In this interview, I speak with Dr. Cameron Jones from Biological Health Services about Oil of Cloves. Dr. Cameron Jones has a scientific background and interest in Oil of Cloves. A lot of information about Oil of Cloves is covered in this discussion from where Oil of Cloves comes from, its vapour and liquid phase, its uses in cleaning to other novel uses, and interesting facts.
To watch the video and listen to the audio recording of this interview just click on the link. You can also find the interview transcript below if you wish to read along or locate information of interest.
Hello everyone and I am Dr. Cameron Jones and welcome to this week's live stream. I'm really excited because it is a Christmas show and it's really Christmas for the next two weeks here in at our office, and today I'm very excited to be talking about an essential oil and how this particular essential oil is very beneficial for anyone who is dealing with mould.
And let me see I have a very special guest Rachel from The Oil of Cloves Company coming on. I interviewed her earlier this week and she had a lot of really interesting information to tell me about how Oil of Cloves is very useful for mould situations and she's got a lot of information about how we can use this.
And I'm just going to switch to a little vaporizer which we've set up in our office and I'm going to ask Derek to switch this on because being a Christmas show I want to talk about how these Oil of Cloves can be used around the house. And, we're using this in our office it's got a beautiful smell and I think that that is really interesting so I'm going to be telling you why this is interesting and a whole lot of really interesting information about this so I'm gonna get on with it.
Now basically Oil of Cloves as most of you are probably familiar with cloves so you can go to the supermarket and purchase them or to a spice store you've probably had dishes with them you might be aware of the fact that it's a very fragrant molecule and it's got a particularly pungent smell this is its chemical formula up on the screen and the active ingredient which is considered the most potent component of the Oil of Cloves is called eugenol and this is really important from a medical point of view and we're going to be getting into that as well.
But basically in order to make the Oil of Cloves oil that can be either vaporized or used as a liquid disinfectant essentially it this is its eugenol which is used to actually have its antibacterial and antifungal anti-fungus properties and it comes from a clove tree and there is it's a molecular formula and its molecular weight up on the screen now.
What essentially do these essential oils do?
Well they are historically used to mask unpleasant odors as well they're very useful to attract attention also they add flavor and aroma to foods and they're exploited and used in perfumes and in cosmetics and they are extensively used in biotechnology and in medicine because eugenol and the essential oil and other components of the plant show very strong larvae seidel analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, fungicide anti tumour and antibacterial activity. And this is all really important and this is why we would want to be using these in our homes and offices.
So how many essential oils are out there?
Yes, we are focusing today on Oil of Cloves but they're around about seventeen and a half thousand different species of plants that produce essential oils, many of which are beneficial to humankind and more being discovered all the time.
Many of these essential oils have been commercialized and the way in which they're manufactured is that usually parts of the plant be it the buds or the flowering parts or the reproductive components of the plant nor the leaves or the stems they are distilled in some way. And there are a couple of different types of distillation methods that can be used. Steam distillation, hydro distillation, dry distillation, and even mechanical cold pressing can be used to extract the essential oil from these plants.
Now they have an aroma usually they have some sort of alcohol side chain in their chemistry and this makes them volatile it also means that they leave very low residue on surfaces and so they're particularly intriguing compounds. Furthermore, a lot of recent attention has looked at the use and exploitation of essential oils because of this issue of food security and food spoilage. Did you know that up to 30% of the annual food loss across the planet is due to fungal spoilage and fungal decay. So water damage and mould in our homes is not the only problem caused by moulds. It affects a lot of our foods as well and so essential oils are certainly being actively investigated in the research literature for how they can be used and exploited in food processing, food manufacturing, and furthermore, the delivery of the product into the store and incorporated into the packaging. Or delivered in some sort of gaseous format to reduce the incidence of mould spoil, spoilage to these foods.
Now again I've got a whole host of references which I am posting on to the show notes that are going to appear underneath this live stream. We're doing something a little bit different today, we are live streaming out to obviously Facebook where you're probably watching this onto periscope and Twitter and we're also doing a live stream out to Instagram so that is the course for the delay today. But I wanted to focus a little bit of attention on the anti-fungal properties.
Because Oil of Cloves is most connected certainly in popular culture and if you do a search on Oil of Cloves online you're going to find that it is traditionally used in dentistry because it has very strong analgesic properties and in fact, one of the research papers that I've highlighted focuses on the fact that really it's got some really really strong uses for this to numb and delay the register of pain and basically people have looked at the opioid receptors in the brain and found that Oil of Cloves actively works on that system in the body.
So it's very strong. it has some very beneficial uses for dentistry and pain control but most of the people who are watching my live stream are probably interested in the anti-fungal properties and I have extracted some research data from a recent paper that was talking about Aspergillus Niger and I've got a picture of Aspergillus Niger in Petri plate culture and ulcer under the microscope up there.
Aspergillus Niger produces these characteristic spores which easily become airborne they're easy to inhale and they are notorious for causing fungal ear infections amongst other types of infections and the graph on the right-hand side shows something called the minimum inhibitory concentration so if you can imagine doing an experiment to try and work out the effect of the essential oil on the growth of the fungus you want to retard or inhibit its growth.
Hence, the x-axis is called the concentration of the amount of Oil of Cloves that was used and the y-axis talks about the inhibition in the growth rate. And you can see that beautiful blue curve on the graph shows clove oil and clove oil F is out of all of those oils there's camphor cinnamon, peppermint, citronella and these pepper and clove you can see that cinnamon oil and clove oil are very very capable of reducing the growth rate of this Aspergillus Niger. So this is something that I wanted to focus on.
Now again most of today's show is going to be taken up with my interview with Rachel from The Oil of Cloves Company. And so I'm going to play you the interview now and I'd like you to sit back and relax and listen to this. She's got a lot to say about Oil of Cloves, how she got into the industry, where she sees the essential oil market going and really some behind the scenes information which I can't possibly be aware of from the scientific platform that I have. So without further delay, we're going to move towards playing this interview. And whilst I do that, I will just put up the Oil of Cloves here. It's actually smelling in the office absolutely beautiful and so this is really a good thing. So we will start the interview now.
THE INTERVIEW
Now I've got Rachel on the line and she's from The Oil of Cloves Company. Welcome. I'm really well, thank you for agreeing to come on and be interviewed as my expert of the week and I must say I am absolutely really fascinated about what you do and I've got lots and lots of questions because I think this whole area of organic non-chemical based disinfectants is really a great value. And I want to hear all about Oil of Cloves, so firstly could you tell me a little bit about what is Oil of Cloves.
Well, thank you Cameron for being interested in what we do and having this discussion. The first thing is I was first introduced to Oil of Cloves and mould back when I was studying natural medicine quite some time ago. After living n Melbourne so it was a new experience for me to discover one day living in northern New South Wales studying, my home that I was renting at the time and all the furniture in it and the clothes in it just had mould all over them. It just seemed to happen overnight.
You could smell it - smell the mildew and yes wondering what was going on I did a bit of research and discovered that Oil of Cloves was being used by a lot of people to effectively treat mould in their home particularly people that weren't interested in using bleach to treat their mould which is often the first thing that people think of. Sure after that, that's kind of where I came to Oil of Cloves and I do find that Oil of Cloves is useful for killing mould. It has a chemical constituent in it called eugenol and this is a part of the plant that's responsible for actually killing the mould.
Bleach, which is as I mentioned people would commonly reach for bleach it can help with whitening and mould stain but it won't kill the mould so it's still there in your home in your clothes and it's not got the most pleasant smell either. Love an organic product and certainly Oil of Cloves if I go to the supermarket I can find clove buds and I know that Oil of Cloves or sort of clove buds that have been used historically to treat toothache.
How do you get to the oil?
The oil is, so like all plant-based products some plants are better suited to some environments than others so the clove oil plant grows really well in Indonesia and that's where we source our essential oil from. And so they have big crops of it over there kind of then we're an Australian oil would be lucky Eucalyptus on your Tea Tree that's something that would be Australian for the clove oil is an Indonesian plant and the oil is steam distilled from the plant and then it's refined to create the product which is the 100% pure essential oil.
That's very very interesting and so obviously you mentioned that Oil of Cloves is an alternative to some of the more common disinfectants out there like sodium hypochlorite and that sort of thing. What else can it be used for apart from you know it's strong connection with the mould community?
So other uses other than the mould as you mentioned Oil of Cloves is traditionally used in dentistry for toothache and I think a lot of people would sort of be aware of that usage. It's not entirely my area of expertise but I believe that you would have applied Oil of Cloves with a cotton bud to the tooth and not straight on the gum and so that that's the usage. Oil of cloves is also used in aquaculture as means to you mainly anesthetize fish and we have sold our Oil of Cloves to fisheries departments and businesses.
So that's very interesting well even though that's not now for years it has has been sold for that reason and the other interesting thing about oil is cloves is it is also in natural pest repellent. Plant essential oils can act by modifying the behaviour of certain types of pest species. Rather than always killing them and I have found the clove oil on a bit of research I've seen had very good ability at killing or deterring to mice.
Ah that's very interesting so it's not just mould bacteria?
No, and it's also repellent and toxic to cockroaches good pesticide as well it seems it seems to be and I think there's a way new research coming out about these uses.
Very interesting now I've got to ask you a question. How do you actually go about making or supplying your products? You mentioned that it grows it natively to countries such as Indonesia so how would you go about this? You've got lots of different products on your website there. I'm interested in the different formulations that you've got.
Yes, so we have our 100% Oil of Cloves which is coming directly from Indonesian, from the farms where it's steamed distilled there and we have a small operation here in Melbourne where we package up the Oil of Cloves to use. A lot of people just want the pure essential oil they want a DIY option and so that that's one of our main products and we also make our own boutique cleaning products here.
And now can you just talk into the phone a little bit better you just break down a little bit there. that's good perfect. it's all fine now, we're back in business.
Yes, so you've got it you've got a range of boutique cleaning blends and you've got the pure essential oils and I guess I'm jumping ahead a little bit but I'm interested in the use of essential oils in the vapour phase. do you have any young new clients who are using it like that? Or anyone else or that sort of delivery vehicle?
Yes, so mould spores you can't always see mould but you can smell it and so mould both can be in the air and the Oil of Cloves 100% pure oil can be put into like a vaporizer type system where it can help with cleaning the air in that way.
And I presume disinfecting the air to some extent as well and actually killing the mould. So even though you might not be getting really rid of the moUld spores and their allergen potential at least you are reducing or limiting their reproduction which has got to be a good thing?
Yes, yes, it's got to. I mean look it's great for treating mould, it's great as a preventative as well so this is something that you can have going in your home. It's quite a pleasant smell and you can be using it in that way too and people do use it in that way. They use it as a spray on surfaces and they vaporise it for the air.
Interesting! Now, how do you do there are any particular concentrations that are used? how do you mix Oil of Cloves if you want to use it for mould disinfection?
We recommend around a quarter teaspoon up to one teaspoon per Litre of water in a spray bottle sprayed on lightly. It being an oil in water it won't disperse well so it just needs a really good shake with each use, that that is sufficient to get that solution to cover your surfaces. And the cleaning products our boutique cleaning products that we have are already pre-mixed they have additional cleaning agents and they have emulsifiers to help disperse that oil. They’re a very good idea for people really what depending on their needs.
Yes, interesting Rachel. Now can you clean your kitchen benches for example with Oil of Cloves?
Kitchens and bathrooms are one of the main areas in the home where mould grows and requires treatment. It's again just a matter of diluting the product. Clear instructions there on the label and there on the website as well if people need to look that up diluting it in water. And we do just caution that people don't use the Oil of Cloves neat on any surface so more is not better and the 100%without diluting it, it can damage surfaces. It's very strong, it's very potent so absolutely fine though when used appropriately put into a spray bottle and used in that way.
That's very interesting! I'll tell you a little bit of a story. This morning I did 2 inspections on well actually for town houses I did 2 this morning and the owner of these townhouses is particularly concerned because the tenants are complaining about condensation on the internal window glass on pretty much all the windows now. I would imagine that applying on Oil of Cloves to the glass might leave a bit of an oily film maybe, but what's your view on that?
And in the second part though that, I see this all the time, is that often in these lightweight construction properties there is quite a significant window sill so you tend to get a buildup of water condensate on that and that tends to get quite mouldy. So I would imagine that spraying Oil of Cloves on the window sill that the plaster what sill might be perfect. What's your view on that?
Yes, it shouldn't leave an oily film if it's diluted down quite a bit so so that shouldn't be happening. okay I mean mould starts out as you can smell it, it's white one minute, pink one minute then begins to darken and that's when a lot of people notice it. By the time you notice that the mould has already been there for some time and if you leave it on surfaces that's when it will start causing some staining. So it's best to get on to treating it as quickly as possible. A light spray with the diluted product, the solution as we've talked about definitely you can definitely put that on windows and window sills and just generally around the home and it's better to get onto it sooner than later.
And I'm I am aware as well that a lot of people especially tenants are having issues with mould. And so it can be tricky but having a bottle of this in the house it's a good idea and it can also be used as a preventative so once you've treated the area and got on top of it you can use it periodically and just to stop the spores getting going again.
Very, very good. You must have so many stories from your customers where they've had success with your products and where they've asked for advice.
You've mentioned now because my initial thought was maybe being in oil just the term oil I forgot that you said then it needs to be diluted of course it does but what are some of the success stories that your customers and feedback that what have they said to you?
Look, people are really looking for that alternative to bleach especially when they find out that the bleach isn't killing the mould and it keeps returning. I did have one lovely customer she had these beautiful much-loved expensive Spanish antique where the dining chairs and she moved to north NSW. And, the chairs developing mould stripped away and she had tried as she described it absolutely everything including a very expensive professional cleaning treatment and lots of sort of recommended products that she searche online and nothing was working. She was actually going to throw out her chairs and she ordered the Oil of Cloves leather treatment and in her experience, it cleaned the mould and it never returned, and even throughout the next few seasons of wet season and dry season it managed to keep her chairs in good condition. She was able to keep the chairs so something we're really proud of that we able to help someone in that way.
There are other customers who buy the Oil of Cloves 100% oil and send it to their relatives often Queensland, northern New South Wales, where the conditions are more humid and prone to mould, but also in people sending it to the South East Asian countries where they have relatives and people living in China, Singapore, places like that where they do get mould as well. So it’s all very interesting.
Yes, I guess it all comes down you learn don't you over time about where and how people use especially disinfectants and where they're getting some really glories so that's all very very interesting and I'm glad that you brought that up. I’ve certainly mentioned that mould doesn't always have to be visible for it to be a problem. I certainly mentioned that I was interested in its use in the vapour phase.
There's been some wonderful research that has come out in the last decade about the application of essential oils as you know Cinnamon and you mentioned Eucalyptus and of course Oil of Cloves certainly sits up there at the top of the list with both scientific and anecdotal first-person positive experiences with it. I am very interested in you know this concept of vaporizing it and I don't mean using me a hot oil burner necessarily but there are different types of vaporizers out there that don't use water because I think that those limits of nebulizers that use water or probably shouldn't be or should be discouraged especially if you've got a mould problem. Because they introduce more water vapour into the atmosphere. But they're certainly nebulizers out there that don't use water as the way of dispersing this into the air. Have you, what are your thoughts on all of that?
Yes, I think you know the same kind of thing like you would an oil burner that's probably you know people have moved on to vaporizers and things like that now that you're talking about. And it's a similar kind of thing it's the three to four drops of the pure essential oil or whatever the product that you've the vaporizer product you've got recommends the amount of just drops of oil and this can be used in that way to clean the air and have a like a fumigant effect on the air quality of the area where you're using that vaporizer.
Good! Well, I love that. I've certainly done this myself at home not with the Oil of Cloves yet, so I'm certainly going to be a purchaser of your products over the holiday season because I want to do this at home as well because I've been limited to I think I think it is a EucalyptusOil and a Lemon Oil so I want to try Oil of Cloves and see what happens.
But, look why I certainly saw maybe about 6 months ago on Instagram that there was some ads on here and I don't know have you seen these ads but they were a USB cigarette lighter type oil nebulizer for cars and I immediately thought what a fantastic idea. With all the rise of you know Uber and Lyft and you know many different people getting into strangers cars you never know what you're breathing in and there's lots of research out there to say that the cabin you know when you travel on an airplane for example, that you're breathing in all sorts of hazards and microbiological hazards as well. What's your view on this or have you seen this or is this just something that was peculiar to my Instagram feed?
Yes, it sounds very interesting what you're talking about research. oh yes 100% Oil of Cloves in there it does have a lovely scent as I mentioned oil will have that fumigating effect.
Got that now. That's great now, you've just dropped out again. Can you just speak into your phone a little bit better. Hello. Yes, you're back, you're back. That's great. Yeah okay, not sure what happens there silly internet things. Now I got most of that so I would imagine that if it works in a nebulizer for the home it probably works in the car.
Now, I've got to follow on question to this. So what innovations do you see in the natural product cleaning category space? So what's your view on this?
Yes, I just see like there is environmental consciousness, there's the movement toward one I probably call ‘green cleaning’ so business is investing in new innovations with their technologies and tools and I think there's a lot more research going into sort of biological cleaners and what they can do for you in the home in terms of cleaning and being having the antiseptic properties. And, seeing that being well known I think two oils but maybe not sort of in the clean space so I think it's it's all we've got some movement now and so a lot of interest.
Yes, I totally agree with you. I guess is your clientele business-to-consumer or bb? Are you focusing on the home cleaner or real estate agents and what about institutional care such as aged care or Disability Services? How are you actually spreading the word about how the benefits of Oil of Cloves?
Yes, so people are just looking for that alternative if they have that mould issue and they've already tried something else. And they will google and we will often pop up and people go right, this is what I need. And they do a bit more reading about it, look at the website and decide to go ahead.
A lot of people also have been referred friends or family. They may have read a book about it. So people are becoming informed and wanting those, you know, green cleaning options. I guess in terms of the products it’s for anyone who needs them for their mould problem. So we do sell our bottles like our smallest Oil of Cloves is 100ml so it is set up for cleaning. It's a good amount to start with and you can get larger amounts. But it is a good cleaning solution amount. We have sold not only to individuals but we have sold to real estate agents and business. Yes, you name it, like whoever needs it. And we do sell in larger quantities as well for a more business or commercial use.
Sure okay! Now I'm not sure if you can answer this - but is Oil of Cloves poisonous to dogs and the second part of the question, is it safe to use if you're pregnant?
Something that should be in course now.
Okay, can you just repeat that it's just the Internet's just broken down again.
Yes, so the Oil of Cloves in it's 100% pure oil form is something that should be treated with respect and caution. Yes and kept safely away from pets and children in the home just like you would with any other cleaning products.
Sure.
In diluted form, so in our cleaners and once you have it diluted and you're going to do it yourself and you've diluted it down into a spray the solution is very mild it won't upset pets when you use it in the home. I have a cat doesn't affect her at all and to my knowledge spraying it in the diluted form around the home should also be okay in pregnancy. It's more just for handling of the 100% pure oil so perhaps someone else in the house could make up the solution first rather than the pregnant person just to be totally safe. So, it is very, very dilute and I think some if you google your concerns about Oil of Cloves and pregnancy a lot of it would be talking about actually taking the oil as a medicine that you ingest internally. I'm not recommending that anyone does that. Either I don't want to comment further on that but I'm sure that's really where those health issues and you wouldn't want to be applying it directly or taking it directly in pregnancy at all.
I totally understand your point. You mentioned right at the outset about how you got into this. I think that that's a really important point. What do you want people to know about your business because all businesses have a lot of connection with the identity and the interests of the founders of it so is there anything you would like people to know about your business, that makes it unique?
Look, we have been in business for over 10 years. I've been around for a long time. We've just based ourselves online because Australia is a large place and mould pops up seasonally, it pops up in different parts of the country. So we find that just having it available online is easily accessible.
You can find us on our website at :www.oilofcloves.com.au and we have a presence on Facebook and Instagram as well where you can find some stories and comments from other people who have tried the products. So we have yes we have our 100% pure oil and we have the cleaning products as well. There's a Kitchen and Bathroom, Wall andCeiling, the Upholstery, the Leather the Fabric. So specific for their intended use.
We also stock some other essential oils, Lavender, Lemon and Tea Tree which are good for cleaning as well. And some Peppermint Oil which we we have on board is like a natural pesticide especially for mice and rats and snakes like that. And I can say definitely those things go well together. Yes, there's something else on our website.
We've put up an a guide for people who are suffering mould and it's got some really handy links about different areas of the home that we could be finding mould and what to do about them. And some of those links are to the state government websites and that which gives people not just, you know, spray your home but some other sort of strategies and tips and tricks on how you can really minimize the mould growing and the mold regrowth. For example, in the bathroom I would often say you know once you've had your shower wipe it down with a cloth or get that moisture out of there. Don't leave wet towels hanging in there. There are things like that that you can do that that will help as well. So there's a bit of advice out there well.
I'm going to look at that. That's very good advice and I'm very pleased to hear that you're looking at other essential oils as well because when you were saying that, lights were going off in my head because I was just thinking of all the different research literature's that I've read that are all focusing on you know minimum inhibitory concentrations for most of those essential oils so I think that that's just fantastic. So I guess your business is evolving as you know we have a take a look back at what these natural plant products can offer us. Certainly antibacterial and anti-fungal agents with Christmas around the corner. I knew I'd ask you, do you have any specials on for Christmas and anything you'd like to mention?
Yes, sure look like I said the best way to locate us is on our website and we always having some promotions going for our newsletter subscribers about once every month so that that's one way of checking in and getting updates and getting a bit of knowledge. And because of the interest that your customers might have in our products I'd like to offer a special discount code of 10% off all our products online for your your listeners today. So which I will give you that code and I can send a link to you as well if you like and it yes that could post that in these show notes to this well if that's the best way that they can implement that code.
Thank you for that but well Rachel. That's been absolutely fascinating. I've learned a lot from this. Are there any last comments that you'd like to make about anything?
I think we've covered quite a lot. I think you can't overlook mould as a health issue and you know treating the mould, preventing it, is going to be good for you, good for your family and your pets. And there's something to take seriously I guess that that's sort of the take-home message. But thank you for having me on to discuss Oil of Cloves and how we can help people with their mould problems. Well right so, to learn more about the products you can check us out on our website, that's got the most information on there.
Yes, fantastic Rachel. Thank you very much for your time this afternoon and I encourage everyone to go to Oil of Cloves today you and look for themselves about the fabulous range of products that are on offer there and thanks a lot for your time.
Thanks very much. Thank you. Goodbye.
Bye, okay well back to the studio.
That was a really fantastic interview with Rachel from The Oil of Cloves Company today. We've had the USB nebulizer working in the office now for maybe about 45 minutes, it smells fantastic in here. I should say it's not overpowering in any way we have just put a small amount into the vial that came with a nebulizer I charged up this nebulizer this morning with my computer we've had this running there of different settings that most of these USB nebulizers have.
I'm not sure whether or not this is an ideal nebulizer for Oil of Cloves or for any essential oil for that matter but it certainly makes it easy to use and portable and take it around and as I said it smells really nice it's not too off-putting at all and I think for Christmas certainly you should consider taking advantage of Rachel's ten percent offer and trying out Oil of Cloves yourself now before I close.
I just want to talk about some of the newer developments in essential oil research because they show so much promise that people are looking at taking advantage of these in different formulations not just in the liquid or vapour phase as we've been focusing on for most of this live stream and a paper came out just recently in October and in the journal nanotechnology and what they've done is that they have put clove oil and formulated into something called a nano emulsion and basically this is to be used as an ointment and it is specific for Candida type infections so Candida type infections caused massive health impacts and loss of life worldwide and so formulating this natural product Oil of Cloves into these innovative delivery mechanisms using the Nano emulsion gets rid of a lot of the irritant effects which can occur if you were to use the pure essential oil.
Now in closing, I just want to focus again on the coupon code that Rachel has mentioned and so you can take to see that up on your screen go to their website at www.oilofcloves.com.au
At this point in time I want to wish you a very good week next week we are continuing with our theme of Christmas and next week I'm going to be talking about some other aspects of the festive season and how this impacts on mold exposure and I hope you have a great week.
Thanks for sticking with us for this live stream you'll be able to re-watch this on YouTube and on Instagram and on Twitter so again thanks very much for tuning in to all our regular viewers and to our new viewers and if you've got any questions feel free to post them in the comments below
Anyway thanks very much and bye for this week.
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