In these days of social media and the internet, it seems to me that the more people believe something to be true, the more likely it is considered to be true. It doesn’t matter how preposterous or inaccurate a statement is – it’s there on my tablet, laptop or smart phone so it must be right.
What triggered my righteous indignation? When is was drawn to my attention that it was being said that neroli essential oil was contraindicated for those with a cancer diagnosis, because it contained geraniol! And this was supported by a scientific paper in a peer-reviewed journal.
So I set off on a quest to find who was making these amazing claims. Just by reading the title of the paper I couldn’t see where the inference was coming from. When I read the abstract of the paper I still couldn’t see anything to support the claim. So I got hold of a copy of the paper and that confirmed my initial understanding – this research has not concluded that geraniol is carcinogenic. Far from it in fact, the claim that it does is false. Equally, it does not conclude that geraniol ‘treats’ cancer, that was not the aim of the research and anyway it is not true.
If you’re sitting comfortably, I’ll begin:
First of all, just look at the title of the research paper, “Geraniol, a component of plant essential oils, sensitizes human colonic cancer cells to 5-fluoroacil treatment”. The emphasis is mine. The research is suggesting that geraniol makes the treatment of colonic cancer by 5-fluoroacil more effective ie geraniol does not promote cancer of the colon, it has the opposite effect, making an existing anticancer drug used in colorectal therapy more effective
This is made clear in the abstract, “…geraniol sensitizes colonic cancer cells to 5-fluoroacil treatment, by increasing the cytotoxicity of the drug…” Again, the emphasis is mine. In other words, geraniol enhances the ability of 5-fluoroacil to destroy cancer cells.
To be honest, I didn’t need the paper to make my point but I was able to track down a free download so I thought, why not? Back in 2001 (Carnesecchi S et al Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. 298: 197-200), researchers had already identified that geraniol had chemopreventive properties; this team wanted to try and understand the mechanism with regard to a particular human colon cancer cell line and an existing chemotherapy drug. All the experiments were carried out in vitro. I cannot pretend that I understood the biochemistry involved but I can manage the non-technical language (mostly).
The researchers concluded that, “…the interaction of geraniol with the cell membrane prevents the [cell] differentiation process and facilitates the uptake of the chemotherapeutic agent by cancer cells.” They go on to suggest that geraniol may favour cellular uptake of anticancer drugs and that this could “…permit the use of lower concentrations of chemotherapeutic drugs and, at the same time, lower their secondary effects”.
The paper was published in 2002: Geraniol, a component of plant essential oils, sensitizes human colonic cancer cells to 5-fluorouracil treatment. Carnesecchi S, Langley F, Exinger F, Gosse F, Raul F – Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Vol 301 no 2, 625-630.
At the risk of sounding condescending, this shows the dangers of people making a pronouncement on something when they lack a basic understanding of the subject matter. Although I have waxed lyrical about this, simply reading the title of the paper makes it quite clear what the research was about. Just reading, “Geraniol, a component of plant essential oils, sensitizes human colonic cancer cells…” and stopping at that point might cause concern, but you might think before announcing that neroli is contraindicated with clients who have/had cancer, a little more time might have been spent on further investigation. Going on to read the remainder of the title and everything is clear – “to 5-fluoroacil treatment, by increasing the cytotoxicity of the drug…”.
And what about Chicken Licken? Walking through the wood a falling acorn fell on his head, he immediately decided the sky had fallen and set off to tell the king. On the way he met a number of other feathered farmyard creatures, all of whom accepted what he said about the sky falling, and joined him on his journey to tell the king. Sadly, before they got there, they met a fox who took the trouble to check the facts and then made a meal of them all.
And the moral? Before accepting that the sky has fallen, look up and see if it is still there.
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