Announcements

  • Kelly is honoured to be presenting about essential oils and climate change at virtual Botanica2020! Register here today!
  • Kelly will be speaking about plant conservation genetics July 2021 in Salt Lake City, UT. Register today!
  • To receive an updated list (Jan 2020) of the threatened and near-threatened essential and carrier oil-bearing plants, please email our team at: info@airmidinstitute.com
  • Kelly’s educational materials on aromatherapy have been translated into Shipibo for integration into school curriculum in central Peru.
  • Our collaborative efforts have paid off! Enfleurage will no longer be selling rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora) oil, or using it in any of their blends. Their source was unable to provide authentic documents (i.e. CITES permit) ensuring ethical sourcing and legal trade of the oil.  Thank you, Enfleurage for demonstrating your commitment to ethically-sourced oils and helping to protect endangered essential oil-bearing plants. Read more here

Projects

  •  Airmid Institute, is dedicated to the global education, research, and sustainable management of aromatic medicinal plants. It also promotes and protects the use of traditional medicine by Indigenous peoples.
  • Plans are underway for Kelly to return to Peru in 2020 and to obtain funding in support of the sustainable management of rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora). She is working to conduct assessments, manage the sustainable growth, and harvesting of rosewood trees in partnership with the Shipibos, and the distillation and CITES approved trade of sustainably-harvested rosewood essential oil.
  • Dr. James Simon, along with his group at Rutgers University, and Dr. Kelly Ablard are collaborating on a research project to explore adulteration of rosewood (‘Aniba rosaeodora’) essential oil (read more here). If you have rosewood essential oil, and would like to participate, please contact Dr. Ablard at kelly.ablard@gmail.com.

Dr. Kelly

Kelly M. Ablard is a writer, instructor, independent researcher, certified aromatherapist, and she holds a Doctorate in Biology.  Her work has taken her worldwide where she has learned about medicinal uses of plants and the vital role that chemical communication plays in the natural world. She was the first to create an educational program on urban sustainable agriculture in downtown Vancouver, B.C., and is the founder of the VCC Urban Apothecary Learning Garden, a community-built garden of 50+ aromatic medicinal plants designed to support education about aromatherapy, the chemistry of aromatic medicinal plants, and for learning about the many uses of traditional medicine. Read more about Kelly here.