‘Stop misuse of essential oils in health products’

NEW DELHI - The Essential Oil Association of India (EOAI) Thursday demanded a change in the Drug and Cosmetics Act in the country to stop the misuse of essential oils in health and beauty products.

Essential oils are aroma producing natural oils like lavender which are in high demand in the perfume and cosmetics industry.

“Most oil and cosmetic products which claim to have amla (Indian gooseberry) or almond with essential oils have no essential oils at all, these products are just brand names given to them by big companies,” S.C. Varshney, chairman of EOAI, said.

According to EOAI, “Many essential oil and herbal based products in the country are fake and the (cosmetics) companies misuse the essential oils name, while using petroleum based white oils and other chemicals which are harmful to the body in the long-term.”

“We demand a change in the drug and cosmetics law which would make it mandatory for the companies manufacturing cosmetics and other products, which claim to use essential oils, to publish the ingredients of the product,” president of EOAI Yogesh Dubey said.

“In the future we plan to work with AYUSH (Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) which is under the health ministry to see if the claimed products have any essential oils or herbal content,” Dubey added.

EOAI came out with their demands on the eve of a three-day international conference on essential oils which will be organised here beginning Friday.

–Indo Asian News Service