Thieves

Thieves is word that conjures images of wrong doing. with one example being:  "Some thieves took my wallet." This post is not about thieves who steal, but about Thieves oil, a combination of different essential oils.  Thieves oil is said to prevent the spread of some bacteria and perhaps viruses when used in a diluted liquid form and even when diffused into the air.  My science educated spouse, who worked for many years as a nurse, is a big user of essential oils. She wipes down our counters with Thieves oil and also diffuses it to the air in the kitchen area.  Her point is that the use of essential oils may help, but hey would not do any harm.

 Bubonic Plague Bacteria yersinia pestis

Lore has it that the name for the Thieves oil originated in the 14th century during the outbreak of the bubonic plague in Europe.  Some commentators indicate that the black death, as it was commonly known, killed 30% to 60% of the population of Europe, others say that is not the case.  Regardless of percent, a good number of dead people resulted from the plague during the mid 1300's (1347-1352).  Apparently thieves would rob persons who had died, or were dying from the plague, of their belongings, but the thieves did not contract the disease. When finally captured they were given leniency in sentencing in exchange for their secret.  The story goes that they said that their secret was a combination of essential oils on themselves and on a mask that covered their mouth and nose.  How the magistrate knew they were telling the truth of their combination of essential oils is one question. The Essential Oils Pocket Reference (2016, Life Science Publishing) notes the following essential oil combination to create Thieves:  clove, lemon, cinnamon bark, eucalyptus (radiata variety), and rosemary.

Plague in Europe, mid 14th Century

Use of essential oils is centuries old, and after having been laid to the side for many years, particularly in the west, by modern medicine, they are making a comeback.  Skepticism, that is doubting, is seemingly part of my first name, so I wondered could the story, and capability of thieves oil be true?  I first looked how can one become infected by the black plague, or black death.  I think we can all agree that the US Centers for Disease Control, CDC, would be a recognized authority on disease transmission.  The CDC identifies three ways to become infected with bubonic plague:  flea bites, contact with contaminated blood or tissue (human or animal), and infectious droplets (such as droplets of a cough from an infected person can contain the bacteria).  If the thieves were only dealing with dead bodies, we may be able to rule out infectious airborne droplets, but if they were stealing from persons who were alive, they may well have been subjected to coughing.  Covering their noses, and mouths would help prevent the spread though air borne pathogen.  Since, I am not in the 1300's I don't know the condition of the victims or what the thieves wore for protection.

Physicians during the plague wore this mask and
filled it with herbs and oils.  I think the beak also kept
them a distance from the patient

Next, I decided to look at some research.  The CDC notes that the last urban outbreak of the bubonic  plague in the United States due to rats and fleas was in Los Angeles in 1924-1925.  The bubonic plaque is not a large threat today (although it is still present), but the problem is many of its symptoms can be confused with the flu.  A more immediate threat to the standard population can be other bacteria and viruses.  A 2012 article in Applied and Environmental Microbiology by Kavanaugh and Ribbick (see reference #1, below), examined certain essential oils in relation to Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The following is from their conclusion :

In summary, we demonstrate here that cassia, Peru balsam, and red thyme essential oils are more effective in eradicating Pseudomonas and S. aureus biofilms than selected important antibiotics, making them interesting candidates for the treatment of biofilms. Important future goals include identifying further active antimicrobial components within the oils, as well as the molecular mechanisms by which these components so effectively breach the biofilm barrier. In this study, we sampled only a small number of different oils, but a plethora of other oils is available in nature, bearing enormous potential for the discovery of alternatives to antibiotics.

Bubonic plague cases in the US 1970-2012

What is interesting, from this research, is that essential oils may hold the key to bacterial infestations and avoiding the antibacterial resistance that is so common among many antibiotics today. Now, the question would arise as if the bacteria would develop resistance to the essential oils as they do to pharmaceutical antibiotics. However, Danielle Dresden, writing in medicalnewstoday.com (see reference #8), and reviewed by Deborah Rose Wilson, Ph.D. (and she has many more post-nominal letters), notes that several essential oils are and have been studied to show effectiveness against the flu virus.

One critic of essential oils is the writer of a blog titled "Science Based Pharmacy" (see reference #2, below).  This blog notes that there is not scientific evidence to prove the claim of 99.96% efficacy to airborne bacteria from Thieves oil.  This blog states that that figure comes from a man who has a checkered past and sells the oil, Gary Young of Young Living.  Young Living, apparently, came under criticism from the Food and Drug Administration for claiming Thieves oil is effective against the Ebola virus.  I am not a scientist, but to me there is a difference between an airborne virus and an airborne bacteria.  Antibiotics, so I am told, work on bacterial infections, not on viral infections.  For example, the blog writer notes that their head shakes when reading Facebook posts by moms and the use of essential oils to prevent catching or the spread of the flu. However, the flu is a viral infection and his main comment was to question the efficacy of Thieves oil to a bacterial infection. His own argument does not compute.  The writer states that not one site which claimed a high rate of effectiveness for Thieves oil linked to a peer reviewed study.  The 2012 study noted above did not tend to the flu or other viruses, but it did note the efficacious nature of just two oils to two common bacteria.  Engineered antibiotics can also do havoc with ones digestive system.

Judith, writing at juicygreenmom, seems to address the concerns of the Pharmacy blog, although perhaps unintentionally.  She does not feel that Gary Young's claims should be simply discarded, and she found several studies (see her blog at references item #3) which claim some decent results for essential oils. She provides conclusions from several studies.  From her research it looks as if clove and cinnamon bark are two of the main oils that are the most effective.

There are more gruesome photos of the plague than this
and now you know why it is called the black death

Then, their is Dr Annie, at the time of the writing of her blog she was a stay-at-home Mom, who did her own home experiment, so it is not in a journal subject to peer review.  Dr. Annie self-reports that she has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from THE Ohio State University (see reference #4 for details).  Dr. Annie repeated her experiment a number of times and notes that she obtained the same results each time.  She noted that her experiment found that the Thieves oil petri dish did not contain one colony of bacteria.  However, when Thieves oil was combined with olive oil, the effectiveness decreased.  The Science Based Pharmacy blog post notes that use of petri dishes, such as used by Dr Annie, don't mean squat since that Science Based Pharmacy writer noted one could put salt or some other items on the plate to kill the growing culture.  I interpret this to mean that the blog writer claims that the essential oils kill the medium and hence the germ does not grow.

Artwork of the black death in mid 14th century Europe

Of course, some plant based products have been quite common--think menthol as one example.  What does this all mean? I think it is best to take normal precautions from colds and flu:  wash your hands regularly, avoid touching your eyes, ears, and nose.  If you like essential oils, they often do smell good, the only thing you may lose is some money if they do not work. Perhaps there would be a placebo effect.  But who would criticize the placebo effect, since not getting sick is better than getting sick.  More and more research is being undertaken relative to essential oils and their potential effectiveness against certain bacteria.  Thieves oil may not work against Ebola, but science may be going back to the future in promoting the use of essential oils and what they can do to avoid use of man made antibiotics, and to keep one well.  Maybe those legendary thieves in the middle ages of Europe were on to something.

References:
1.  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3346404/
2.  https://sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/thieves-essential-oil-crimes-against-public-health/
3.  http://juicygreenmom.ca/does-thieves-essential-oil-really-work-science-has-a-say/
4.  http://www.dranniesexperiments.com/essential-oil-testing
5.  https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/article/biohacking-articles/what-is-thieves-essential-oil/
6.  https://www.cdc.gov/plague/transmission/index.html
7.  Essential Oils Pocket Reference,2016, Life Science Publishing
8.  https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321401.php

Images from Google images