Susan M Parker, author of Power of the Seed: Your Guide to Oils for Health and Beauty published in 2014, is one of the first books to focus exclusively on carrier oils rather than as diluents for aromatherapy or their use in the beauty industry.
Inspired by an herbal apprenticeship in the early 1990s, Susan established SOLUM&HERBE an herbal apothecary in 1996 focusing on skin care and topical treatments. Making herbal extracts including oil infusions from her gardens, awakened a desire to know more about the infusing oils.
Unable to find a comprehensive guide to better understand these carrier oils, she set to undertake to learn about them. With an art background but little chemistry, she worked with a chemist friend to understand the basic chemistry of lipid oils.
To help ground the learning process she began writing up her notes and self-published a small booklet on the subject in 2001. Drawing on her prior art degrees from the 1970’s, she cut and pasted the booklet together, and made 100 copies available to the local herbal community.
In 2014 Power of the Seed, much expanded and further researched, was published by Process Media, Port Townsend, WA.
A student of natural health, gardener, herbalist, flower essence devotee, mother and now grandmother, Susan studied herbalism with Pam Montgomery and David Hoffman in the 1990’s. After 22 years of creating and producing a range of products, SOLUM&HERBE ended production in 2018. Susan continues to research and teach about the lipid oils online.