MEER OOR EMU-OLIE

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Chapter 1 : Emu Oil Research

Emu Oil as a Research Subject

There are numerous factors that make emu oil such an intriguing research subject. Research has played a role in identifying many of the properties and factors that affect the oil. The oil’s unique properties have made it more than just an “animal fat”, elevating it to an almost “magical” substance.

In a presentation at the World Emu Conference in March of 1996, Ms. Chris Burke of Epicure Products Marketing notes that emu fat or oil should be categorised as any other farm grown product – a commodity. She asserted that the natural “physical state of emu fat does not subscribe totally to the normal definition of ‘animal fat’ and it shares much in common with some of the seed oils such as cottonseed, palm oil and soybean oil.” Explaining that the ideal profile of the product is one that is stable at room temperature and does not readily oxidize, she pointed to a special characteristic of emu oil: “Unlike any other known fat or oil it appears possible to achieve these criteria with emu fat and oil.”

Shelf life will vary depending on a number of factors, including the extent of processing and conditions under which the final product is stored. The finished oil should be stored in the absence of oxygen and light which adversely affect the shelf life of many products. There are recorded reports from emu oil product users that reveal no deterioration in products that have been stored in excess of two years.

Emu Oil Properties

Emu Oil: History, Collecting & Handling;
Its Value & Its Future
By Ardell Nelson
Presented at the Multi-State Big Bird Conference, November 1994

Properly refined emu oil is penetrating, anti-inflammatory, and anti-bacterial, healing, moisturizing, non-irritating, and non-comedogenic.

The emu produces a layer of fat that surrounds its body much like a saddle blanket. It averages about two inches or so thick on the back and its composition is impacted by diet. You literally are what you eat, and the anti-inflammatory and healing properties can be enhanced or degraded by diet.

All fats of animals and plant seeds occur naturally as triglycerides which consist of three free-swinging fatty acid molecules hooked to a glycerol backbone.]in our research, we have isolated the following fatty acids in emu oil:

Not all of these may occur in the oil from any given bird.

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Composition Testing

Emu Oil: This Composition Has No Competition
By Nancy McMillan
Emu Today & Tomorrow, November 1994

Emu oil is gaining recognition throughout the general public as is information surrounding the benefits of the oil. More importantly, more and more medical and pharmaceutical companies are discovering this potential miracle as well.

In 1993 pharmacist Allen Strickland of Ozark , Alabama , began compounding products with emu oil and has developed several products and many different formulas.

As a pharmacist, Strickland talks to people every day who have aches, pains, and illnesses. “I have seen and heard of every kind of disease and ailment imaginable,” explained Strickland. “I must recommend all kinds of products on a regular basis and I know why I recommend the products that I do. I know what works, what doesn’t work, what people want and what they don’t want,” he stated.

Strickland said that having people come in every day complaining of aches and pains has given him the opportunity to recommend a product that he knows works: emu oil. However, Strickland disclosed, he couldn’t find any concrete research results that had been substantiated. Unfortunately, there was no documentation as to the benefits of the emu oil on record.

At that point, Strickland knew he had the perfect opportunity to find out just how miraculous emu oil really is. Since there was no concrete, verifiable evidence to be found, he decided he would conduct his own research.

Strickland decided to invest his own funds into a simple test on the sample of the emu oil at a small research facility in Alabama .

Strickland explained that this test is performed by placing some of the oil on a test strip and letting the oil separate. Once the oil separates, it creates bonds. Strickland explained simply and briefly that fat contains carbons, and how many bonds a carbon contains determines the saturation of the carbon. A lot of bonds equates to a saturated fatty acid. Strickland said there are three basic types of fatty acid: saturated, mono-unsaturated, and polyunsaturated.

Polyunsaturated carbons are long chain fatty acids and are considered to be the “good” fatty acids, explained Strickland. Saturated carbons are short chain fatty acids. This test revealed that there are no long chain fatty acids in emu oil,” said Strickland, “and it was determined that the oil was almost 100 percent triglyceride lipid.”

Strickland also revealed that emu oil is unique in that, although it is a short chain fatty acid in appearance, it acts and has all the properties of a long chain fatty acid! “These scientists that have never heard of emu oil where somewhat disturbed when they had to repeat the same test three times because they thought they had done something wrong,” said Strickland. “Emu oil appeared to contradict the laws of chemistry and that sparked their interest!”

Why does emu oil have such penetrating effect? The lack of phospho-lipids may be the reason, explained Strickland.

“Our skin is phospho-lipid deficient. In other words, there’s no phosphorus in our skin. If you put anything on your skin that has phosphorus in it, your skin is ‘programmed’ to keep it from penetrating. Anytime you put anything on your skin that is phospho-lipid deficient, or has no phosphorus, it penetrates right through.”

Researches who have analysed the oil found that there is a compound in the oil that they believe is the key to its effectiveness. This compound molecule is believed to be collagen. Collagen is found in chicken and turkeys in diluted form. However, the test results on the emu oil show this molecule to be present in an extremely concentrated form. Strickland says that he hopes that the research of this possibility will be documented and made available so that future researchers will have access to the documented research results.

Emu oil has also proven to be a good emulsifier. Strickland said that most of the creams, analgesics, lotions, and shampoos on the market today are all water based products. According to Strickland, creams do not leave an oily film on the skin that a non-oily feel is what people want. However, a cream does not penetrate the skin barrier.

An ointment will penetrate the skin, but leaves a greasy feeling. Emu oil provides the best of both products since it has the penetrating effects of an ointment and the fading effects of a cream.

Strickland said that because the emu oil is a short chain fatty acid but has all the properties of a long chain fatty acid, it has longer shelf-life. Therefore the emu oil will not break down or disintegrate for a long period of time. This is very beneficial characteristic from a product development and marketing standpoint.

“I know a fellow pharmacist who was burned with gun powder from reloading shells,” said Strickland. “He burned his face, arms, and chest severely. He tried everything on the market for burns, including prescription drugs, and nothing seemed to make a difference in the healing. Now you must understand that this guy was always teasing me about my emus. Anyway, I mixed up some burn medication with emu oil and gave it to him. After using it, he healed very quickly without any scars and now owns his own emus.”

“I have a 65 year old patient who has arthritis in her hands worse than I’ve ever seen,” he explained. “She takes a lot of oral medication for her arthritis, and it causes ulcers in her stomach. For her it was either get some relief for her arthritis or get some relief for her ulcers, but she couldn’t have both. I asked her to go along with me on the emu oil, and she was ready to try anything. She began applying it, and today she no longer uses a cane and she’s cut back drastically on her oral medication. Her doctor contacted me and is very interested in the oil.” Strickland provided him some oil and says the doctor is now trying it on other patients.

Another 60-year-old patient who had psoriasis approached Strickland, very upset that she was spending money on medication that wasn’t giving her any relief. Strickland added emu oil to the regimen and said that she now uses her medication only every other night.

One of the most exciting possibilities that Strickland foresees are the benefits this oil could have for cancer patients. Strickland gave some emu oil to a woman who had been undergoing radiation treatments for breast cancer. He explained that the radiation was causing a sunburn effect on the skin, and as a result, peeling and raw soreness developed.

The woman had been given a cream that had been manufactured specifically for radiation treatment patients, yet received no relief. Strickland told her to use the emu oil on half of the area and the cream on the other half. “She came back and talked to me a couple of weeks later and said that her doctor couldn’t understand why half of her was red and burned and the other half looked normal,” said Strickland. She explained to the doctor about the emu oil, and the doctor called me wanting to know what an emu was. I told him, and he said he wanted me to get him some oil for some of his other patients.”

The doctor told Strickland that if he was satisfied with the results, the emu oil could replace the cream. However, another pharmacist told Strickland that the company that manufactures the cream is investigating emu oil. “We are talking about million dollar research here,” exclaimed Strickland. He says that not a day goes by that he doesn’t get a call from someone in the medical field asking about the emu oil.

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Fatty Acid Analysis

Laboratory experiments and analysis of emu oil both in Australia and in the U.S. have confirmed that emu oil has the ability to reduce inflammation of the joints. Emu oil naturally contains a high level of linolenic acid (a substance known to ease muscle ache and joint pain) and oleic acid, which provides a local anti-inflammatory effect.

A fatty acid analysis was conducted by Dr. Margaret C. Craig-Schmidt, Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at Auburn University . Dr. Craig-Schmidt received her doctorate in Physiological Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin and her Bachelors in Chemistry from Duke University . Her research focused on the effects of dietary fat as it impacts cardiovascular disease, cystic fibrosis, and essential fatty acid requirements in infants.

Dr. Craig-Schmidt noted that the properties of the emu oil made it quite suitable to be used by the cosmetic industry.

“The rationale in conducting this study was two-fold,” explained Dr. Craig-Schmidt. “The first reason was that the mechanism for the medicinal effects of emu oil was not established at all and very few studies have been done in this area. The second reason was to measure the exact composition of the emu oil in terms of its fatty acid analysis.”

What is fatty acid? According to Dr. Craig-Schmidt, a fatty acid is a molecule that has a long chain on it. This chain is what prevents it from becoming soluble in water. On the other end is an acid component. Fatty acids are classified in two ways: by the length of the chain and by the number of double bonds or points of unsaturation that occur on this chain.

Although this may sound confusing, you probably think about fatty acids every day if you are health conscious. “Most have heard, in conjunction with cardiovascular disease, of saturated fat, mono-unsaturated fat, and poly-unsaturated fat,” said Dr. Craig-Schmidt. “This is a classification that is used for fatty acids that depends upon the number of the points of unsaturation that are in the chain.”

Dr. Craig-Schmidt went on to say that if there are no points of unsaturation in the chain, the fatty acid is called a saturated fatty acid. “If this type of fat is predominant in the oil or in the fat that one is consuming,” she explained, “then we also call this a saturated fat.” Dr. Craig-Schmidt named beef fat and butter as saturated fat.

If there is one double bond or point of unsaturation in the chain, it is called a mono-unsaturated fatty acid. Again, said Dr. Craig-Schmidt, if this type of fat is predominant in the oil, then it is termed a mono-unsaturated fat. One such example would be olive oil. Finally, if there is more than one double bond, or point of unsaturation, it is a poly-unsaturated fat. Poly-unsaturated fat is found predominantly in vegetable oils.

According to Dr. Craig-Schmidt, palmitic acid is the most saturated fatty acid, having 16 carbons. She explains that when large amounts of fatty acids are consumed in the diet, the level of cholesterol in the blood stream tends to rise.

Oleic acid is the most common mono-unsaturated fat. This fatty acid has 18 carbons and one double bond. Dr. Craig-Schmidt says that if this fatty acid is the primary fatty acid in the diet, the blood cholesterol tends to be lower.

Linoleic acid is an example of poly-unsaturated fat, having 18 carbons and two double bonds. Intake of this fat tends to lower blood cholesterol to an even greater extent than the mono-unsaturates. However, Dr. Craig-Schmidt says that all fats are composed of a combination of all of these fatty acids and emu oil is no exception.

Some of the poly-unsaturated fats are called essential fatty acids. The most common essential fatty acid is linoleic acid. In the body, linoleic acid is converted into longer fatty acid which is very potent in the body. The fatty acid is called arachidonic fatty acid. Our bodies cannot make linoleic acid and that is why it is termed an essential fatty acid. We have to get essential fatty acids in the diet. These acids are considered omega 6 fatty acids. Arachidonic acid serves as a building block for some very powerful compounds, called prostoglandens. “Under normal conditions the level of prostoglandens in the body serves useful functions,” said Dr. Craig-Schmidt. “However when one has certain diseases, one of which includes arthritis, these levels of prostoglandens get out of hand, which result in an unbalance of prostoglandens in the body. Since emu oil has been reported to have medicinal effects on arthritis, I was interested to know which of these fatty acids were actually found in the oil.”

In addition to the omega 6 fatty acids, Dr. Craig-Schmidt elaborated on another classification of fatty acids, called the omega 3 fatty acids. “These are fatty acids that are found primarily in fish oils,” explained Dr. Craig-Schmidt. “Two of these that have powerful effects in the body are termed EPA and DHA. We do know that omega 3 fatty acids have a beneficial effect n cardiovascular disease. We wanted to see if there were any of these fatty acids in emu oil as well.”

Dr. Craig-Schmidt explained that to determine the fatty acid composition of emu fat and emu oil, a technique called gas chromatography is used. “In my lab we took ten samples of either the fat or the oil, extracted the lipid or the fat from these oils, did a slight chemical modification that was necessary fro the analysis, and then injected these samples into a machine called a gas chromatographer.

Once the sample has been injected, the chromatograph separates the various compounds of the fat that is being studied into the individual fatty acids. Dr. Craig-Schmidt explained that the fatty acids that have very short chains tend to come out first. The machine also separates them according to their number of double bonds, so that a saturated fatty acid will come out sooner than the other fatty acids. “By doing this analysis we were able to tell which fatty acids were found in emu oil and the relative percentages of each of the fatty acids,” said Dr. Craig-Schmidt. 

With this basic explanation of fatty acids and the method of testing, the test results of the emu oil will be a little more understandable. The fatty acid content of emu oil was divided into mono-unsaturated, saturated, and poly-unsaturated fatty acid categories. The results showed that emu oil is highest in mono-unsaturated fatty acids. “These fatty acids comprise almost half of the fatty acids that are found in emu oil,” asserted Dr. Craig-Schmidt.

Dr. Craig-Schmidt further explained that saturated fatty acids comprise 30 percent of the emu oil and the poly-unsaturated fats fell in somewhere between 20 and 30 percent. Mentioned were the specific fatty acids found in the emu oil: Oleic acid, or 18 carbon, and one double bond acid, which is a mono-unsaturated fat, were most prevalent in the emu oil. The 16 carbon fatty acid was also found, but in an extremely small amount.

The saturated fatty acids found in emu oil are palmitic acid (about 20 percent) and a moderate amount of stearic acid, or 18 carbon, a no double bond fatty acid. The poly-unsaturated fatty acids found were linoleic acid (18 carbons and two double bonds) and there was a small amount of what is called linolenic fatty acid which is an 18 carbon, 3 double bond acid. This acid is also considered an omega 3 fatty acid. Arachidonic acid, which serves as a precursor for the hormone type compound, was found in very small amounts. There were no omega 3 long chain fatty acids detected in the emu oil.

Dr. Craig-Schmidt touched on one possibility for emu oil. “Poly-unsaturated fats are susceptible to oxidation,” she explained. “Some of the odours that we find in oils that are sitting on the shelves for a long period of time are due to the fact that we do not have stability in some of the unsaturated fat. This area needs some more investigation and the potential for adding some components that would protect the unsaturated fat in emu oil is there.” Dr. Craig-Schmidt said that it also may be that emu oil contains some natural anti-oxidants, but this has not been determined.

The bottom line of this study is that, first of all, 70 percent off fatty acids in the emu fat are of the unsaturated variety. This finding is consistent with current recommendations for a heart-healthy diet. The second conclusion is that oleic acid is by far the primary fatty acid that is found in emu oil.

“It was interesting to note that when I looked through the literature concerning the drug and cosmetic industry,” expressed Dr. Craig-Schmidt, “I learned that this fatty acid is known enhancer of transport of bio-active compounds through the skin. In other words, the high presence of oleic acid in the emu oil may be one of the reasons that it is able to penetrate the skin to a large degree and at the same time be able to carry active compounds through the skin where they can have an effect in the body.”

Dr. Craig-Schmidt sys she would like to conduct further research regarding the properties of emu oil. She would like to document the actual penetration of emu oil through the human skin and investigate the ability of emu oil to enhance penetration of bio-active compounds. “It may be that emu oil would be very good for taking something like aspirin across the skin which would be important for arthritis patients,” she said.

“I realize there is a need for this understanding and this is another area that holds great potential for future studies,” Dr. Craig-Schmidt concluded.

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Bacteriostatic Testing

Private testing on emu oil has been preformed throughout the world by both companies and individuals, independently confirming the bacteriostatic properties of emu oil.

Karen Davis of Outback Emuzing Ranch in British Columbia, Canada, a medical technologist specializing in biochemistry and microbiology, has tested the oil for anaerobic bacteria, fungus, yeast, salmonella, shigella, staphylococcus, streptococcus, and E. coli. No growth was reported for any of these bacteria or fungi. 

Jason Beveridge of Australia noted “In our experimentation with processing emu hides we had numerous tests done on bacterial growth on the hide. We were experiencing epidermal separation which we attributed to bacteria. Our theory was that areas where fat remained on the skin were more likely to have higher bacterial infestation, as is the case with other animals. To our great surprise this was not eh case; in fact, just the reverse. Areas where fat remained on the hide had little or no bacterial growth whereas areas adjacent with but without fat had high levels of bacteria.”

Various analyses of emu oil has revealed some unusual and remarkable qualities of this rendered fat, leading to projected and executed applications in many commercial products.

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Anti-inflammation Testing

Excerpt from “Emu Oil Inquiry”
By Beth Silva
Emu Today & Tomorrow, July 1996

Two in vitro tests, anti-inflammation efficacy along with a prostaglandin E2 enzyme immunoassay and a collagen deposition assay, were recently conducted and completed by Novae™ Scientific, a division of the Contract Products and Services Network. This information was presented by Brad Thomason at the Fifth Annual Convention of the Texas Emu Association held in San Angelo , Texas .

According to Brad Thomason, owner of Contract Products & Network (Novae™ Scientific Division), the ability to measure the anti-inflammatory activity inherent with emu oil is extremely important to a prospective manufacturer of products wherein claims of anti-inflammation will be made. To ensure this activity, researchers at Novae™ Scientific have completed tests that were conducted in two phases: anti-inflammation efficacy and prostaglandin production.

“Anti-inflammation efficacy is measured by gauging living cell viability and the corresponding reduction n prostaglandin production,” explains Thomason. “And cell viability and prostaglandin are both measured and compared against known negative or positive controls.”

According to Thomason, “This means that the laboratory conducting the test has compound that are known to either reduce or enhance cell viability and prostaglandin production. The comparison of these known controls to the performance of emu oil will then determine how effective the emu oil is in reducing inflammation.”

The anti-inflammation study was performed on six different grades of rendered and refined emu oil. All six grades of oil were tested with and without exposure to UVB radiation. 

The six grades of refined emu oil tested were not inherently cytotoxic or irritating to the tissue, which would have decreased cell viability.

“All six samples were non-cytotoxic,” notes Thomason. “It is clear that one of the samples showed increased cell viability in the excess of 100 percent.”

“While all six samples tested showed some degree of anti-inflammation,” relates Thomason, “three were good, and one of those three was able to significantly reduce the cytotoxic associated with UVB radiation.”

“Sample number four clearly out-performed the other five,” says Thomason. “Which is an indication that how the product was refined directly affected the oil’s performance in this category of testing.”

The second phase of anti-inflammation testing was the prostaglandin assay. The purpose of this test, according to Thomason, is to determine whether the six grades of emu oil tested had a propensity to reduce prostaglandin production in the skin. 

“When your skin is damaged by the sun or a simple infection, prostaglandin production is naturally increased while the healing process starts,” explains Thomason. “If we can prove that emu oil increases the amount of living cells while reducing prostaglandin production in the skin, then we have proven that the oil is performing the function of anti-inflammatory.”

The sample show that the oil does not encourage prostaglandin production when compared to the control,” says Thomason.

Thomason also noted that “it is clear that sample number four showed a significant reduction in PGE production when compared to the other five samples, thus indicating that the refining technique produced a superior anti-inflammatory.”

“The ability to measure collagen deposition or pro-collagen production in the skin is critical,” Thomason says, “If we are going to make claims of wrinkle reduction, wound epithelization, scar reduction, and such.”

“To prove that certain grades of refined emu oil are inherently capable of encouraging the skin to produce fresh collagen,” relates Thomason, “would in effect lay the groundwork for the use of emu oil in hundreds of different cosmeceutical products wherein claims of restoring the skin’s youthful appearance are made.” According to Thomason, this test establishes the foundation for these claims.

Thomason feels that the area of collagen deposition has largely been overlooked by the industry: “When it in fact represents a large opportunity for properly refined oil.”

“None of the emu oil samples tested were cytotoxic when compared to the control samples,” says Thomason. “Samples four and six have directional trends towards collagen deposition, albeit not statistically significant.”

“In sample five, one of the refining techniques utilized for the emu oil tested produces a dramatic increase in collagen deposition when compared to the negative control, which is known to have 100 percent collagen deposition,” explains Thomason, “thus proving that how the oil is refined is directly related to how it performs.”

“The fact that significant collagen deposition was shown in one sample is of additional significance, since the oils were intentionally tested at only one percent concentration,” exclaimed Thomason. “The proven efficacy at low concentration is attractive to potential volume users.”

Thomason explained that these test findings are very important for two reasons: First, the tests conducted have proven that how oil is refined is directly related to how that oil performs.

“Out of the seven tests discussed and the two tests detailed here, Novae™ Scientific can confidently claim that simply rendered oils have little efficacy when compared to their refined counterparts,” noted Thomason. “The tests indicated that the variable factors in the refining process can enhance the oils inherent performance characteristics by liberating biologic activities when refined properly.”

“On the other hand,” noted Thomason, “there are indications that the activities can also be removed intentionally or by mistake if the process is performed incorrectly, or left dormant if the oil is not refined at all.”

The second reason the findings are important, according to Thomason, “is that the tests have proven that the use of properly refined emu oil as a collagen deposition medium at concentration as low as one percent is feasible. Though higher concentration is desirable, this fact alone opens up tremendous opportunities within the cosmeceutical industry where new products that ‘restore skin’ and accelerate wound epithelization are in high demand.”

Expert from Looking into Emu Oil
By Frank Orthoefer – ACH Food Companies
Emu Today & Tomorrow, October 2003

Previously, producers and marketers have relied principally on anecdotal or testimonial disclosures on the benefits of emu oil. Healing, penetrating, and ant-aging descriptions have been used to promote our product. While perhaps actual, none have been based on characteristics proven by scientific studies. Few results until now, have been reported in the scientific, peer reviewed literature that lends credibility to these claims. Data has been developed that will pass the test of scientific scrutiny. Future efforts are targeted to reach the scientific community and eventually the users of this oil.

The principal investigator on the Antagonism of Croton Oil Inflammation by Topical Emu Oil in CD-1 Mice, Dr. Robert Nicolosi of the University of Massachusetts , reported on animal trails that showed cholesterol lowering, anti-inflammatory, and transdermal properties of emu oil. Dr. Nicolosi was selected to perform the emu oil studies because of his widely recognized publications on vegetable oils, sterols, and lecithin. He has published more than peer reviewed papers in many of the noted journals on nutrition.

Inflammation is easily seen, but more difficult to quantify. We’ve all seen how some people react very strongly when in contact with an irritant, while others show little effect. In or trials, the inflammatory response was quantitated using a standard irritant applied to the ears on mice. Croton oil (two percent) is the standard irritant and the degree of inflammation or anti-inflammation was determined by measuring auricular (ear) swelling and the weight of a plug taken from the ear. Swelling of tissue is a primary indication of inflammation. After the croton oil application (three, six, nine, or 24 hours.), emu oil was applied to the same area as the irritant. The thickness and earplug rates were then determined. The results were “incredible.” The degree of inflammation was significantly reduced between 42 percent and 71 percent in the emu oil treated mice. The cytokines, or those circulatory compounds produced as a result of inflammation, were also reduced significantly: -83 percent interleukin -1 and -66 percent tumor necrosis factor a.

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Comedogenicity Testing

One of the major drawbacks of using any oil on the skin care or cosmetic applications is it common tendency to clog up pores and subsequently cause acne.

Comedogenicity (pore-clogging) testing of emu oil was conducted by the

Dermatology Department of Occupational Dermatology Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston in 1993. The oil was supplied by Atlantis Laboratories, a respected product development company based in Conroe , Texas , and originally obtained from Emu Ranchers Incorporated.

The oil was tested at the following levels: 25 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent, and 100 percent strength. Testing at each level resulted in both observational and histological scores of less than one. The interpretation of this score reveals that the oil “is considered to indicate substance that is unlikely to produce a comedogenic response during human use and is therefore considered to be a negative result.”

The final assessment of the report stated: “On the basis of observational and histological testing from comedogenicity, the emu oil used in this test, from 25 percent to 100 percent, is non-comedogenic.”

Amazingly, despite the fact it is an oil, emu oil was demonstrated to be a non-pore-clogging substance.

Moisturizing and Cosmetic Properties of Emu Oil:

A Double Blind Study
Alexander Zemtsov, M.D.,
M.S. Indiana University of Medicine
Monica Gaddis, PH.D. Ball Memorial Hospital
Victor Montalvo-Lugi, M.S. Ball Memorial Hospital
Presented at the EAE National Convention
in Nashville , Tennessee , 1994

Cosmetic and moisturising properties of emu oil were assessed in a double blind clinical study. Emu oil in comparison to mineral oil was found overall to be more cosmetically acceptable and had better sin penetration and permeability. Furthermore, it appears that emu oil in comparison to mineral oil has better moisturizing properties, superior texture, and lower indication of comedogenicity, but probably because of the small sample size these differences were not found to be statistically significant. Neither of the oils was found to be irritating to the skin.

A number of Australian investigators have claimed that emu oil has anti-inflammatory and skin penetrating properties. Recently the Australian Department of Health classified emu oil as a pharmaceutical product and registered emu oils oil in the Therapeutic Goods Registry. Finally, an official Australian government publication stated “the oil will find uses in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.” We performed an extensive literature search (Medicine, Index Medicus) and could not find a single report in scientific peer reviewed literature dealing with either emu oil, its cosmetic pharmaceutical properties, or its composition. A pilot double blind study was conducted to assess cosmetic properties of emu oil – namely its moisturizing and skin penetrating properties, texture, odour, irritancy, and comedogenicity potential. The emu oil was compared in this study to mineral oil, a synthetic oil that is widely used in the United States as an emulsifier and lubricant in topical cosmetical and pharmaceutical preparations.

METHODS:

Human Subjects:
Eleven subjects were recruited and completed the study (nine woman and two men). Mean age was 35 years (age range 25-52, median 34); ten subjects were white Caucasian and one was Hispanic. All had Fitzpatrick skin type two or three based on history of response to UV radiation. All had healthy skin and people with eczema and acne were specifically excluded from this study.

Oil:
Emu oil for clinical study was imported from Australia (Emu Vertica, Thalgo Holdings Pty. Ltd.). Both the Australian emu and mineral oil were placed in dark, numbered bottles by a pharmacist (Caprock Drugs, Lubbock , TX ). Neither human subjects nor the principal investigator knew which oil each subject was using at what particular time. The code was not broken until all volunteers completed the study and returned the questionnaire to the principal investigators.

Protocol:
Prior to entering the study each subject was examined by a university based dermatologist to make sure that none of the eczema. The volunteers were instructed to use the first oil on their face and trunk twice a day for two weeks. The human subjects were told to discontinue use of any other lubricants. After two weeks of oil use the human subjects were briefly examined by the principal investigator for signs of skin irritation or acne and at that time were given a second oil. The pharmacist made sure that each subject received both the emu oil and the mineral oil. At the end of the study each subject completed the questionnaire and ranked on a zero to five scale (zero being poor; five excellent) how much they liked each oil. They were also asked to rank its penetration/permeability, moisturizing properties, texture, and any side effects (comedogenicity, odor, irritancy, etc.)

Results:
The emu oil overall ranking and permeability was found to be clearly superior to mineral oil. These differences in skin penetration/ permeability and overall ranking were statistically significant (p<0.05). It also appears that emu oil texture and moisturizing properties, as judged by the participants in the study, were also superior to mineral oil, but the differences can not be considered statistically significant (P>0.05). The sample size in this study was small (n=11)and it is very possible that if more people participated in the study, clear-cut statistical differences in the oils texture and moisturizing properties would have been found.

When the participants in this study were asked which of the oils they liked better, all 11 subjects (100 percent) stated that they liked the emu oil better. Neither emu oil nor mineral oil was found to be irritating to the skin. Finally, when the oils were applied to the face, six people (55 percent) found the mineral oil caused “pimples”, while two people (18 percent) said the same of the emu oil. 

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Penetrating Properties

The Emu Oil Express: It Really Travels
By Nancy McMillan
Emu Today & Tomorrow, September 1995

According to early study indications from Auburn University , in Auburn , Alabama , if you don’t want it to “get under your skin”, don’t mix it with emu oil. Dr. Paul Smith, Professior of Pathobiology at Auburn University , shared some information concerning a study that he is conducting in conjuction with the American Emu Association to determine whether or not emu oil can be used as a transdermal carrier of medicine.

“We had already done a little bit of work in that area, and we were particularly interested in following up one of the characteristics of emu oil. The characteristic that we were most interested in was whether or not emu oil could be used as a carrier of medicine through the skin,” said Dr. Smith.

Dr. Smith explained that the answer to the question, “Can emu oil be a carrier of non-steriodal, anti-inflammatory drugs?” could be of positive significance. Dr. Smith further explained that some drugs, though they are perfectly suited for treating certain conditions, cannot be taken orally and cannot be injected.

“There are many conditions were we would like to use a drug that we can simply put on topically or have carried through the skin,” explained Dr. Smith, “particularly in inflammatory conditions of the skin, arthritis, or similar conditions. Therefore our interest was anti-inflammatory drugs.”

According to Dr. Smith, one of the drug they anticipated using in the study was the drug Ketoprofen. Dr. Smith explained that Ketoprofen is a drug very much like ibuprofen, a commonly used over-the-counter medication that many people today take for pain. Although Ketoprofen is a very potent anti-inflammatory, non-steroidal drug, it can cause serious problems such as indigestion, renal dysfunction, fluid retention, and jaundice when taken orally. Therefore, the effort was to determine whether or not Ketoprofen could be carried through the skin via emu oil in an effort to avoid some of the side effects resulting from oral use of Ketoprofen.

“One of the problems with using Ketoprofen is that it is very difficult to solubilize,” stated Dr. Smith. “In order to get the drug into solution we used a product, a kind of alcohol, to dissolve the drug into. The sample of oil that we used was taken from a four year-old male emu. The oil was rendered at a very low heat and stored at four degrees centigrade (39.2 degrees F) for four to six months.

Dr. Smith says that he believes one of the most important points of any kind of research that you do is not so much the principal component that you are investigating, but the kind of controls that you use. In developing groups of controls, Dr. Smith explained that one of the things he wanted to use was a non-oily type carrier of the drug. Therefore, Dr. Smith and his team mixed dimethyl slfoxide (DMSO) and bovine serum with the Ketoprofen drug.

“Another very important control that we use in certain groups was a very heavy mineral oil in which we mixed the drug as well,” commented Dr. Smith.

Dr. Smith explained that the combination of ingredients in the six control groups were as follows:

A. Ketoprofen and the alcohol compound Propanol.
B. Emu oil mixed with the alcohol compound Propanol and Ketoprofen.
C. DMSO in bovine serum and Ketoprofen.
D. Mineral oil and Ketoprofen.
E. DMSO, emu oil, and Ketoprofen.
F. Isopropyl alcohol and Ketoprofen

In addition, Dr. Smith explained that DMSO is a compound that, when topically placed on the skin, has demonstrated quick penetration into the skin surface and has been used to carry various kinds of drugs into the blood stream through topical applications.

“The DMSO compound has been on the market for a very long time,” explained Dr. Smith. “For many years it was used very extensively to carry medication through the skin into the bloodstream, joint, or ligament. However, there have been some problems with its use, and the FDA is not highly in favour of the use of the compound as a medicinal carrier.”

According to Dr. Smith, for this transdermal study mice were chosen at random. “We had six young adult mice in each of the six groups,” he illustrated. “The mice were caged separately and treated individually, then placed back into the cage. We repeated the treatment six different times throughout the say, every half hour.”

For the treatments, Dr. Smith explained that an area of skin over the back was selected, and the fur was clipped with extremely fine clippers so that the presence of hair would not interfere with the compound.

“In each treatment we simply took each compound and a small syringe and drew up .2mils of the compound, treating each mouse over that area of skin,” explained Dr. Smith. “The compound spread very easily. Although we did not attempt to rub the compound in, we made sure that the compound covered the entire area and returned the mouse back in the cage to be left for a half an hour. We sequentially treated each mouse in each group with the particular compound for that group.”

According to Dr. Smith, blood samples were taken from the tail of the mouse immediately following the treatment. Dr. Smith explained that an area of the mouse’s tail was cleaned with an alcohol swab and a vein in the tail was nicked to collect the samples.

“There are many different ways to collect blood samples but this way is rapid and we wanted to collect the samples as quickly as possible after treatment,” reasoned Dr. Smith. “After the collection we separated the cells from the blood then evaluated the amount of drug in the blood stream, realizing the compound would have been carried through the skin.”

“We used a high pressure liquid chromatograph for the separation process,” continued Dr. Smith. “There are columns that are used within the machine, and a computer read-out is prepared due to a wavelength of light that is passed through the beam of material. The wavelength the gives the blob on a line drawing that is computerized into a graph.”

According to Dr. Smith, instead of a straight line on the graph indicating little or no trace of a drug in the bloodstream, as would normally be found with bovine serum, his research team was excited when the graph showed a definite peak!

According to the results of two of the mice in each group, the amount of drug detected in the mouse serum was surprising,” stated Dr. Smith.

Early test results indicated the amount of Ketoprofen found in the blood stream of the mice are projected as follows:

A. Ketoprofen and Propanol showed six units.
B. Emu oil, Propanol and Ketoprofen showed around 700 units.
C. DMSO in bovine serum and Ketoprofen showed less than 200.
D. Mineral oil and Ketoprofen showed approximately 300.
E. DMSO, emu oil, and Ketoprofen showed over 800.
F. Isopropyl alcohol and Ketoprofen showed about 200 plus.

“Surprisingly enough, there is some good information in a third control group that we had that was only emu oil,” stated Dr. Smith. “We were very impressed with how close the results with straight emu oil and emu oil with DMSO were. Not the difference, but how close the two really were.”

“We are excited about these results,” Dr. Smith continued. “We feel that this bit of information gives us a place from which to work to continue to use anti-inflammatory drugs to be carried through the skin to treat conditions that would be very meaningful, not only in animals but in humans as well, and we are excited about what we are seeing.”

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Penetration Study

Emu oil at 20 percent concentration in ethanol increased the rate of penetration of methyl nicotinate by 11 percent. Oleic acid at 20 percent concentration in ethanol increased the rate of methyl nicotinate by 22 percent. Oleic acid is a mono-unsaturated fatty acid, while emu oil contains both saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Emu oil contains only 50-60 percent oleic acid with small quantities of linoleic almost equal to the oleic acid rate. A claim for “increases penetration” can be supported by this study.

Excerpt from Emu Cream Assists Lidocaine: Local Anesthetic Absorption through Human Skin
Presented by Dr. William Code
8th AOCS Meeting, May 1997
Ratite Oils: Processing and Applications

Lidocaine is probably the most commonly used anesthetic. For those of you with an organic chemistry or biochemistry background, it’s an amide. An amide local anesthetic is a much safer agent to use as it is less likely to cause an allergic reaction. Lidocaine is also reasonable in cost and readily available. It’s the most understood local anethestic and a prototype in general.

The problem I wanted to address as something to think about is the problem with punctures in the skin or planned-for-needle insertion. The obvious one that comes to mind to an anaesthesiologist is to start an intravenous for administering drugs. We want to know in a few seconds whether the anesthetic is working or not.

Vaccination is an interesting example. It’s young people, particularly in the preteen and early teen years, that can get very anxious and upset about an injection. If something were available to minimize the trauma, life could be a lot simpler for public health nurses and other personnel.

Suturing of wounds is always a tough consideration – the decision is whether to put the local anesthetic in and make two or three holes, or just go straight ahead and suture with a tiny needle. If you has a relatively sterile entity that could numb it either before the injection with the needle, or with regard to the wound itself, then you might be a lot further ahead.

What we need is something that works quickly, that relatively hypo-allergenic, and it also has consistently good absorption. Of course we need it to be non-toxic and it has to be reasonable in cost. That’s why I tested Lidocaine, and it’s our impression that emu oil is relatively hypo-allergenic.

The emu substance used in this particular pilot study was what I call a cream, the thick version of the refined product versus the clear oil.

What did we test? We created two mixtures that looked, for all intents and purposes to people observing them, the same.

Our substance was emu cream and spearmint oil. We use the spearmint oil for two reasons: the relatively positive scent it imparts to most people and it has the advantage that it may advance absorption as well. Our second preparation was emu cream of the same batch, Canadian emu oil, and spearmint oil with lidocaine.

Those were then applied to two sites on six people. The two sites were both chosen as the same and that’s in the ventral distal forearm, the part of your wrist which hardly ever has any hair on it. You can start intravenous there. The mixture was applied on both forearms on two-inch square sites, and covered with something called Opsite, Tegaderm, or one of the other proprietary units that are a lot like Saran Wrap™ with a sticky surface around it.

The function of the cover is two fold. First of all, you increase the warmth and moisture in the area and that might make a difference in penetration. Also, it usually permits an increased concentration crossing across the skin before it’s rubbed off or taken away. After twenty minutes, that cover was removed and residual cream was wiped away. The amount of residual cream left is usually diminished over that time frame.

We then did two major tests on the individuals. The common one we used initially was ice. That’s because in my practice int eh operating room, I found that if you can check with an ice cube where people can tolerate the ice cube, and not tell the difference whether it’s warm or cold, even prior to Cesarean section, you can invariably tell when they’re going to have sharpness from the incision with the cold hard steel knife. Then, of course, we used pinpricks because most people were kind of intrigued with the idea that this actually made any difference. Because each individual had the substance A or B on the left or right side, they had some way of observing themselves and determining, on their own basis, if they thought there was a difference from one side to the other.

We got fairly simple results in that there was a reduced sensation noted in only one of the two arms, one skin site only. Also, the one with the reduced sensation had been treated with mixture B: the emu cream, the spearmint, and the lidocaine combination.

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Carier Properties

Excerpt from Emu Oil: Can it Give Liposomes a Run for Their Money?
By Beth Silva
Emu Today & Tomorrow, November 1995

Ever since liposomes were discovered by a British scientist in 1961, researchers have theorised that these hollow microscopic spheres formed of thin lipid membranes could be used to encapsulate a drug and transport it through the bloodstream.

Such an achievement could overcome the most daunting problem of pharmaceutical research – how to keep a drug circulating in the body long enough for it to do its work, and at the same time releasing the drug slowly so that it doesn’t damage healthy organs and isn’t expelled by the body’s natural defenses.

Liposomes – self-assembling colloidal particles in which a lipid by-layer encapsulated a fraction of the surrounding aqueous medium – have now successfully negotiated the crucial passage from basic research to clinical practice. In the simpler terms, these hollow fatty spheres which are able to penetrate into the body have the ability to be filled with materials that can be transported throughout the body.

To picture how liposomes work, think of a soap bubble. The outside of the liposome bubble is not made of soap, but of the same materials as cell membranes. That allows the liposome to travel unhindered through the bloodstream toward the disease site – a tumor, say. Inside the bubble is the drug. When the liposome encounters a specific kind of cell, it delivers its payload by releasing bits o the drug at a time. A rapid release of the drug could result in much of it being washed away by the bloodstream.

One of the biggest problems plaguing liposomes has been producing consistent batches that react in a predictable way in the body. Initially, liposomes were heralded as optimal drug carrier systems, but further research proved disappointing and led to a period of scepticism among some scientists in the field of drug delivery.

The expense alone incurred by the medical research done by doctors, drug analysts, and pharmaceutical companies piles up into the millions, yet only a few companies are on the verge of reaching the market and having their drugs approved and recommended by the FDA.

Of concern, also, are the side effects experienced by many patients who try the liposome-encased drugs. Additional studies are still needed to confirm the spheres’ safety and efficacy.

Yet, interest in liposomes as drug carriers was rejuvenated by the introduction of new ideas from membrane biophysics, and this multidisciplinary approach has enhanced prospects for their use in medicine.

A more economical version of the liposome would be hard to imagine at this point, yet there appears to be something that might just give these new spheres a real run for their money: emu oil. Though not yet as thoroughly researched as liposomes, emu oil is proving to have some of the same transdermal qualities of these microscopic fat bubbles.

Dr. Alex Zemtsov, certified dermatologist and presently the Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Indiana University School of Medicine and adjunct Associate Professor of Medical Education at Ball State University , serves as co-editor for Skin Research and Technology journal.

According to Dr. Zemtsov, the most fascinating property of emu oil is that it is highly penetrating. “What I mean by ‘penetrating’ is that it goes through the skin barrier and carries active ingredients into the skin,” says Dr. Zemtsov.

Dr. Zemtsov noted that the most important property would be the penetrating qualities. “Many companies are currently researching and developing liposomes,” related Dr. Zemtsov. He went on to say that obviously a medicated cream will not do much good if the medicine cannot penetrate the skin barrier, and currently a synthetically derived liposome is the key ingredient to aid in penetration and absorption of the skin.

In addition to the penetrating qualities is the relatively low expense of emu oil. One gallon of emu oil might cost a company $300. “The price of liposomes is about 20 times more expensive than emu oil,” relates Dr. Zemtsov.

Dr. Zemtsov is interested in conducting a follow up research on the transdermal qualities of emu oil. “The application of the oil in the cosmetic industry is probably the greatest. The sky is to show that it has good penetrating properties, that you need more studies, and these studies need to be documented,” notes Dr. Zemtsov.

Dr. Margaret C. Craig-Schmidt, associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at Auburn University , has also been researching the qualities of emu oil. Dr. Craig-Schmidt has performed fatty acid analysis on the oil and found that the fatty acid is high in oleic acid.

“Oleic acid is, and has been, used to carry bio-active compounds through the skin, and this is the highest fatty acid found in emu oil,” explains Dr. Craig-Schmidt.

“In other words, the high presence of oleic acid in the emu oil may be one of the reasons that it is able to penetrate the skin to a large degree and at the same time be able to carry active compounds through the skin where they can have an effect on the body,” noted Dr. Craig-Schmidt. “Oleic acid could possibly be a component of a liposome,” she admitted.

Currently, liposomal agents are being researched and tested on patients with everything from AIDS and cancer to tumors and liver disease and are even being researched in conjunction with skin enhancement and revitalization.

Other medical applications that have been studied include the enhancement of x-ray imaging by radiopaque liposomes; heavy-metal toxicity therapy with liposomes containing chelating agents; protection of otherwise digestible dietary supplements and drugs to enable their oral administration; and preparation of artificial blood composed of haemoglobin-loaded liposomes. Technological applications of liposomes have also been the subject of studies.

Though still in the early research stages, emu oil is making great strides as a penetrating carrier for established drugs. Emu oil products are used in diverse applications such as to reduce muscle and joint aches, relief from arthritic pain and stiffness, for incisions, and to reduce healing time.

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Epidermal Proliferation Study

The application of emu oil on mouse skin for seven consecutive days produced a significant proliferative reaction on the epidermis. Emu oil produces a more normal looking stratum corneum than retinoic acid, which suggests less irritation potential. It was observed that male mice with many dorsal combat bites/wounds healed completely within two days of application of the neat emu oil. This was not eh case with other preparations.

The addition of 0.5 percent vitamin A to emu oil did not enhance the proliferative action. Neat emu oil produced a more intense proliferative than the 20 percent emu oil. It also appears from the histological slides that the emu oil applied neat has a beneficial affect on the papillary dermis. There is an increase in cellularity and density of the papillary dermis. This would support a potential anti-aging effect.

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The Search for the X Factor

Emu Oil: Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire
Transcript of Dr. Barry Sears discourse on the Potential Hormonal Effects of Emu Oil Presented at the AEA Annual Symposium in Rochester , Minnesota , 2000
Emu Today & Tomorrow, July 2000

I think the key thing that I have found in talking to various members of the American Emu Association is that you have a wrong view of yourselves. You believe yourselves to be farmers and ranchers. But when I look at your industry, I see people at the forefront of biotechnology. This is because emu oil is biotechnology – how to use biological processing by the emu to make a product useful for human beings in a cost effective manner.

It appears to me what you’re doing can be termed agriceuticals. Think of your industry and what you’re doing as agriceuticals production, in essence, using the emu like a pharmaceutical factory to produce powerful drugs.

The problem you have right now is the question, “Why does emu oil work as a dermatological agent?” In other words, what is the X factor that makes emu oil work? What got me excited several years ago about emu oil is that there’s probably something there. Usually where there’s smoke, there’s surely fire. You see these very dramatic effects on skin physiology using emu oil, but the question remains: “Why?”

If you talk to anybody who has done research on emu oil, the common response is that there appears to be absolutely nothing remarkable about it. You look at the fatty acid composition, and come to the conclusion “so what?” There’s nothing there. But observationally something is there. Something is under the surface and your goal is to unravel that. Because by unravelling, it takes emu oil out of the anecdotal, and it takes you out of the static area of ranching and into where I think emu farming should be viewed – as a full fledged, biotechnology drug industry. And that is where you want to view yourselves. You’re basically isolating and purifying a powerful drug.

When you talk about the benefits of using emu oil – they usually fall into three categories: it appears to relieve inflammation (it’s an anti-inflammatory agent), it appears to relieve pain, and it appears to improve the healing of wounds. Usually, the first thing that comes to most people’s mind is snake oil. During the work I’ve done over the past 20 years, I’ve also been accused of being a snake oil salesperson. After all, how can one thing do so many things?

That’s why my interest in emu oil was so strongly charged; because many of the same benefits that you’re seeing observationally over the years are the same benefits I have seen using my own technology to control eicosanoids. And those hormones, I believe, are really the X factor of emu oil – how emu oil affects these hormones. And if you can prove the linkage, then you have that X factor that takes you out of the farming business and puts you into the drug business.

The same problem that I went through is what you’re going through today – trying to get a new idea accepted by the medical community. I started from 20 years ago looking at food as a drug. In fact food is a very powerful drug because food contains what is called micro-nutrients – things like carbohydrates, protein and fat. 

The real insight I discovered 20 years ago was how these micro-nutrients could affect these hormonal responses. Because hormones are 100 times more powerful than any drug, I realized you could treat food as though it were a drug. So in particular, using food to control certain hormones, including insulin, glucagons, and in particular this group of hormones called eicosanoids. My feeling was if you could control eicosanoids, you could control 21st century medicine. How could food be a drug? This concept requires understanding the fact that food is probably the most powerful drug you’ll ever encounter in your life.

Hormones are changing every time you consume food. Think of insulin as the storage hormone and glucagons as a mobilization hormone and this balance is constantly changing. And there’s eicosanoids. And this is where I really think we’ll see key to emu oil. Eicosanoids are master hormones, hormones that control other hormones.

Eicosanoids are biological response modifiers. This means that eicosanoids go out from cells to tell the cell what’s happening outside. They’re like little molecular scouts. You have no eicosanoids gland in the body, but you do have some 60 trillion cells that can make eicosanoids. They are sent out on a second-by-second basis to test the environment and come back and tell the cell what is happening. Basically, eicosanoids cause a response of that cell to its immediate biological environment.

Another way of looking at eicosanoids is that you have master switches that turn on and off cellular function on a second by second basis. And you need such a super hormone to control other hormones. The most complex organ in your body, outside the brain, is your skin. The skin is also the largest organ you have. And it too, like all other organs, is controlled by eicosanoids.

The 1982 Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded in understanding how powerful eicosanoids are – how they control virtually every aspect of our physiology.

There are over 100 compounds known as prostagladins, including: leukotrienes, thromboxanes, lipoxins, hydroxylated fatty acids, 15 epi-lipoxins, isoprostanes, and isoleukotrienes that constitute eicosanoids.

The key of eicosanoids is that they come from one thing and one thing only – fat. It’s either a fat from the diet or a fat you acquire through the skin that can affect the level of these eicosanoids. Since they work at incredibly low concentrations, a very small amount can have a very dramatic effect.

You have to look at eicosanoids from a viewpoint of being either good or bad. All hormonal systems are based upon diametrical, but opposite, powerful physiological response. As an example, good eicosanoids are ones that inhibit platelet aggregation, whereas bad ones promote it. As an example, if you are having a heart attack, you are making more bad eicosanoids and less good ones.

One of the key things you talk about with emu oil is that it prevents scar formation. Scar formation is simply an aggregation of platelets. Maybe there’s something about emu oil that’s changing the levels of eicosanoids in the skin and decreasing in aggregational platelets.

If so, this can begin to explain the ability of emu oil to prevent scars. Good eicosanoids inhibit platelet aggregation, are vasodilators, are anti-inflammatory, control cellular proliferation, and enhance immune function. Bad eicosanoids promote platelet aggregation, are vasoconstrictors, are pro-inflammatory, increase cellular proliferation, and suppress immune function.

We see a wide variety of benefits in treating a wide variety of very nasty neurological states that are seemingly improved simply by applying emu oil. So you can see why when I was first exposed to emu oil, I got a sense of excitement. It appeared to me, at first glance, that all these different benefits may simply be due to the fact that something in the emu oil, some X factor, is causing a change of eicosanoids within the skin and doing a very effective job. And that makes emu oil, if you can prove the linkage, a very powerful drug.

The reason I go through all this is that while eicosanoids are not well known by the medical establishment, they very well could be that factor that you’ve been searching for to bring your industry to a higher level of awareness.

Eicosanoids represents a very powerful story. Eicosanoids are controlled by diet because the dietary fat you eat is composed of essential fatty acids and will become “good” or “bad” eicosanoids depending on how you control the levels if the two hormones, insulin and glucagons, which are also controlled by your diet.

In terms of dermatological properties, if you can get whatever that X factor might be in emu oil, into the dermis, the actual living part of the skin, you should be able to induce the skin to make more good eicosanoids and less bad ones. And if you do, you should predict less inflammation, less pain, and better skin regenerative properties. And that’s exactly what you see from an observational standpoint.

Gamma Linolenic Acid (GLA) is the key fatty acid in changing the levels of eicosanoids. If you talk about the fact that emu oil has a lot of oleic acid … well, so does olive oil. And no one touts olive oil as a “magical cure”. No one talks about olive oil being applied topically and treating pain, inflammation, etc. so one aspect you might look at is that emu oil may contain something that might be changing the way GLA functions.

Now from a dietary standpoint, there are certain oils that are very rich in GLA, products like borage oil, evening primrose oil, and black currant oil. Some 20 years ago we basically introduced borage oil to the North American continent. Why? It’s very high in GLA and we thought if we could get more GLA into the body, life would be very good because it’s the building block of all the good eicosanoids. Unfortunately, we found there are many twists and turns of controlling GLA to make it go in the right direction opposed to the wrong direction.

In particular, we had to use the Zone diet as a drug to change the fate of GLA and make it go in the right direction.

With the body you have to look at certain inhibitors and activators. Insulin activates that process of making bad eicosanoids and the hormone glucagons deactivate it. The skin is very unique because it does not have the particular enzyme that converts GLA into bad eicosanoids, eicosapenlaeriolic acid (EPA). If you simply get GLA, or some other X factor that helps mobilize GLA into the skin, life is very good again because all you can make are good eicosanoids. The skin is the only organ of the body that allows you to play this strategy.

A typical triglyceride from an edible oil, like borage oil, is like a bowling ball. It sits on your skin – it’s not going to go anywhere. So if you put all the lotions containing borage, evening primrose, or black current oil on your skin – you might get some trace of benefits, but nothing to speak of.

So we converted the bowling ball into an arrow. A hydrophobic arrow that can penetrate into the skin more effectively, so it can change the levels of eicosanoids. If we can deliver more hydrophobic GLA into the skin, we should see all these wonderful benefits. And it turns out you do see these drug-like effects, almost exactly the same ones you see being reported using emu oil. Virtually the same results, which would indicate to me that something in emu oil is helping the skin to make more good eicosanoids, just as hydrophobic GLA does.

This kind of leads into the future of emu oil research directions. For one, you should keep searching for that X factor. It very well could be you might have it within the fatty acid composition. Emu oil seems to be very low GLA. You could possibly increase GLA simply by feeding emus oil that are rich in GLA. Remember, you are what you eat.

In summery, what’s the magic ingredient in emu oil that you can put your finger on? I think it must center around eicosanoids. Perhaps a combination of emu oil plus hydrophobic GLA, which is known to affect eicosanoids, allows us the rationale to spend more money on our own tot try to move emu research to a higher level, one that meets the scrutiny of the most rigid scientific standards.

That’s why I think the future of the emu ranching business will be driven primarily by emu oil as a cosmeceutical. But the one last entity, that X factor, is needed. And I think eicosanoids modulation may be that X factor that basically brings you from a small-time into the prime-time. It allows you to compete most effectively with large companies, because you have a chemical factory in the emu. It’s more efficient, more economical, and you have better control over your emu that they have over their manufacturing.

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Chapter 2

Emu Oil Usage

Emu Oil – So Many Uses
By Moira K. Wiley
Emu Today & Tomorrow, October 2001

Research indicates that emu oil is an all-natural substance that is almost 100 percent triglyceride, which means it’s almost a completely neutral lipid. It may have tremendous medicinal and somatic possibilities as a base carrier and natural emollient. Clinical experimentation by various doctors and scientists located in both the United States and Australia have shown that it is deep penetrating, an excellent emulsifier, anti-bacterial, hypoallergenic, and non-comedogenic. More and more medical specialists are discovering the beneficial properties of emu oil and are substituting it in their treatment techniques.

Testimonials say this wondrous oil offers quick relief from insect bites and stings, cuts, scrapes and bruises, burns and sunburns, chapped lips, and other minor skin irritations and has been used effectively on diaper rash, warts, hemorrhoids, scars, stretch marks, hair and scalp problems, and as a skin soothing after-shave. Because of its reputed anti-inflammatory effects on skin tissue and deep penetration, many consumers find it helps provide fast, temporary relief from soreness, leg cramps, and other types of muscle aches, pains, and sprains. When used as a skin-hydrating product, users says it helps to promote natural healing, rejuvenates dry skin, freshens skin tissue, and reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. These uses have been identified as “just the tip of the iceberg” when it comes to all of the uses found for emu oil.

Emu oil has been found to be very effective on burns of all types, including radiation burns caused by cancer treatment, first and second degree burns, and sunburns. Some doctors say that it alleviates pain, enhances healing, and dramatically reduces scarring and blistering. Finding that patients recover sooner and needed fewer skin grafts, some burn hospitals are accepting the use of emu oil on their patients.

Many professional athletes have found it to be an excellent pain reliever, but they aren’t the only ones who can benefit from its powers of pain relief. Muscle strains, sprains, and injured ligaments have been claimed to ease with an emu oil massage. Arthritic pain and sports related injuries have been reported to respond well to the anti-inflammatory properties found in emu oil. It acts much like an analgesic without any known negative side effects and is said to promote 50 percent faster healing. Many hospitals and professional football, basketball, and baseball teams use the oil touted as the “magic oil.”

One of the most beneficial uses of this oil is its anti-aging effectiveness, demonstrated in a study at the Boston University School of Medicine. Many people dislike what time does to their skin, and emu oil seems to be unsurpassed for its moisturizing properties. It’s been said that it will diminish the appearance of fine lines, reduce wrinkles and sagging, and accelerate skin cell regeneration, thus improving the condition and appearance of the skin. One of the effects of aging is the thinning of the skin. Clinical studies have found that dry, aging skin increases in thickness as much as 14 percent when treated, giving the skin is more youthful appearance. Also, age spots and wrinkles have been noted to diminish noticeably.

Science is proving emu oil to be a modern miracle. Wrinkles, hair loss, and aches and pains are all part of growing old, but there is a way to fight back. Sports injuries, burns, and backaches are all part of life, but there is a way to help alleviate pain. Studies and research are ongoing, consumers testimonials are increasing, and doctors in many different fields are beginning to use the oil. The secret to a healthier, pain-free life may lay in the remarkable, totally usable bird…the emu.

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Clinical Usage and Property Observation

In Emu Oil – A Clinical Appraisal of this Natural and Long Used Product, Dr. G.R. Hobday of Australia reported that emu oil had been frequently tested by government and private laboratories, indicating no steroids, hormones or even bacteria when suitably treated.

Discussions with the Aborigines in Wiluna and elsewhere, says the report, have determined that eh methods of treatment used by the natives for the treatment of muscle and joint pain included hanging an emu skin on a tree to collect the oil, and wrapping sufferers in a freshly killed skin. The heat of the sun was used to liquefy the emu fat and enhance its absorption qualities.

A summery of the 1993 Emu Farmers’ Association of Australia Conference by Nadean Hunt revealed that according to the Medicine Man of the Nganganawili in1986, the Aboriginal method for trauma treatment was to wrap the affected area with emu skin, fat side down, and put the patient in the sun so the heat would melt the fat drive the oil into the skin.

According to Dr. Hobday’s report, early white settlers adopted the use of the oil. Not only was it applied for afflictions to the body, but also to leather riding tack to keep it supple and as a cooking oil.

Commenting on the use of the oil by over 500 patients in 10 years, Dr. Hobday noted that there had never been any allergic reactions from the emu oil reported to him. In another aspect indicating shelf life information, many of the patients had used the oil over extended periods of time and “it has been rare for anyone to report that it had deteriorated or ‘gone off’” said the report.

Before recommending it, Dr. Hobday reveals that he had tests performed on the emu oil which included tests for bacteria content and found that “in its pure state it grew no organisms.” Additional tests were performed on a moisturizer compound which contained the oil, an emulsifier, and water. The compound was also challenged against staph aureus, E. coli, pseudomonas, and candida albicans in increasing quantities.

Most significantly, Dr. Hobday affirmed that “From clinical experience with emu oil, it became obvious that its two major actions were its anti-inflammatory properties and its ability to penetrate the skin. It also appears to provide some solar protection.”

Dr. Hobday’s 10 years of clinical usage of emu oil focussed on the skin. The report reveals that “After advising patients of its experimental nature I have prescribed emu oil for use in three main areas: dry skin problems, treatment of muscle aches and pain, and treatment of wounds which had epithelialized.”

Results of usage in these three areas are summarized as follows:

1. Skin

• Eczema – emu oil and creams made of emu oil reduce irritation and inflammation of the skin
• Keloids – significantly reduces recent keloid scarring
• Burns – appears to promote faster healing with less pain and scarring
• Donor sites in skin grafting – reduced pain and less scarring
• Psoriasis – limited benefit in some patients

2. Joints

• Joint pain – reduced pain, swelling, and stiffness most evident where the joint in close to the skin surface, such as hands, feet, knees, and elbows. Massaging of the oil into stiff joints on the hands is of considerable benefit.
• Rheumatoid arthritis – not observed to be effective though colleagues have noticed benefit. Further research required.
• Bruising and muscle pain – significant benefit to recent bruising and muscle pain where injury is relatively superficial. Significant reduction in sports related muscle strains post-exercise with emu oil massages.

3. Recent wounds

• Epithelialized wounds – reduce scar tissue formation, soothing of wounds after surgery by anti-inflammatory action.

Regarding recent wounds, Dr. Hobday elaborated on the scar reduction and anti-inflammatory action by noting that “This has been very evident in coronary artery bypass graft operations where the greatest discomfort often comes from the leg from which the vein has been removed. In my experience, massaging emu oil on this area two or three times per day has significantly speeded up the healing process and reduced scarring.”

Dr. Hobday noted that emu oil is sterile, and hence, there is no concern woith using it on any open area of skin.

The report concluded that emu oil usage has reached a point where additional clinical studies are merited to determine its place in the “medical armamentarium.”

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Using Emu Oil to Relieve Arthritis Symptoms

A preliminary study conducted in 1995 by Dr. Thom Leahey of the Arthritis Clinic in Ardmore , Oklahoma , to determine what effect emu oil has on hands afflicted with arthritis, produced some positive indications that emu oil may substantially reduce the pain caused by arthritis.

“We took a random sampling of 20 volunteers for a double blind, placebo-controlled study using emu oil and mineral oil,“ said Dr. Leahey. “The only qualifying parameter was that the volunteer could not have ever used emu oil before the test. Volunteers also remained on the arthritis medicine they currently taking,” he explained.

“In this two week study, seven of the 12 emu oil users reported significant reduction in pain, morning stiffness, and swelling. Only one of the eight mineral oil (placebo) users related the same results,” reported Dr. Leahey. Encouraged by these preliminary findings, Dr. Leahey felt the oil merited additional investigation through a comprehensive clinical study that could be documented and published in scientific and trade journals.

“When I was initially approached by patients advising me that they were experiencing relief from emu oil, I did a literature search on the topic of emu oil and medical applications. I quickly learned that there is a big void in this area and I found no published articles in scientific or medial journals,” Dr. Leahey revealed.

Personal observation of the effectiveness of the emu oil on his own patients was the motivating factor behind Dr. Leahey ‘s proposal for a clinical study. “The dramatic results I have observed convinced me that this oil can make an impact on those suffering from arthritis,” he stated. “The advent of this oil has simply changed my practice,” he asserted.

He noted that local physicians will be made aware of the study and will be asked to assist in securing volunteers for the study. Also, local newspapers and othjer media surrounding Ardmore will carry advertisements soliciting volunteers.

“The research is imperative,” stated Dr. Leahey. “The initial results and potential are so exciting. I’ve begun recommending the use of emu oil as part of a regular treatment program for patients,” he revealed. “I’ve observed some very surprising results. The oil is very economical compared to regular arthritis medicines, and appears to have fewer side effects,” he continued. “It’s very encouraging to find something that may help relieve the suffering associated with arthritis, and it’s very exciting to be a part of a project that may impact the quality of life for so many people.”

Accoding to the Arthritis Foundation, in the U.S. alone nearly 40 million people suffer form rheumatoid arthritis. Two-point-one million of these suffer from rheumatoid arthritis alone. Arthritis is the nation’s most chronic health problem, costing America nearly 54.6 billion dollars in medical care and lost wages alone. By the year 2020, it is projected that nearly 59 million Americans could have arthritis.

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New Oil Formulation for Arthritis

According to the report, Experimental Study to Determine the Anti-Activity of a New Emu Oil Formulation (EEMP), by Peter Ghosh of the Royal North Shore Hospital of Sydney, Australia and Michael Whitehouse of the University of Adelaide, Australia, a conjoint research project was initiated by the two in 1988 to determine if emu oil showed anti-inflammatory anti-arthritic activity in laboratory animals. At the time of the report, both Dr. Whitehouse and Ghosh “had been engaged in arthritis research for over 25 years ad have published extensively on the evaluation and development of new ant-arthritic drugs.”

The report notes that the two “joined forces with analytical chemist, Dr. Michael Dawson and Aethol Turner, at the University of Technology , Sydney , in order to identify the compounds in emu oil which could be responsible for its remarkable biological properties.”

Expert from Experimental Study to Determine the Anti-arthritic Activity of a New Emu Oil Formulation (EEMP), 1993 Peter Gosh, PH.D., F.R.A.C.I., F.R.S.C. Royal North Shore Hospital of Sydney Australia Michael Whitehouse, D.Phil (Oxon) University of Adelaide, Australia

The classic method of assessing whether a compound has anti-arthritic/anti-inflammatory activity is by the means of the rat polyarthritis model. The arthritis in this model is induced by injecting dead bacteria in a dispersant into the base of the rat tails. Over the next few weeks, the tails and paws swell due to the inflammation caused by the reaction of white cells to the dead bacteria. Drugs under examination can be administered to the rat, orally, topically, or by injecting to determine if they can reduce the joint swelling which would indicate that they exhibited anti-inflammatory activity. 

When emu oil alone was rubbed onto the shaved backs of the arthritic rats, the anti-inflammatory response was not that strong. It was reasoned by the researchers that the low activity could be due to the thickness of the oil which was hindering its penetration through the rats’ skin. This explanation was vindicated by subsequent experiments in which the emu oil was “thinned out” by solvents, such as propanol or ethyl acetate. When such mixtures were applied topically to the rats, almost complete remission of swelling was achieved within several days of application. After testing a wide variety of different thinners of the oil, it was discovered that the combination with eucalyptus oil afforded a good anti-inflammatory formulation in the rat arthritis model. However, the most potent formulation was achieved when methyl salicylate (oil of wintergreen), isopropanol, and menthol were combined with emu oil. The experimental studies showed that a synergistic effect was occurring between emu oil and methyl salicylate, for the anti-inflammatory activate of the combination was greater than the sum of either component when used alone (with isopropanol).

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Oil Evaluation of Arthritis 

In an evaluation of emu oils, Dr. Michael Whitehouse and colleagues evaluated claims for its beneficial effects when applied to the skin to alleviate both local and distal pain and inflammation.

Principal findings, as reported in their abstract given to the World Emu Conference in Adelaide in March of 1996, consisted of (1) Emu oils varied considerably in their ability to suppress the arthritic inflammation; (2) Some oil samples were particularly effective in suppressing development of the rat polyarthritis; (3) Their anti-arthritic activity was enhanced by facilitating skin penetration using known/novel penetration enhancers; (4) Potent concentrates could be prepared by solvent extraction and other fractionation procedures which were low in triglycerides, contained a range of active molecules and under some conditions, consistently prevented development of rat polyarthritis (in contrast to conventional anti-inflammatory drugs).

The findings confirmed other evidence which suggested that different emu oil possessed different level of potency. 

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Emu Oil as a Burn Treatment

Emu Oil Offers Hope to Burn Victims American Emu Association, 2002

Burn victims, unlike many other accident victims, are faced with a multitude of roadblocks on the way to recovery. Beyond the shock and trauma of the initial accident, they must endure agonizing pain, the ever-present risk of infections, and the actual treatment of their wounds, which often entails scraping the burn site to promote new skin growth. The likelihood of extensive scarring without, and sometimes with, numerous plastic procedures is an ever-present anxiety as well. However, some physicians are finding that the addition of emu oil to the treatment regime for burn victims is affording a ray of hope to the future recovery of some burn victims.

Emu oil, in many circles, is known for its support of the healing process where tissue is involved. Dr. Dan Dean, a Mount Pleasant , Michigan physician, states that his use of emu oil has shown promise. “I have used emu oil extensively in the treatment of first, second and third degree burns,” the doctor said. “In my opinion, emu oil greatly contributes to skin health, providing major benefits to the patient. The complex properties and makeup of emu oil are exceptional for overall assistance to burn victims. I repeatedly see positive results, even in those with third degree burns.”

Emu oil with its totally natural properties, may offer burn victims and attending physicians some hope in the battle to promote new skin growth and find ways to lessen the extent of the prolonged and painful traditional treatments of skin scraping and numerous skin grafting in burn cases.

Evaluation of Emu Oil in Lubrication and Treatment of Healed Burn Wounds
S. O’Bannon & J. Griswold, Texas Tech University
Health Sciences Center , Lubbock , Texas American Burn Association
Chicago , Illinois , March 18, 1998

Emu oil has been reported to have significant anti-inflammatory effects, and has been used both in cosmetics and therapeutic vehicles. This experiment was conducted to evaluate emu oil as a lubricant and an aid in reducing scar formation in healed burn wounds. Ten patients were evaluated in a randomized double blind study for a minimum of six months. Patients served as their own control by utilizing bilateral wound areas for application of emu oil (New Discoveries, Inc. Florence , MS) and the placebo lubricant on independent sites respectively. Patients were instructed to apply both lotions daily on an as needed basis. During scheduled out-patient clinic visits, patients’ wounds were evaluated by the Vancouver Scar Assessment Scale. Photos were taken on each clinic visit. Patient days range from 195 to 385 before discontinuation. All of the patients were men, ages range from 24-62 years of age. Per scar assessment, significant differences were noted in pigmentation and pliability (p<0.02). There were no differences noted in vascularity and height of the healed wound, (p=0.08). Pictures were scored by a four person blinded panel on pigmentation, scar maturation, and general health of the skin. Emu treated areas healed significantly better than control in photo analysis. Statistics were calculated by analysis of variance; means were separated with the F-protected predicted differences test. This study demonstrated that emu oil is an effective emollient and appears to have superior qualities when compared to the control vehicle.

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Emu Oil Used in Lowering Cholesterol

Ancient Oil Proven to Lower Cholesterol American Emu Association, 2001

Dr. Robert Nicolosi, Director of the Center for Chronic Disease Control with the University of Massachusetts , has conducted scientific research that emu oil dramatically lowered levels of cholesterol in test animals. “Emu oil is similar to olive oil which has been used for years to control cholesterol levels in cooking.” According to Dr. Nicolosi emu oil is a mysterious medical marvel. “Our research continues to study the many intriguing aspects of this oil and have concluded that its applications can be considered too numerous, but this most recent conclusion is very promising for millions of Americans,” said Nicolosi.

The Lab Director for the Center, Dr. Thomas Wilson, added that further research in scheduled with increasing emphasis aimed at specifically determining human digestible quantities in the most common “across the counter form.”

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Emu Oil in Regards to Cancer Patients

Cancer Patients Compel Physicians to Take a Closer Look at Emu Oil
By Beth Silva
Emu Today & Tomorrow, May 2000

The topic of emu oil in medical applications was recently addressed by Elton J. Lormand, M.D. at the American Oil Chemists Society Annual Meeting & Expo held in San Diego on April 27, 2000. Dr. Lormand is currently conducting research at the Advanced ENT & Facial Surgery Institute in Cullman , Alabama .

Lormand’s discourse, “Potential Medical Applications of Emu Oil,” included a discussion of observational science, double-blind studies, and anecdotal accounts of emu oil. The doctor also discussed patient response and addressed the areas of potential benefit of emu oil in the medical field, including radiation oncology, cosmetic skin therapy, and rheumatology and hyercholesterlemia.

The physician relates that, to date, he has only anecdotal personal experience with emu oil, yet “extreme patient excitement compels a closer look.”

Incredibly, it was Lormand’s head and neck radiation therapy cancer patients who first introduced him to emu oil. Coincidently, patients of a radiation oncologist (and member of Dr. Lormand’s research team) were also using emu oil – without either physician’s prior knowledge.

Regarding emu oil, Lormand remarks, “Our patients are basically directing our efforts. It’s not something that I would have been inclined to pursue on my own to investigate, but our patients are convinced that there’s a benefit to this. So now we are actually encouraging them to use it during their treatment protocol, but we’re not doing that based on scientific data – the patients simply offered the opportunity. Most patients who intend to use it have pretty much been aware of the oil before we even mention to them. There are many cancer patients and they find out about each other, and emu oil is one of the things they find out about, so they’ll often ask us about it before we even mention it. As far as the radiation oncologist, he basically has a patient apply the emu oil prior to treatment. However, none of the patients use the oil unless he approves of it.”

“I give them no specific instructions on how to use it,” concedes the physician. “The patients who do use it, use it at their own direction. They basically apply it 20 minutes prior to their radiation treatment, and some patients actually ingest emu oil for the benefit of the mucosal surfaces. I don’t recommend the indigestion of emu oil, because I have no data to support this procedure. But for the patients who have used it, the damaged mucosa side of the burn is actually lessened as well.”

Lormand relates that some patients apply emu oil to the afflicted area after radiation. “Apparently, they come up with their own regimen,” he says, “and the trend, I guess, if there is one, would be toward applying it to their skin on a more frequent basis.”

The physician stresses that his view regarding recommending the use of emu oil at this point is more of a neutral one.

“Our position has been, ‘It is not likely to harm you, we just don’t know if it will help you.’ But the result in the patients that we’ve seen basically has been one of less burn than would normally be anticipated from the radiation dosage. But the number of patients I’m talking about is not statistically significant, yet there is enough of a difference in my mind to compel a closer look.”

Because his patients “suggested that what they are seeing is real” and in order “to determine whether that is true from a scientific viewpoint or not,” Lormand says that the use of emu oil in radiation treatment requires further research.

“There is interest and that interest is based on observational results as well as patient reports, but the use of emu oil in my mind has only generated a question of benefit, and in order to answer that question research is going to need to be done,” emphasized Lormand. “Multiple purported applications will require multiple research efforts. Anecdotal evidence may serve as a starting point only.”

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A Hair Raising Issue

Excerpt from Kalay ™ Oil: The Promise You Can See and Feel Has Exciting New Developments
Michael F. Holick & James Kinney
Drug and Cosmetic Industry, January 1996

Michael Holick, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Medicine Physiology, and Dermatology at Boston University School of Medicine, conducted a study involving processed emu oil, and the results were so outstanding that they quickly became a topic of conversation in many medical and other journals.

Dr. Holick revealed that he and his associates had been very interested in looking at factors that stimulate and inhibit skin and hair growth. He had been introduced to a processed emu oil known as Kalaya ™ oil by presentatives of New World Technology, a company that processes and sells the oil.

“They had told me about the wonderous thing that it’s doing, at least from the folklore of the Aboriginal people and also from their own anecdotal experience. My feeling was that the only way to really know whether or not this oil has some biologic property was to do a control study in a laboratory setting. So New World Technology sent me some Kalaya ™ oil,” he revealed.

“We depilated some mice and we then topically applied, in a blinded fashion, Kalaya ™ oil and corn oil to two different groups of mice, and we did this for two weeks,” he explained.

Twenty-four hours before the conclusion of the study, the mice were given an injection of a label that indicates what the DNA turnover is. The injection was a monitor of how quickly their DNA was multiplying. Skin was then obtained from the animals the next day and analysed. 

“We found that there was about 20 percent increase in DNA synthesis, which means that there was a 20 percent increase in the proliferative activity, or the growth activity of the skin in the animals that received Kalaya oil, compared to the animals that received corn oil,” said Dr. Holick. “And when we look at the hair follicles, and the thickness of the skin, it showed that the hair follicles were mush more robust, and that the skin thickness was remarkably increased, suggesting that the Kalaya ™ oil stimulated skin growth and hair growth in these animals. Also we discovered in the same test that over 80 percent of hair follicles that had been asleep were woken up, and had begun growing hair.”

“A hair follicle goes through a cycle. It goes from a resting stage into an active growth period, and then it goes back to sleep again. We woke up all the hair follicles by stimulating them, and then we wanted to see if we could further stimulate these hair follicles by topically applying Kalaya ™ oil. We found that there was an enhancement in the growth activity of the hair follicles. So it gives us a very good scientific indication that we were stimulating skin growth,” Dr. Holick elaborated.

As a professor of medicine, physiology, and dermatology, this study indicated to Dr. Holick that emu oil merited additional study.

“There may be some truth to the anecdotal information that is out there about people that have claimed the magical powers of emu oil, and some of the mythical powers of the oil that the Aborigines speak about. We now have some evidence, very preliminary in nature, to suggest that there may be something in Kalaya ™ oil that will actually stimulate skin growth, and maybe either stimulate and or maintain hair growth.”

Dr. Hollick and his colleagues have been interested in developing new products that will specifically enhance skin and hair growth. It was asserted that the “ideal topical moisturizer that would help aging skin should have the ability to help reverse skin dryness and scaling by enhancing the ability of the skin’s upper layers to hold on to water. If the product could also penetrate into the epidermis and stimulate epidermal growth to rejuvenate its rete ridges and could enhance the thickness of the dermis, this product would be ideally suited to help the ravages of skin aging.”

The Kalaya ™ oil tested appeared to “enhance the skin’s ability to withstand the rigors of colder climates,” as demonstrated on a test group of skiers. It was suggested that the oil’s unique ration of C-16 saturated and C-18 unsaturated components might explain the oil’s ability to moisturize and diffuse into the skin. Additionally, the “stereochemistry of the C-18 oleic moiety is thought to play a dominant role in this rapid transformation of rough, dry skin to smooth and healthy appearance.”

The article notes that additional research “is needed to determine whether the effects that were seen in mice are equally applicable to humans.”

Interestingly, tests indicated that the activity of the Kalaya ™ oil appeared to be “synergistically increased when used in combination with phospholipids.”

Other applications were explored in chemically treated hair, as an additive in health and beauty treatments, as well as shampoos and skin care products. Surprisingly, testing in a double blind panel tests indicated that “in liniment base formulas, the presence of Kalaya ™ oil showed evidence of being a strong counterirritant in glyceryl monosterate/ethoxylated cetyl alcohol prototypes.”

Many exciting observations were noted throughout the preclinical study. One such observation noted that with Kalaya ™ oil, the performance of sunscreen pretectants was enhanced, and it is believed that the oil “locks-down” UVA/UVB absorbents more firmly to the skin and therefore increases the longevity of the sun protection properties.”

In another observation of skin moisturizing crèmes and body lotion, the Kalaya ™ prototype completely outscored their placebo counterparts in providing visible and felt benefits to all skin types.”

A final observation yielded very interesting results from the uses of the oil as a shaving cream. It was noted that the “frequency of ingrown beard problems in Afro-American panellists was virtually eliminated after three applications of the Kalaya ™ oil shave cream.”

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Dermatological Usage of Emu Oil

Expert from Aiming Beyond Conventional Care
By Beth Silva
Emu Today & Tomorrow, October 1998

Esta Kronberg, a dermatologist specializing in Dermatological Surgery as Cosmetic Dermatology, is just one of a growing number of medical experts that are taking a closer look at emu oil.

Well known in the Houston medical field where her practice has been located for the past 13 years, Kronberg’s goal is to provide her patients with the best skin care possible. Also on the medical advisory board for the publication Derma, she has been quoted in magazines such as Good Housekeeping, Allure, and Glamour. Her treatments embrace acute skin care problems including burns, skin disease, psoriasis, rosaceae, eczema, as well as anti-aging and general skin improvement treatments.

While some dermatologists may continually treat skin care patients with routine medicine, Kronberg, in an effort to keep paces with advances in both conventional and alternative medicine, utilizes the best of both for the patient’s benefit.

“A lot of times an emu oil product is my first choice, even though I can choose any prescription that I wish, and the irony is that the emu oil works so well,” conceded Kronberg.

Kronberg’s husband, Bill Davis, was the first of the pair to be introduced to emu oil. “I read a small article in a chemical magazine that discussed the benefits of emu oil and mentioned that it was an excellent moisturizer. It caught my attention because we’re always looking for pharmaceutical grade, highly purified, high quality products for our (skin care products) program. And our belief is that although there are many products on the market, better can always be located. And so it was we found emu oil.”

After Davis obtained several emu oil samples, he began sharing some with acquaintances. One such individual was a woman about to undergo a plastic surgery treatment on her neck. Davis explained that the procedure is painful, irritating to the skin, and results in redness as well as blistering and scabbing.

“Familiar with our (skin care) products program, she enquired if we had something that could help,” says Davis . “I told her we were experimenting with a wonderful moisturizer and suggested she give it a try. I sent her a sample and a request that she let me know how it worked. After using the oil pre- and post- surgery she reported that she experienced minimal pain with no blistering or scabbing whatsoever. On her first checkup with her surgeon, she noted that he was visibly impressed with her wound’s rapid progression and questioned her as to what she was using because she had not disclosed that she wasn’t using the product that he normally recommends. And this was our first real clue that this product indeed has not only anti-inflammatory capabilities, but much more.”

A short time after that incident, Davis supplied an acquaintance, who is a nurse, with an oil sample. He explains that this woman was on leave from a dermatology office (located on a psoriasis treatment center) because her own ten year experience with severe psoriases was not subsiding.

Recalls Davis , “Her first report a week later was that she was already experiencing relief. Her itching was subsiding, the discoloration was fading, and she requested more oil! We ran into her at a drug conference in California just three weeks later, and we didn’t recognise her at first. She was wearing short sleeves for the first time in ten years, because it was a large portion of her arms and legs that had been affected.”

“I couldn’t believe what I saw and asked her ot let me have a closer examination,” says Kronberg. “What I found was that her psoriasis was almost completely resolved!”

So the couple stepped up their research into the oil’s properties, and Kronberg began using it on patients – but not just with anyone. She remarks, “I give it to the worst patients with extremely severe problems, such as burns, rosaceae, psoriasis, eczema, and I’ve been extremely pleased with the results. It brings immediate relief to a lot of individuals, and as a result, I have a lot of happy patients.”

She continued, “We have patients who come in that have had laser resurfacing or bad chemical peels somewhere else and are severely burned. We give them the emu oil as an application, and it calms things down tremendously and keeps the skin from scarring. We also use the oil on sores that haven’t initially healed. And on patients with severe rosaceae, emu oil calms down the redness of skin and inflammation of blood vessels, and they don’t break out even though it’s oil. This is because the oil is non-comedogenic.”

“I’ve observed that the oil has an extreme anti-inflammatory response and is a healing aid. Even when my topically applied steroids and antibiotics don’t work well on rosaceae patients, once applied the emu oil will calm things down, and they report immediate relief.”

Another area in her practice that Kronberg uses emu oil as a treatment is before-and-after application to sites of laser tattoo removal. She relates that the oil stops the initial onset of discomfort from stinging and pain associated with this procedure and that it encourages a superior and faster healing process.

Kronberg also uses the oil on young patients. She relates, “It’s great for using on kids getting their shots. If you medicate the area prior to injection with emu oil (no anesthetic), and then directly afterwards, it diminishes discomfort and they don’t get achy and irritable later on.” Kronberg says that she uses the oil for the same objective herself when administering shots before travelling abroad.

She’s not the only doctor with an interest in using the oil to block pain before and after an injection procedure. Dr. William Code of Duncan , British Columbia , has researched the advantages of using emu oil with the local anesthetic Lidocaine and has delivered several discourses on his research findings. And there’s even been a patient involving this same function for the oil. The patent “Compositions Compromising Lidocaine and Emu Oil and Methods of Use Thereof” was granted to inventor David Rivlin in 1997.

Davis is very excited and optimistic about the utilization of emu oil in medical procedures and relates he thinks that emu oil lives up what it’s been reported to do – as a “bioactive transport,” in that it has the capability to carry other ingredients into the skin. “It actually takes the ingredients into the skin with it as long as the ingredient molecule is small enough to penetrate the skin. And since it takes it quickly, we tend to see things improve faster.”

Adds Davis, “And our feeling is that if at all possible, start the healing process prior to a procedure in order to accelerate the body’s ability to heal itself. Emu oil is doing that. We believe that if you can prep the skin with the oil in advance of a procedure, similar to prepping you body prior to a marathon, chances are that the healing process will be dramatically improved, and that’s what we’ve found. We’re actually able to see a 50 percent improvement time with patients recovering from laser resurfacing, when they’re going back to work in just two weeks, vs. four weeks or more, and with no blisters or scabs!”

The mechanics of Emu Oil and Its Relation to Skin Afflictions
By Beth Silva
Emu Today & Tomorrow, October 1999

Emu oil is just one of a member of mediums currently being employed by a growing number of physicians in alternative and conventional health care.

Because so many users of emu oil often appear to experience complete alleviation from various conditions, the question arises: How does the oil work? The explanation, accoriding to Dr. Leigh Hopkins, consultant pharmacist and Clinical Professor of Pharmacy, lies within what happens with various pathologies and how the oil may help bring those back into correct balance.

In a recent interview, Hopkins offered to share a macro view of a plausible explanation of the discerned benefits of emu oil in relation to various skin conditions. Hopkins emphasized that today’s modest explanation of how emu oil works may be modified as additional research is documented.

Today, emu oil is being used around the world by a growing number of individuals, from pharmaceutical and cosmetic product manufacturers to family physicians and compounding pharmacists. 

“It is clear from documented ‘before and after’ pictures and from what we hear and see – sorting through the real activities of the oil versus coincidental, chance occurrences – that healing is occurring,” says Hopkins . “At the same time, when the oil is used in a topical application on normal or dry skin, for example, there is also improvement in the quality of the skin itself that occurs fairly quickly. This indicates that there are two processes going on, one of which deals with the epidermis (skin’s outer layer), which is essentially a dead layer of protein.

Hopkins explains that the epidermis serves as the protective function of the skin and is analogous to fingernails, toenails, or hair – all being nonviable cells.

“While you may be able to hydrate the skin – plump up the epidermis and make it softer and smoother – that’s incidental to the healing benefit that’s also being seen with the oil,” adds Hopkins . “The healing has to be occurring within the dermis (skin’s lower levels) and in the cells that are viable, that is, cells that can divide. Those are the cells from which healing has to come. And those cells, depending on the nature of the wound, may have to differentiate into other types of cells. So, the healing process occurs from the dermis, and emu oil has an impact on healing at the dermal level.”

Because activity is occurring at both the epidermis and dermis levels, Hopkins comments that there could be two entirely different mechanisms – two explanations, and probably multiple different explanations for the activity at either site. Putting it simply, there’s no single explanation as to the function of emu oil as it relates to the restoration of various conditions.

Numerous companies now offer pure emu oil. This is because emu oil has been documented to exhibit anti-inflammatory, moisturizing, and significant epidermal proliferative activity (among others), and the oil appears to promote faster healing of burns with less pain and scarring.

“It’s that broad group of activities that make the emu oil appear to be snake oil,” says Hopkins . “If we take a series of skin conditions that respond in various ways to emu oil, such as dry skin, various burns, ulcers, wounds, eczema, psoriasis, etc., each of those conditions in the hands of conventional medicine ahs its won unique therapeutic approach. That the oil works where we use a number of different types of drugs is what makes it hard for conventional medicine community to accept that the oil can be operating across a broad range of disease conditions by way of some common action within the dermis layer of the skin.”

Hopkins relates that the one problem the emu oil industry faces is coming up with explanations as to why the oil helps alleviate various pathologies. He remarks that the industry has to explain fundamental mechanisms under which the oil is working.

“And those more fundamental mechanisms are really basic nutritional mechanisms – fats that are in emu oil,” says Hopkins . “And the ratios of fats in emu oil are critical to the normalization of the healing process. I don’t want to single out a single fat, that’s probably incorrect, it’s more the composition of fats in emu oil (linoleic, oleic, palmitic, stearic, palmitoleic), or a ratio of saturated to unsaturated fats, or some other relationship within all these fats rather than a specific fat, there are a lot of ways to get those fats from other oils. But the ratios of those fats are likely to be important to the benefits that we see with the oil.”

Dr. Hopkins, whose undergraduate work was in biochemistry, relates that there may be numerous explanations for emu oil’s specific influences on body cells themselves and on receptors within the cells. He also mentions that emu oil does more than just prompt healing. Says Hopkins , “It’s clear that the oil does work and this would have to be labelled in a macro and fundamental level of healing. And we don’t necessarily want to think of emu oil as stimulating healing – it can be retarding or blocking an excess activity, as well sa stimulating an underperforming activity. Any and all of those depends on the underlying explanation for a specific disease.”

Hopkins says that this may be the case with the use of emu oil with psoriasis or other skin maladies. “In certain conditions, taking psoriasis (a condition that responds in a variable fashion to emu oil) for example, in which there are specific cells that are out of control – those cells need to be tamed, if you will.”

According to Hopkins , a better way to describe what emu oil does for the body would be that “…emu oil help to normalize basic cellular function, and enable the body to progress with what should be normal healing.”

“We know from our experiences that the oil does work, and it does normalize various conditions,” continues Hopkins . “And I emphasize normalization. With emu oil, we can typically increase or decrease whatever is going on because often the problem is because something is either not performing well enough or another system is over performing. For example, an excessive inflammatory condition is an overperformance of a system that is designed normally to produce an inflammatory response because that’s part of the bosy’s normal response to some invasion of organisms or other foreign substances. The concept of normalization involves progressing past that inflammatory response and moving into the next phase of the response – to whatever has been presented to the body. And sometimes things get hung up in those different phases and you have to give them a little boost – get them moving.”

Hopkins relates that at the root of almost every chronic and acute skin condition is a cell line or hormonal response that is exaggerated, which needs to be kicked into it’s next phase of healing. He adds that these are complex phases of healing that go on and are incompletely understood.

The fact the emu oil appears to help normalize basic cellular function in so many skin ailments is outstanding. Emu oil has been successfully employed on various types of burns, as well as on abrasions and also gaping wounds.

Regarding the use of emu oil on deep wounds, Hopkins says, “It’s very impressive when you see after a certain amount of time that you can have an essentially completely healed system – everything has been replaced, the muscle, the tendon, the nerves, the blood vessels, the skin – repaired and grown back. The very impressive abilty of emu oil is that it seems to encourage those systems to work in concert as they’re designed to do. When you’re deficient in certain components, that system then doesn’t heal normally, quickly, etc., and the oil simply helps to orchestrate the healing process.”

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Use of Emu Oil in Conventional Medicine

Employing Emu Oil in the Doctor’s Office Emu Today & Tomorrow, October 1999

On a ordinary day, Dr. Dan Dean will use a emu oil product on an average of a dozen patients in his private practice in Mt. Pleasant , Michigan .

Pure emu oil is employed by the physician mainly on clients suffering from various burns and abrasions.

“In addition to abrasions and burns, I also use pure emu oil on scars and wounds,” says Dean, who has spent the last 30 years in private family practice. “I do a lot of in-office skin surgeries, and anytime the patient walks out of the office, they have the oil to use on the wound because emu oil enhances wound healing.”

The patients are told to apply the emu oil or to remoisten the bandage three times daily, usually until their next appointment.

During allergy season, emu oil is employed of the by the doctor, who has developed a nasal spray products, one of several emu oil products from his product line The Dean’s List. He relates that he’s interested in making pure emu oil, as well as medicinal emu oil products available to his patients. One product that he uses perhaps the most often during allergy season is Emusol nasal spray (98 percent pure emu oil).

“I’ve probably had well over 500 people use my nasal spray with very good success, says Dean. “The nasal spray has been practically a miracle drug – it does such a fantastic job. These people say they can now breathe. I also use it for kids with bloody noses. It moistens the nasal mucosa and brings it back to its normal function.”

In additional to pure emu oil, Dean relates that he also employs emu oil in conjunction with some conventional drugs, including anti-fungal medication. 

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Chiropractic Usage of Emu Oil

An Adjustment in Chiropractic
Emu Today & Tomorrow, July 1995

Chiropractic was founded in 1895 by Daniel David Palmer of Davenport , Iowa . The term “chiropractic” was taken from the Greek meaning “done by hand”. In 100 years, chiropractic practice has grown to 50 000 licensed chiropractors, making it the third largest group of healthcare practitioners, behind physi-cians and dentists.

According to the 1994 June issue of Consumer Reports, some 15 to 20 million Americans visit chiropractors annually. Dr Patty Headly of Tonkawa, Oklahoma and Dr Ron Westbrook of Decatur, Texas see a small portion of those 20 million Americans daily, and every one of those patients has experienced the benefits of emu oil and chiropractic treatments.

“I have started using massage treatments in my practice,” explained Dr Headly. “Since I have been doing massage, emu oil has become a major part of my practice. I do both massage and adjustments, and the emu oil is virtually used from head to toe. People with chronic shoulder and knee problems get help from the adjustment, but the emu oil really does the final trick during the massage. I find it absolutely amazing.”

“I can get results using chiropractic alone on lower back pain,” said Dr Headly. “However, it seems that when I use the emu oil in conjunction with the chiropractic, the relief is quicker and the muscles stay relaxed longer, and therefore the treatment last longer.”

According to Dr Ron Westbrook, he has been using the emu oil in his practice for approximately eight months, and he and his patients both are enjoying some of the little comforts that accompany using the oil rather than the conventional conductive gels and creams.

“What I enjoy most about using the emu oil is that I have a lot more freedom of motion when massaging,” said Dr Westbrook. “The patients are more comfortable because I am not pulling on the skin, and there are no offensive odors such as you have with the conventional creams.

However the most significant observation that I have made is that the treatments with the oil last longer than without. The oil relaxes the muscles so well that the treatments hold for a longer period of time,” he explained.

Dr Headly illustrated that there are ligaments and muscles that are attached to the spine. When the spine is misaligned, anything that can cause those tissues to become loose or more fluid is great help. The more fluid the muscles, the less likely they will pull back out of alignment.

Dr Headly revealed she had a patient who had experienced numerous surgeries. Due to those surgeries, the abdominal skin tissue had lost elasticity to the point of becoming dough-like in texture. Dr Headly stated that after conducting massage treatments using the emu oil on her abdomen, the texture of the skin changed and elasticity was renewed. Even scar tissue began healing.

According to Dr Headly, chiropractic adjustment can even be made to relieve hemorrhoids. However depending on the severity of the condition, the adjustment may not be able to offer complete relief, as was the case with one of Dr Headly’s patients.

“This particular patient told me that the adjustment worked great for the internal condition, but not for the external discomfort,” explained Dr Headly. “I gave her some emu oil to try, and she came in later with her eyes as big as half dollars demanding to know what that stuff was and where could she get more of it. She just kept saying, ‘It worked. It worked! It worked!”

Dr Headly and her colleague Dr Westbrook are firm believers in the benefits of emu oil, and where they can, they promote the usage thereof.

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Emu Oil as a Veterinarian Aid

Emu Oil is Going to the Dogs… and Horses… and …
Emu Today & Tomorrow, February 1996

It seems that people involved in the emu industry and emu oil product manufacturers have been flooding chiropractors, medical doctors, arthritis clinics, burn centers, and pharmacies with gallons and gallons of emu oil, forsaking an industry that consists of as many as 55,000 practitioners. These practitioners, also skilled in the healing arts and having a great need for the benefits of emu oil, are veterinarians.

Seizing the opportunity to introduce a product that he knew could benefit the field of veterinary medicine, Gordon Grabil, president of the Great Lakes Emu Association, took a bottle of the oil to his veterinarian and asked him to give it a try.

“I can definitely be labelled as a ‘doubting Thomas,’” confessed Dr. Matthew Zimmer. “When Gordon brought me the oil, I only saw a trade person promoting a product that I knew nothing about. He described the properties of the oil and provided me with some literature concerning some of the research being done and some of the human uses for the oil. Since he was providing me with the product and I had nothing to lose, I thought it was worth a try.”

Dr. Zimmer says that although he has not set up any clinical trials or blind studies on the oil, he has experienced enough success with the oil in the field that he now purchases the oil regularly and uses it along with various medications to treat horses, cows, calves, and small animals.

According to Dr. Zimmer, the emu oil has best benefited his practice because of its transport capabilities. Using the oil in combination with other medications, including DMSO (also a transport carrier), he has successfully treated lesions, lacerations, and applied it to sutures.

“I have discovered numerous benefits to using the oil,” confessed Dr. Zimmer. “The epithelial character of the oil is beneficial. The oil also tends to be bacteriostatic; it keeps the wounds moist and has transport capability which are big advantages.”

Dr. Zimmer says by combining emu oil with an antibiotic or DMSO and treating sutured wounds with the mixture, he has not had to change bandages as frequently and has been able to release injured animals sooner.

“Since I am more of an equine practitioner and see more horses than anything else, that is predominantly what I have been using the emu oil on,” revealed Dr. Zimmer. “Horses have a tendency to produce too much scar tissue, otherwise known as exuberant granulation tissue, or proud flesh. Many times wounds on horses may go unnoticed for two or three days, because the animal isn’t examined every day. When I am presented with wounds that are several days old, I clean the wound and begin a bandage protocol using a topical application of a mixture of emu oil and other medications that I developed. As a result, I found less potential for proud flesh production.”

In the bovine industry, Dr. Zimmer says that it seems everyone has a different remedy fro ringworm. Since he began using the “ancient Aboriginal secret,” Dr. Zimmer says that he has the remedy to top all remedies for ringworm, and show calves no longer have to worry about those unsightly blemishes. And when it comes to dairy cows, emu oil is an “udder” miracle.

“When I combine the normal ringworm treatment with emu oil, I have found that the disease patch will disappear at a quicker rate,” explained Dr. Zimmer. In dairy cows, I have found that the emu oil works great on sore, chapped, or ulcerated teat ends. This is one of the main areas that I use the pure oil on because we are talking about milk production here. Drugs will show residues in milk, and you cannot have milk enter in the line with those kinds of residues. As far as I know, emu oil doesn’t appear to have any residue activity at all. It is similar to a bag balm or udder balm.”

When it comes to the smaller animal applications, Dr. Zimmer says that emu oil has really been a source of remedial comfort when it comes to cast sores, lesions, or pressures sores, especially since they are wounds that cannot be sutured.

“I couldn’t tell you if emu oil alone is what I am seeing benefits from,” confessed Dr. Zimmer. “However, I can say it is definitely helping. It definitely assists the other pharmaceutical agents that I am using. I would be interested in doing a more controlled study to determine just how much the oil does affect the healing process and relief of pain. I am also considering exploring the use of emu oil on sore joints in horses.”

Shouldn’t the 54,999 other veterinaries in the United States be able to experience the wonders of emu oil that Dr. Zimmer has? There are approximately 27 schools and colleges of veterinary medicine in existence in the United States today, every one of them an open door of opportunity.

According to the Funk & Wagnall’s Encyclopedia, as compiled by Future Vision Multimedia’s Infopedia, modern veterinary medicine has been placed on the same basis as human medicine, and similar methods of investigation are employed. Also, animals furnish about 28 percent of the world’s total value of agricultural products, and in the U.S. , animal products account for as much as 53 percent of the total agricultural income.

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Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Using Emu Oil for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
By Dr. Leigh Hopkins Emu Today & Tomorrow, August 1997

Several folks have reported relief from the carpal tunnel syndrome symptoms of burning and tingling numbness in the fingers with applications of emu oil to the wrist area. Since some individuals suffer permanent nerve damage from carpal tunnel syndrome, it is with some degree of caution when recommending emu oil for treatment.

Carpal tunnel syndrome is repetitive stress injury reported at an increasing rate in the U.S. work force. Anyone who does repetitive work with their hands and arms is susceptible. Musicians, cooks, writers, typists, and others complain of finger stiffness in the morning, a weakened grip, and pain and numbness in the hands and wrists.

The syndrome occurs when the tendons in the wrists become inflamed after some type of aggravation such as typing or writing. These tendons pass between the bones and ligaments of the palm of the hand in a constricted area called a tunnel. Treatment includes resting the hands using splints. Oral and injected anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, are also common treatments. Surgery may be used to expand the tunnel and reduce the pressure on the nerve that is causing the pain.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke report that one percent of individuals with this syndrome develop permanent injury. The majority recover completely and can avoid re-injury by changing the way they do repetitive movements, the frequency with which they do the movements, and the amount of time they rest between periods when they perform repetitive movements.

An uncommon, but very effective, treatment is to take vitamins B6 and B12. Doctors noticed that carpal tunnel syndrome often occurred in woman on birth control pills that had high estrogen doses (these products are no longer available). Pregnant woman also have an increased risk for carpal tunnel syndrome. And finally, diabetics are also at increased risk. All these conditions are associated with an increased need for vitamin B6.

Emu oil may act in an anti-inflammatory manner to relieve the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, similar to oral anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin and Motrin.

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Athletic Usage of Emu Oil

Athletes and Emu Oil™: A New Way to Relieve Pain, Strains, and Stiffness
American Emu Association, 2000

Jeff Berthelsen, a 26-year-old triathlete, has had chronic knee problems since high school. After intensive training sessions, using emu oil on his knees helps alleviate pain and stiffness. Ronald Thomas, a senior triathlete, also uses emu oil to maintain flexibility and for back pain after competition.

Members of the American Emu Association have had similar reports from other athletes across the nation and from collegiate and professional sports teams, as well. “We’re finding more athletes using emu-based creams and emu oil as part of their training regimen and for rehabilitation,” said Neil Williams, president of the AEA. “And because emu oil is relatively new in the marketplace, most people are surprised about how effective it is.”

Doug Atkinson, a team trainer with the National Basketball Association for 30 years, said he learned about the anti-inflammatory properties of emu oil in 1992. One of the Dallas Mavericks, Fat Lever, had undergone surgery on both knees and after two years in rehabilitation, was still unable to play because of swelling and inflammation.

“Within six weeks after using emu oil, the inflammation and swelling was gone and Lever was able to practice and play without limitation,” said Atkinson, who has retired and now owns a wellness firm that markets emu-based products.

One of the trainer’s emu oil products is used throughout the NBA, by NFL teams, and major league baseball teams as well as by high school and college athletes. “Emu oil acts as a transdermal carrier, delivering relief directly to the muscle or joint,” Atkinson said.

Allen Hurst, an emu producer, was a trainer in the NFL for 22 years before retiring to his ranch. “We were always getting new products to try,” he said, “and because we were dealing with well-conditioned athletes, if a product worked, it was extremely effective.”

Hurst found that emu oil was beneficial in the training room because it penetrated the skin rapidly, as proven in laboratory studies. And when used with another product – such as analgesic balm – it enhanced the performance of that product. “It doesn’t take much oil to accomplish the relief you need,” said the retired trainer, “and it also is effective in wound care.”

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Future Uses for Emu Oil

Numerous commercial applications are currently being explored. Because of high terminal energy transfer rates, the oil is being explored as a cutting oil. The apparent antibacterial properties seem to indicate that the oil would be useful, not only in industrial purposes, but also in applications where oil must be kept from drying, such as in printing presses. Other antibacterial uses could be in lotions for occupations that require continuous hand washing, such as nursing and other medical professions.

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Chapter 3: Testimonials

Oleic Acid May Be Used to Treat Breast Cancer

Emu Today and Tomorrow February 2005

A resent study by researchers at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare’s Breast Cancer Translational Research Program, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute, Northwestern University ’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and the Medical Oncology Division at Institut Catala d’Oncologia in Girona , Spain has found that oleic acid can hasten the death of breast cancer cells.

The cancer gene Her-2/neu, which is responsible for a particularly aggresive form of breast cancer, was treated with oleic acid derived from olive oil in the study with a 46 percent cut in the expression of the gene.

According tot he Evanston Northwestern Healthcare website (www.enh.org), Dr Ruth Lupu, a co-author of the study, states, “We observed that oleic acid not only suppressed the levels of the oncogene Her-2/neu but it also improved the effeciency of the drug HerceptinTM that is already being used fort he treatment of many woman with breast cancer.”

The researchers plan tol ook into how oleic acid in a woman’s diet can kill these cancer cells. Of the total fatty acid content of emu oil, over 40 percent is oleic acid. The emu industry should watch the further development of these studies.

Figure 1 from left to right:

Palmitic Acid – Palmitoleic Acid – Stearic Acid – Oleic Acid – Linoleic Acid – Linolenic Acid.

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Aiming beyond conventional care

A dermatologist uses emu oil in acute skin care
By Beth Silva

(--- material ommitted for brevity)

Esta Kronberg, a dermatologist specialising in Dermatologic Surgery and Cosmetic Dermatology, is just one of a growing number of medial experts that are taking a closer look at emu oil ---

Well known in the Houston medical field where her practice has been located for the past 13 years, Kronberg’s goal is to provide her patients with the best skin care possible. Also on the medical advisory board for the publication Derma, she has been quoted in magazines such as Good Housekeeping, Allure and Glamour. Her treatments embrace acute skin care problems including burns, skin disease, psoriasis, roacea, eczema, as well as anti-aging and general skin improvement treatments.

While some dermatologists may continually treat skin care patients with routine medicine, Kronberg, in an effort to keep pace with advances in both conventional and alternative medicine, utilizes the best of both for the patient’s benefit. “A lot of times an emu oil product is my first choice, even though I can choose any prescription that I wish, and the irony is the emu oil works so well,” concedes Kronberg.

Kronberg’s husband, Bill Davis, was the first of the pair to be introduced to emu oil. ---“I read a small article in a chemical magazine that discussed the benefit of emu oil and mentioned that it was an excellent moisturizer. It caught my attention because we’re always looking for pharmaceutical grade, highly purified, high quality products for our (skin care products) program. And our belief is that although there are many products on the market, better can always be located. And so it was we found emu oil.”

After Davis obtained several emu oil samples, he began sharing some with acquaintances. One such an individual was a woman about to undergo a plastic surgery treatment on her neck. Davis explained that the procedure is painful, irritating to the skin and results in redness as well as blistering and scabbing.

“Familiar with our (skin care) product program, she inquired if we had something that could help,” says Davis . “I told her we were experimenting with a wonderful moisturizer, and suggested she give it a try. I sent her a sample, and a request that she let me know how it worked. After using the oil pre- and postsurgery she reported that she experienced minimal pain with no blistering or scabbing whatsoever. On her first checkup with her surgeon, she noted that he was visibly impressed with her wound’s rapid progression and questioned her as to what she was using because she had not disclosed that she wasn’t using the product he normally recommends. And this was our first clue that this product indeed has not only anti-inflammatory capabilities, but much more.”

A short time after the incident, Davis supplied an acquaintance, who is a nurse, with an oil sample. He explains that this woman was on leave from a dermatology office (located in a psoriasis treatment center) because her own 10 year experience with sever psoriasis was not subsiding.

Recalls Davis , “Her first report a week later was that she was already experiencing relief. Her itching was subsiding, the discoloration was fading and she requested more oil! We ran into her at a drug conference in California just three weeks later, and we didn’t recognize her at first. She was wearing short sleeves for the first time in ten years, because it was a large portion of her arms and legs that had been affected.”

“I couldn’t believe what I saw and asked her to let me have a closer examination,” says Kronberg. “What I found was that her psoriasis was almost completely resolved!”

---So the couple stepped up their research into emu oil’s properties and Kronberg began using it on patients – but not just anyone. She remarks, “I give it to the worst patients with extremely severe problems, such as burns, rosacea, psoriasis, eczema, and I’ve been extremely pleased with the results. It brings immediate relief to a lot of individuals, and as a result, I have a lot of happy patients.”

She continued, “We have patients that come in that have had laser resurfacing or bad chemical peels somewhere else and are severely burned. We give them the emu oil as an application and it calms things down tremendously and keeps the skin from scarring. We also use the oil n sores that haven’t initially healed. And on patients with severe rosacea, emu oil calms down the redness of the skin and inflammation of blood vessels, and they don’t break out even though it’s an oil. This is because the oil is non-comedogenic (won’t clog pores).

I’ve observed that the oil has an extreme anti-inflammatory response and is a healing aid. Even when my topically applied steroids and antibiotics don’t work well on rosacea patients, once applied, the emu oil will calm things down and the report immediate relief.”

Another area in her practice that Kronberg uses emu oil as a treatment is before-and-after application to sites of laser tattoo removal. She relates that the oil stops the initial onset of discomfort from stinging and pain associated with this procedure and that it encourages a superior and faster healing process.

Kronberg also uses the oil on young patients. She relates, “It’s great for using on kids getting their shots. If you medicate the area prior to injection with emu oil (emu oil only, no anesthetic), and then directly afterwards, it diminishes discomfort and they don’t get achy and irritable later on.” Kronberg says that she uses the oil for the same objective herself when administering shots before travelling abroad.

She’s not the only doctor with an interest in using the oil to block pain before and after an injection procedure. Dr. William Code of Duncan , British Columbia , has researched the advantages of using emu oil with the local anesthetic Lidocaine and has delivered several discourses on his research findings. And there’s even been a patient involving this same function for the oil. The patent “Compositions Compromising Lidocaine and Emu Oil and Methods of Use Thereof” was granted to inventor David Rivlin in 1997.

Davis is very excited and optimistic about the utilization of emu oil in medical procedures and relates he thinks that emu oil lives up what it’s been reported to do – as a “bioactive transport,” in that it has the capability to carry other ingredients into the skin. “It actually takes the ingredients into the skin with it as long as the ingredient molecule is small enough to penetrate the skin. And since it takes it quickly, we tend to see things improve faster.”

Adds Davis, “And our feeling is that if at all possible, start the healing process prior to a procedure in order to accelerate the body’s ability to heal itself. Emu oil is doing that. We believe that if you can prep the skin with the oil in advance of a procedure, similar to prepping you body prior to a marathon, chances are that the healing process will be dramatically improved, and that’s what we’ve found. We’re actually able to see a 50 percent improvement time with patients recovering from laser resurfacing, when they’re going back to work in just two weeks, vs. four weeks or more, and with no blisters or scabs!”

Reprinted from Emu Today & Tomorrow, October 1998

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Australian Legacy Press Releases

How did an Emu help Paula Radcliffe win the marathon?

Libby Brookes finds out Tuesday April 15, 2003 The Guardian After pounding her way to victory, and into the record books, in Sunday’s London Marathon, Paula Radcliffe acknowledged a curious debt of gratitude. The athlete nearly missed the race after a collision with a cyclist during a training run in New Mexico only a month ago left her with a dislocated yaw, whiplash and injuries to her shoulders, knees and hip. On the recommendation of her physiotherapist Gerard Hartmann, Radcliffe treated her wounds with an ancient Aborigianal cure reputed to have powerful healing and pain-relieving properties – emu oil. Hartmann, who had originally been alerted to the alternative therapy by Australian Olympic gold medallist Cathy Freeman, praised the curative qualities of the oil. “If you saw the photographs of the day after Paula’s accident you’d never have thought she’d have been here,” he said on Sunday. “Sonia [O’Sullivan, former world 5,000m champion] had emu oil with her and then we got some flown in. It certainly seemed to aid Paula’s recovery.” Although relatively unknown in this country, emu oil has been classified as a pharmaceutical product by the Australian department of health. A secondary product of the now multimillion dollar emu farming industry in Australia and the United States , the oil is derived from the fat of the flightless bird. Akin to the camel, emu have a fatty saddle on their backs which sustains the male of the species when nesting on developing eggs. (The emu population appears to have a thoroughly modern approach to childcare.) John Renshaw, managing director of the Pioneer Trading Company, the UK ’s main importer of emu oil, says that demand for the substance has increased substantially since he began brining it into the country in 1993. “It’s extremely popular, but the interest is mainly word-of-mouth. The oil is deeply penetrating and incredibly soothing – it has great vascularising effects, increasing the blood flow, and it’s extremely effective in cases of inflamed joints. It’s used a lot in arthritis care and for back injuries.” Renshaw says that Australian athletes have been training with emu oil since 1988, when it became popular during Seoul Olympics. “Sport physiotherapists use it as a massage oil to reduce injuries and cut down on recovery time.” Also recommended for its cosmetic properties, emu oil is a natural emollient and some practioners claim that it can help to combat the effects of the aging process. In a recent study at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell , Dr. Robert Nicolosi, director of the center for chronic disease control and prevention announced that the oil had a “significant” anti-inflammatory effect, while the data suggested that its ability to deliver nutrients to the skin surface might be greater than other oils currently used in current over-the counter remedies. None the less, most of the evidence supporting emu oil’s healing properties remains purely anecdotal. Osteopath and accupunturist Debbie Watt uses the oil regularly with her clients. “I think it’s great, and I don’t use anything else now. I mainly deal with muscular and skeletal problems, so I use it for its anti-inflammatory properties, applying it topically. I use to be pretty sceptical and think that things that were rubbed on were of limited use, and that it was as much the process of massage that made the difference, but with emu oil I’ve had a lot of feedback that it does actually work for itself.” Although the oil is hailed for its anti-inflammatory properties, the Arthritis Research Campaign says it remains dubious about the substance, pointing out that it has not come across any clinical trials of the oil in this country. But at the Margaret Hill clinic in Warwickshire, which specialises in the natural treatment of arthritis, nutritional practitioner Christine Horner describes emu oil as one of her favourite treatments. “we concentrate on diet, but if people have a stubborn pain in one particular joint then it can be helpful to apply something externally. Emu oil works well as an anti-inflammatory, and patient feedback has been good, though sometimes something as simple as extra virgin olive oil can do the trick.” She admits that she was surprised when she heard Paula Radcliffe ex tolling its virtues in the national media. “You tend to assume that people don’t know about hese things. I’nm sure that the people who make I are delighted.” But those working directly with sports injuries remain uncertain about the treatment. As John Brewer, joint director of the sport injury and human performance laboratory at Lilleshall national sports centre, notes generously: “All things heal eventually.” If athletes are going to try out less conventional therapies, he says, they tend towards those that have been tried and tested, acupuncture for example. “Sport medicine is a huge area, and we’re regularly inundated with quack cures. I’m not suggested that this hasn’t worked for Paula, but people do have to be careful.” Professor Graham Smith, chair of the Society of Sport Therapists, remains rather confounded by emu oil’s sudden elevation to healing elixir of repute. “I’ve never come across it. Listening to Paula Radcliffe on the radio I was almost surprised as the interviewer was when she mentioned it. It was obviously something Sonia O’Sullivan had recommended to her and if it works for her then fine.”

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Aboriginal Wisdom

Emu oil has received a lot of attention recently due to names like Paula Radcliffe, Cathy Freeman, Sonia O’Sullivan, Matt Walsh and many other top athletes.

Paula Radcliffe’s electrifying performance in the London Marathon leaves us all in awe and gasping, but just prior to the race Gerald Hartman, her physiotherapist, went on record saying that it was in doubt whether Paula would even be able to compete, having been involved in a serious accident with a cyclist whilst out training. Long standing friend and competitor Sonia O’Sullivan came to the rescue however and offered Paula magical emu oil. Emu oil is however not a new phenomenon in the athletics world and it has been known in some quarters that the Australian squads have used emu oil extensively since the Seoul Olympic Games and before.

Emu oil is a traditional Aboriginal remedy for muscles, joint and skin problems that has been used for thousands of years. Many Aborigines eventoday are truly at one with nature and able to relate to their forebears for insight and guidance on matters of health. The western world however has had great difficulty comprehending this and has looked for evidence through modern science. Early scientific research on emu oil was carried out by Dr John Snowden and Dr Michael Gosh funded by a modest grant from the Australian Government. Early studies revealed evidence to substantiate the anecdotal stories from the Aborigines were indeed correct; emu oil has tremendous anti-inflammatory properties and reduce healing time. Dr George Hobdaywas also instrumental in setting up trials andf research having listened to Aboriginal claims. His views and findings are early markers of credibility.

Many trials and research are well documented throughout the world. The U.S.A. has been extremely open-minded and their research has revealed some startling evidence to counter the sceptics. Research is still in its early stages as emu oil is a relatively new discovery for the western world, only really being noticed within the last decade.

Emu oil contains both linoleic acid (a pre-cursor to the anti-inflammatory messenger, prostaglandin E-1 AKA PGE-1), which studies have shown to reduce anti-inflammatory actions and pain relief. These properties of emu oil are now beginning to draw interest from arthritis sufferers looking for new treatments for their condition. Indeed the scientific and medical community are also looking at its ability to help arthritis.

Combine this with the fact that emu oil’s fatty acid composition is close to that of human skin, which researchers claim leads to it being easily absorbed by the human epidermis for deep penetration, and that a study at Texas University showed that emu oil doesn’t clog pores, and you begin to appreciate the huge potential for emu oil in arthritis treatment.

The Pioneer Trading Company, the UK’s major importer of Golden Emu Oil report that ‘doctors, physiotherapists and athletes alike have all helped to evaluate Golden Emu Oil (Emu Spirit) resulting in exceptional positive feedback, boosting confidence in the oil as a deeply penetrating soothing rub for muscle, joint and skin problems.’

The Pioneer Trading Company has numerous products in their emu oil range, including several moisturizers, sports rubs and hair products. Recently they launched Blue Active Gel, which has proved extremely effective as a quick acting soothing rub giving a “cool glow”. Blue Active contains emu oil, Aloe Vera M.S.M and various herbs.

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