potential for establishment of intellectual property in relation to plant use may then be explored, and subsequent commercial development of those plant properties may lead to new sources of income. Instead of soul-destroying reliance on Government handouts, indigenous people may have opportunities for financial independence through income-producing intellectual property transfers. No matter how well-meaning Government assistance may be, it is no substitute for the empowerment offered by financial freedom. In an increasingly-regulated world, development of a ‘new’ natural product is not an easy task, and in the modern-day battle for corporate survival, never mind profitability, compliance with a clutter of onerous regulations is rarely at the top of the agenda. In too many well-publicized instances, this acts ultimately to the detriment of the natural product, and quite likely to the detriment of natural products as a whole. This has been the case too often with essential oils.

However, there are always positives to be found, particularly by optimists! Research into the properties of essential oils is at an all-time high, largely spurred by the need for unequivocal evidence of the safety, efficacy, and reliability of these substances. Nowhere is this flurry of activity more evident than in Australia; world class facilities are available within many Australian universities; commercial collaboration between universities and research organizations and industry is booming. Australian and foreign companies are in the field in the vast Australian Outback, looking at the bewildering variety of plant-based compounds, many new to science, that are produced by Australian flora.

Eucalyptus oils harvested from the wild led the way in introducing Australian plant essences to the world. Tea Tree Oil followed, at first wild-harvested, then farmed in plantations. It is now well into the process of converting it’s undoubted therapeutic promise into established fact. Australian Blue Cypress Oil is harvested only from long-established plantations, with fair and proper payment made directly to the Tiwi people of Bathurst and Melville Islands. With its properties only just beginning to be revealed by scientific examination, it is truly an oil for the 21st Millennium.

Bill McGilvray
Chairman, Australian Cypress Oil Pty. Limited

Introduction

My affinity with Australia goes back many years. I was first introduced to Tea Tree Oil in 1986 and through the years have continued to write and lecture on the subject. Recently, I was introduced to another essential oil, Blue Cypress Callitris intratropica, a member of the Northern Pine family. Bill McGilvray, who is Chairman of the Australian Cypress Oil Pty. Limited in Coraki, New South Wales began the production and harvesting of the oil in 1994. I would like to take the liberty to say he is the "pioneer" in the Australian Blue Cypress movement. Bill assisted in providing data and the important factors, elements and the story of the oil; including the history and the involvement of the Tiwi people of the Northern Territory. I read all about the commercial development of the plantations and therapeutic promises, which are now just being discovered.

The September Summer Olympic Games in Sydney Australia have named the Blue Cypress as “the essence of Sydney 2000”. Dr. Jurgen Klein and Ulrike Klein of Jurlique Products, located in the Australian Adelaide Hills, have an array of aromatherapy Blue Cypress products available. Several manufactures in America are formulating body care products, which include the oil. Blue Cypress oil is registered as a "Cosmetic Excipient" in Australia. There is only voluntary registration in the US through the FD&C. The additional steps for registration will be completed soon. In time, the research data will assist in validating the efficacy of Blue Cypress. The oil is demonstrably safe in neat applications and in formulated products.

My first acquaintance with Blue Cypress brought sheer delight to my senses. The color is superb and the exquisite scent fills a room with visions of the sea, woods and foreign exotic places. The natural aqua blue of the oil reminds me of the deepest coral waters of the South Pacific. I began to use the oil in a steam vapor for my troubled breathing due to a sinus infection and that seemed to do wonders. Then I applied a few drops of the oil twice a day on a wart and began to see the wart drying and diminishing. A facial mist was the next experiment. This time I included a few drops of Tea Tree and Blue Cypress Oil mixed with a mineral water. The spray was refreshing and soothing especially on my parched winter skin!

One could ask as we baptize the new century what is ahead for the re- emergence of consumer interest and use in herbal medicines and essential oils? Professional organizations such as the American Medical Association have published over 80 articles about complementary medicine. In the last decade, alternative therapy popularity rose to 42 percent. Use of herbal medicine has increased to 12.1% up 2.5%. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine increased their budget to $50 million providing more funds toward scientific testing and hopefully establishing pathways toward integrated health. In my estimation, Blue Cypress Callitris intratropica has the potential to take its place as a leader in the essential oil field. As with any birth, I feel an expectancy of a wondrous new arrival with the Birth of the Blue.