Hong Kuai Essential Oil

This is the essential oil of Chamaecyparis taiwanensis, a tree that grows at 7000-8000 feet above sea level in the subtropical rain forests on the island of Taiwan. Taiwan hong kuai trees are harvested by nature’s monsoon rains and floods. Man is not allowed to cut down the trees. The supply of wood scraps from the lumber mills to steam distill the essential oil depends on the summer monsoon storms that average 12 feet of rain each year.

Happy New Year!!! My hope for this new year would be for you to discover the “lasting aroma” and “health benefits” of SESquiTerPENES.

I’ve heard you say: “I love Cedarwood”, “I use Sandalwood every day”, and “I really like Hong Kuai“.

Now we enter our LAST chapter of EO molecules. These HEAVY Notes have deep, rich aroma that lasts and lasts and lingers and lingers. I love the HEAVY Notes. They are the SESquiTerpenes.

Most essential oils possess some HEAVY Note Sesquiterpene molecules. Some essential oils are composed almost entirely of Sesquiterpenes (pronouced: SESS-kwi-TUR-peen). These HEAVY Note molecules tend to have a “woody, earthy, intense” aroma.

What can you do when you find ourselves TENSE or ANXIOUS? Is there a solution to short-term or long-term DEPRESSION and DEJECTION? Can you switch off your ANGER and HOSTILITY to life’s circumstances?

YES!!!! Inhaling Hong Kuai essential oil can flip or switch these UNPLEASANT emotional states into the corresponding opposite PLEASANT emotion.

When you consider the “emotional” characters portrayed in Disney’s movie INSIDE OUT, you are on your way to Emotional Flipping™. Flipping an unpleasant emotion to its opposite positive, pleasant emotion can be achieved every day with essential oils. Let me introduce Emotional Flipping with Hong Kuai essential oil.

Let’s explore more closely some research details from the 2015 research paper “The Effect of Hinoki and Meniki Essential Oils on Human Autonomic Nervous System Activity and Mood States”. I first explored this in Post 12: “Hong Kuai – Research Literature Tells it All”.

First let’s explore the chemistry of Hong Kuai (referred to as Meniki) and Hinoki essential oil. I do this so you can understand the EMOTIONAL FLIPPING. You can see in the graph that Hinoki essential oil is dominated with light, volatile Monoterpenes (22.3%) and Oxygenated Monoterpenes (52.0%). In contrast, Hong Kuai is composed mainly of heavy, less-volatile Sesquiterpenes (63.6%) and Oxygenated Sesquiterpenes (19.1%).

Monoterpene molecules randomly move in rapid abundance in the air. I call them the “first aroma” and “fleeting aroma”. Monoterpene molecules tend to be molecules that trigger the Fight or Flight response (Sympathetic Nervous System) of the Autonomic Nervous System. It should be no surprise that HINOKI essential oil increases the Sympathetic Nervous System activity – the Fight or Flight response.

Monoterpene molecules can “Flip” unpleasant emotions from a state of “Rest & Digest” to pleasant emotions to a state of “Fight or Flight. For example, Hinoki essential oil can flip your “depressed” emotion state (unpleasant, “Rest & Digest”) to the opposite “cheerful & elated” emotional state (pleasant, “Fight or Flight”) within 5 seconds of inhaling. That’s the power of essential oils!!!

Hinoki’s Monoterpenes can also “Flip” your emotional state of “Despair” (also Guilt and Fatigue) that is common when your body is in a Rest & Digest state to a pleasant state of “Hopefulness” (also Innocent and Alert) that is common when your body is in a Fight or Flight state. You can see that you emotional state is related to your body state.

Check out the research results for “Before” and “After” inhalation of Hinoki essential oil. Each set of before/after data contains a “p-value” as an indication of “significant difference”. The p-value is the “probability of error” that 2 groups are uniquely different and not just explained by chance alone. When the p-value is lowest (example: p=0.0001) then it is an indication that the 2 groups are unique and different – not by chance alone.

Hinoki can give you an Emotional Flip from “confused/nervous” to a “focused/relaxed” emotional state. This Emotional Flipping occurs while your body switches from a “Fight or Flight” state to a “Rest & Digest” state. This switch is triggered by the less-abundant, persistent Sesquiterpenes (17.7%) and Oxygenated Sesquiterpenes (5.5%) that become more concentrated as the more volatile Monoterpenes and Oxygenated Monoterpenes evaporate. That’s the chemistry of Emotional Flipping!!!

Hong Kuai essential oil predominantly triggers a “Rest & Digest” response in your body via the Parasympathetic Nervous System. Hong Kuai can help you flip unpleasant emotions (TENSE, NERVOUS, STRESSED, & UPSET) to their opposite pleasant emotion (CALM, RELAXED, SERENE, CONTENT, respectively). During this process your body is transformed from an “active” Fight or Flight state to a more relaxed Rest & Digest state.

The research on Emotional Flipping for Hong Kuai essential oil is quite dramatic and very significant. Hong Kuai can help you flip from being TENSE/ANXIOUS to RELAXED/CALM. Inhaling Hong Kuai can help you flip from ANGER/HOSTILITY to CALM/PEACEFUL. If you want to get flip your emotional DEPRESSION/DEJECTION to ELATED/CHEERFUL, try Hong Kuai essential oil. These Emotional Flipping are significant.

Two additional Emotional Flips are highly significant with Hong Kuai. You can count on Hong Kuai if you need these emotional changes. If you find yourself feeling FATIGUED and in DESPAIR, Hong Kuai will flip you to feeling ALERT and HOPEFUL. It will happen every time. In addition, if you feel CONFUSED and NERVOUS, then inhale Hong Kuai to flip your feelings to FOCUSED and CALM. It’s all in the chemistry.

Hong Kuai essential oil triggers a significant increase in Sympathetic Nervous System activity – a Rest & Digest response. Therefore, Hong Kuai provides three basic emotions: Joy, Power & Peace. These pleasant emotional are a result of the dominant and persistent Sesquiterpenes and Oxygenated Sesquiterpenes. The heavy molecules trigger a bodily state of “Rest & Digest”.

Source: Dr. Cole Woolley

Did you enjoy exploring the PHYSICAL and EMOTIONAL health benefits in my last post of Hong Kuai essential oil?

Here are a few more health benefits of Hong Kuai essential oil:

1. Chemical Composition and Antifungal Activity of Essential Oil Isolated from Chamaecyparis formosensis Wood
(Holzforschung – International Journal of the Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Technology of Wood, Volume 59, Issue 3, May 2005)

“Chamaecynone possessed the strongest antifungal activity, with an antifungal index….”

— Hong Kuai has anti-fungal properties

2. Effects of Chamaecyparis formosensis Extractives on Lipopolysaccharide-induced Release of Nitric Oxide
(Phytomedicine, Volume 14, Issue 10, 15 October 2007, Pages 675–680)

“…they may serve as potential cancer chemopreventives. This study suggests that C. formosensis may have potential for use as a natural resource for human health care.”

—Hong Kuai has potential anti-cancer properties

3. Insecticidal Activity of Essential Oil from Chamaecyparis formosensis
(Holzforschung – International Journal of the Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Technology of Wood, Volume 61, Issue 5, Aug 2007)

“Based on the results obtained in our current study, the essential oil of C. formosensis wood possesses significant insecticidal activities…There is great potential for the development of insecticides for domestic application to kill mosquito larvae and silverfish based on this raw material.”

—Hong Kuai has insecticidal activity

4. Composition and Antipathogenic Activities of the Twig Essential Oil of Chamaecyparis formosensis from Taiwan.
(Natural Product Communications, 2012, 7(7):933-936)

“Thus, alpha-cadinol and tau-muurolol could be considered as potential natural fungicides for controlling fungal pathogens….”

—Hong Kuai has anti-fungal activity

 

Source: Dr. Cole Woolley

We are so lucky to have some great research just published in 2015 on Hong Kuai and Hinoki essential oils. I’ll share the Abstract and help interpret their results. When I get a copy of the paper, I’ll insert another post to let you know the details. Ready?

“The Effect of Hinoki and Meniki Essential Oils on Human Autonomic Nervous System Activity and Mood States” is a great research report. Meniki is the Japanese name for Hong Kuai (Hong Kuai is Mandarin Chinese). So this research paper discusses Hong Kuai essential oil activity on HUMANS.

“After inhaling Meniki (Hong Kuai) essential oil, participant’s systolic blood pressure and heart rate decreased….” Systolic blood pressure is the first number listed for your blood pressure reading. Systolic blood pressure is the pressure your blood exerts on your arteries during the heart contraction to push blood into the arteries.

Note on the chart that systolic blood pressure is a key indicator of HIGH ANXIETY and HYPERTENSION. Stress is a common word too. Reducing systolic blood pressure is good. When you are stressed your systolic blood pressure rises. Hong Kuai essential oil helps to REDUCE your systolic blood pressure and REDUCE your stress. This is why I call Hong Kuai my “Liquid Confidence”.

Stress with kids, stress at work, stress with finances, stress with your spouse, and stress to give presentations are common. The older one gets the easier it is to handle stress. However, our blood vessels become less elastic with age, so this also causes increased systolic blood pressure. Hong Kuai essential oil can help to reduce STRESS and REDUCE systolic blood pressure.

Hong Kuai also decreased heart rate. This is a calming effect on the body. It is automatic. It is the automatic response of the Autonomic Nervous System. Hong Kuai helps calm the body and emotions. That’s why it is my “Liquid Confidence”.

They also reported for Hong Kuai: “In addition, the Sympathetic Nervous Activity was SIGNIFICANTLY decreased (lower Fight or Flight response), and Parasympathetic Activity was SIGNIFICANTLY increased (higher Rest & Digest response).” Hong Kuai automatically triggers the body’s REST & DIGEST response to reduce blood pressure, constricts eye pupils, stimulates saliva, constricts airways, stimulates activity in stomach, and stimulates activity in intestines.

Hinoki Essential Oil had the opposite effect on Autonomic Nervous System. “On the other hand, after inhaling Hinoki essential oil…Parasympathetic Nervous Activity (Rest & Digest response)…decreased, whereas Sympathetic Nervous Activity (Fight or Flight response) was increased. So Hinoki automatically triggers the human Fight or Flight response, the opposite of Hong Kuai.

The study continues, “Furthermore, in the Profile of Mood States test, both Meniki (Hong Kuai) and Hinoki wood essential oils stimulated a pleasant mood status.” Hong Kuai essential oil can be used to flip your emotional mood – from unpleasant to pleasant. All you have to do is inhale Hong Kuai.

They concluded, “Our results strongly suggest that Meniki (Hong Kuai) and Hinoki essential oils could be suitable agents for the development of regulators of sympathetic nervous system dysfunctions.” In other words, when you are STRESSED OUT, inhale Hong Kuai essential oil. It will help you FOCUS, RELAX, ENVISION the FUTURE, MEDITATE, Deal with the IMPORTANT issues, and feel CONFIDENT.

My conclusions: Hong Kuai is good for STRESSFUL situations, for the AGING, for HEART health, for RESPIRATORY concerns, calming one’s MOOD, to help RELAX the body, to help FOCUS the mind, and achieve CONFIDENCE.

Source: Dr. Cole Woolley

It is important to explore the chemistry of Hong Kuai essential oil. It’s a chemistry of a thousand years because the trees stood for 1000-3000 years before Mother Nature harvested them.

Hong Kuai is the most unique essential oil! Let’s look at the chemistry today, then what the chemistry can do for you.

When you drive to 6000-7000 feet elevation in the Taiwanese mountains you will begin to see the landslides that mark the steep slopes. They look like “long brown wounds” in an otherwise green landscape. While I was driving with Dr. Ginn Lee and Tiger Lee in the high altitude XiangYang Shan national forest I saw 50-100 of these landslide scars on the mountainsides.

During the monsoon season of July-October each year the soil in the mountains becomes soaked and saturated with water. The topsoil is relatively thin (10-50 feet deep) and lays on the solid rock mountain surface. Because the mountains are so steep the topsoil eventually “creeps” over the solid rock base. When the “creep” movement accelerates a major landslide occurs taking millions of tons of dirt, rock, trees, and plants down into the steep crevices, valleys, and canyons.

We are at 8500 feet elevation in the XiangYang Shan national forest where Dr. Ginn S. Lee describes the identification of Hong Kuai (Chamaecyparis formosensis) trees. I don’t speak Mandarin Chinese very well, but when he say “Kuai Mu” he is referring to “Hong Kuai”.

Share with your Chinese-speaking friends around the world.

I’m the cinematographer, director, and producer – just am amateur. Uncut footage seen for the First Time. This is Dr. Cole Woolley. I love exploring Hong Kuai essential oil.

Source: Dr. Cole Woolley