Article Evaluation: “Coconut Fragrance and Cardiovascular Response to Laboratory Stress” 1

Article Evaluation of:

“Coconut Fragrance and Cardiovascular Response to Laboratory Stress”

Ihssan Tahir

Jacksonville State University

Assignment 11
 Article Evaluation: “Coconut Fragrance and Cardiovascular Response to Laboratory Stress” 2

Title of Article

The listed article evaluation is entitled, ‘Coconut Fragrance and Cardiovascular Response

to Laboratory Stress”.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was any cardiovascular response to

stressors when inhaling fragrant or simply inhaling air, in this study a coconut scent (n=17) vs.

air (n=15) was tested. This study focused on heart rate (HR) and heart period variability (HPV)

as indicators of stress in participating subjects.

Research Hypotheses

The hypotheses for this study stated that pleasant smells have an effect on cardiovascular

activity under stressors and as a result is stress reducing.

Significance of the Problem

Aromatherapy, a branch of herbology, is one of the fastest growing therapies in the world

today. Historically, essential oils are best used in the form of massage or bath oils or inhalations.

Frequently, it is reported that aromatherapy leaves one feeling uplifted, stimulated, invigorated,

or rejuvenated, depending on the oil used (Thomas, 2002).

There have been significant studies on the use of aromatherapy and whether it has true

healing properties. Both rose and lavender have been deeply studied with the latter having been

shown to decrease self-reported levels of stress. Researchers conducted a study involving

essential oils and footbaths. During this study ten women were recruited. Some of the women

had lavender oil added to their baths while others had no oil added to their foot soaks. The results
 Article Evaluation: “Coconut Fragrance and Cardiovascular Response to Laboratory Stress” 3

indicated that neither group (oil added and no oil added) displayed cardiovascular changes but

both groups did show a parasympathetic response, which induced relaxation (Saeki, 2000).

During recent years, many have witnessed the use of essential oils used to improve well

being. Many practitioners incorporate aromatherapy into healing practices. Additionally, many

say that the Ancient Egyptians were the first to understand and use fragrances medicinally

(Hoffman, 1991). Therapeutic oils have been used for centuries. According to Hoffman, “The

use of fragrant oils, whether rubbed onto the skin or inhaled, can be traced back to the earliest

days of human history, when the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians applied distilled oils

from herbs, flowers and trees to the body. Aside from a soothing, pleasant effect, those herbal

essences were thought to have therapeutic value as well.”

Though there have been studies proving the general benefits of aromatherapy there are

very few indicating the proven benefits of reducing active stress. Additionally, there are many

subjective indications that aromatherapy has benefits but very few evidence-based studies

indicating and validating those same sentiments.

Research Design

This was an experimental, between subjects, design. Between-subjects is a type of

experimental design in which the subjects of an experiment are assigned to different conditions,

with each subject experiencing only one of the experimental conditions (Allen, 2017). This is

evident in the fact that one group was given air and the other was given coconut fragrance.

Methodology

To test the hypotheses the research included two stressors included the Stroop color

(word task) and mental arithmetic. The Stroop test presented name colors to the participants. The
 Article Evaluation: “Coconut Fragrance and Cardiovascular Response to Laboratory Stress” 4

participant would press a key on the keypad if it corresponded to the color of the letters. If the

participant made a mistake or didn’t answer quickly the computer would display an error

message. During the second stressor, participants were given a 4 digit number on a computer and

were instructed to subtract 7 from each number that appeared. With each entry they received

verbal responses to subtract faster.

The fragrance used was McCormick’s Imitation Coconut Extract. The air delivered to

participants was through an air tank via nasal cannula. An ECG and blood pressure cuff were

placed on the participants. After this participants completed a Positive and Negative Affect Scale

(PANAS), which assisted in determining their moods in that moment. Then the air delivered to

participants was through an air tank via nasal cannula. Both groups of participants received air,

one with the coconut fragrance and the other just plain air.

The tasks were completed in a sequence. Participants rested for 5 minutes to provide

resting baseline vitals. Participants then performed the 5-minute Stroop task. Then the

participants rested. Then they performed the 5 minute mental arithmetic task. Then they rested

for 5 minutes. The ECG and blood pressures were monitored throughout this whole process.

Additionally stress ratings were collected at the end of each 5 minutes. Participants were told to

rate their stress levels from 1 (least stress) to 10 (most stress they’ve experienced in their lives).

Additionally, participants were asked to rate the fragrance on s scale of 1 (low intensity/not

pleasant) to 6 (very intense/very pleasant).

After the instruments were removed, subjects were asked to rate separately the intensity

and pleasantness of the fragrance on a scale from 1 (“low intensity/not pleasant at all”) to 6

(“very intense/very pleasant”). They were then paid and released.

 Article Evaluation: “Coconut Fragrance and Cardiovascular Response to Laboratory Stress” 5

Study Subjects

Participants were retrieved by publically placed flyers. They independently contacted the

research study to take part. The exclusion criteria included smoking, history of cardiovascular

diseases, conditions that interfered with the olfactory system and the consumption of certain

medications. Informed consent was completed and participants were given $80.00 for both

sessions.

According to the study, data analyses were restricted to a subset of 20 women and 12

men. Seventeen participants completed tasks while exposed to fragrance, and 15 performed the

tasks under normal room air conditions. The mean age of the subjects was 33.72 ± 8.60 years;

6.3% were of mixed ethnicity, 9.4% were Latino, 18.8% were African American, and 65.6%

were white.

Analysis

As stated in the experiment, repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance

(MANOVA) was performed on HR reactivity to both tasks with fragrance (coconut vs air) as the

within-subjects factor and order (coconut followed by air vs air followed by coconut) as the

between-subjects factor. Two of the coconut subjects had to be dropped from the study due to

signal loss and there was one air subject that had to be dropped as well.

Results

The results indicated that there were drastic differences between measures of the first and

second sessions. More than likely the reason for this was due to the prior experience with the

laboratory tasks in the first session altered stress responses for the second session, regardless of
 Article Evaluation: “Coconut Fragrance and Cardiovascular Response to Laboratory Stress” 6

whether aroma was there or not. These results meant that the data could not be analyzed. The

data used was from the first session only.

The main result from this experiment was that participants breathing coconut fragrance

had higher heart rates than subjects who performed tasks while simply breathing air. The results

of analyses of the HPV suggest that this effect was due to decreased parasympathetic cardiac

modulation. The findings were in line with several previous studies that displayed a link between

pleasant odors and increased arousal (Romine, 1999).

As stated, “Although coconut fragrance appears to affect physiological measures, there

was little evidence of an effect on subjective mood and stress ratings. In fact, coconut subjects

reported greater increases from the first to last reports of stress.” Based on the participants the

study stated that “Coconut fragrance decreases stress, but this effect disappears through the

course of the protocol, perhaps because of perceptual habituation.”

One limitation of the work is that it only used one commercially available fragrance. One

of the advantages was that rather than using an essential oil a widely available fragrance,

coconut, was used instead. This is also one of the first studies to use a synthetic scent. The study

does indicate that this was just a start and more information and research was certainly needed in

order to draw proper conclusions as to whether pleasant smells do truly reduce stress in

individuals.
 Article Evaluation: “Coconut Fragrance and Cardiovascular Response to Laboratory Stress” 7

References

Hoffman, J. (1991, February 19). Los Angeles Times. In Aromatherapy, Fad Meets Tradition :
Ancient Egyptians Knew Flower and Herb Oils Were Soothing, but Are They
Therapeutic? Retrieved from https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-19-vw-1683-
story.html

Mezzacappa, E. S., Arumugam, U., Chen, S. (Y., Stein, T. R., Oz, M., & Buckle, J. (2010). Coconut
Fragrance and Cardiovascular Response to Laboratory Stress. Holistic Nursing Practice, 24(6),
322–332. doi: 10.1097/hnp.0b013e3181fbb89c

Thomas, D. V. (2002). Aromatherapy. Holistic Nursing Practice, 17(1), 8–16. doi:

10.1097/00004650-200210000-00005

Motomura N, Sakurai A, Yotsuya Y. Reduction of mental stress with lavender odorant. Percept Mot
Skills. 2001;93:713-718.

Saeki Y. The effect of footbath with or without the essential oil of lavender on the autonomic
nervous system: a randomized trial. Complement Ther Med. 2000;8:2-7.

Allen, M. (2017). Observational Research Methods. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication

Research Methods. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483381411.n36

Romine IJ, Bush AM, Geist CR. Lavender aromatherapy in recovery from exercise. Percept Mot
Skills. 1999;88:756-758.