USE TAMANU OIL FOR HEALTH AND BEAUTY
step #38
“Surely we have the wit and will to develop economically without despoiling the very environment we depend upon.”
TONY BLAIR
FORMER BRITISH
PRIMER MINISTER
No lifestyle change is required for this step. It’s pure pleasure all the way around, and therapeutic too. Enjoy the restorative and healing properties of tropical tamanu oil. Your simple enjoyment of this oil helps tropical economies without harming the rainforest. Rainforest conservation made easy!
THE SCOOP
Most of the steps in this book address the rainforest areas of gravest concern—the Amazon, West Africa, Central America, Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea. It’s important to also take steps to help the world’s smaller islands with tropical rainforest and indigenous cultures that also face challenges—the Micronesian, Melanesian and Polynesian islands of the Pacific such as Samoa, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tahiti, the Hawaiian islands, the Maldives and Palau, to name a few.
These island countries and cultures are also facing problems of deforestation and modernization. Their indigenous people are struggling to survive and need ways to make a living that are not rainforest-destructive.
That’s where tamanu oil comes in.
Tamanu oil is a traditional remedy with a history of native use in Polynesia and Southeast Asia. It’s only in recent years that it has begun to appear in personal-care products in the United States and Europe. Studied since the 1920s, tamanu oil, research shows, is a “significant topical healing agent with skin-healing, antineuralgic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties,” says “Medicine Hunter” Chris Kilham from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The oil is extracted from the fruit of the Calophyllum inophyllum tree that is indigenous to Southeast Asia and found in Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia, South India, Sri Lanka and numerous islands throughout Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. In the smaller island countries, the tree thrives in coastal areas because it prefers the salty sandy soil. The fruit is sustainably collected by indigenous people and then dried for its oil, which provides much-needed income. With cattle ranching and agricultural clearing threatening island forests, the tamanu oil revenue stream provides a nondestructive alternative income for natives. As a result, the rainforest benefits, as do its indigenous people and, of course, consumers in the United States and Europe, where the oil is valued for its healing and antimicrobial properties and its application in cosmetics.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Get thee to a natural-health retailer and purchase some tamanu oil! Use it as a beautifying moisturizer or as a topical aid.
Tamanu oil is widely used traditionally as a topical aid. In Pacific Island folk medicine, it is used liberally for cuts, scrapes, burns, insect bites, abrasions, acne, psoriasis, sunburn, dry skin, blisters, eczema, and foot and body odor. It is valued for its pain-relieving properties too and used for neuralgia, rheumatism and sciatica. Polynesian women use tamanu oil to beautify their skin and massage it onto babies as a diaper-rash preventative.
You can now find pure tamanu oil or tamanu oil mixed with other oils at local health retailers and online. Keep it in your medicine cabinet and use it as a topical first aid.
Many beauty products are now using tamanu oil, as the oil’s pleasant aroma and luxurious feel make it ideal for cosmetics. Try out some moisturizing lotion or simply try the pure tamanu oil or a tamanu oil mix as a moisturizer. Its antimicrobial properties make it great for the feet to fight against fungal issues.
You can find these reputable brands at your local health retailer:
Try some tamanu oil. Very, very simple.
RESOURCES
derma e
www.dermae.com
New Chapter
www.newchapter.com