Father-son duo tap tree essences

A North Van father and son claim to offer hope in a bottle for sufferers of psoriasis and other skin ailments.

Helmut and Anthony Gollner have tapped into the healing properties of tree essences with their skin and hair care line Botanical Therapeutic.

Helmut, an old World barber, and son Anthony, a beauty products supplier, hit upon the idea for the line eight years ago when they discovered a bar of tree tar soap from 1.869 while spring cleaning at Helmut's downtown barbershop.

The Gollners discovered through research that tree essences have a long history of medicinal use.

West Coast First Nations used tree bark, resin, needles, cones and shoots to help heal various ailments from small cuts and rashes to arthritic pain, claims Anthony.

Essences distilled from the sap of Sitka spruce, Douglas fir and Western red cedar are contained in Botanical Therapeutic shampoo and skin cream to treat skin problems like eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis.

Since introducing the line in '94, the Gollners have placed their products in 2,800 health-food stores across the country. Business has doubled each year and the Gollners expect it to triple this year.

Business is booming but do the products really work?

Family friend Fern McKay, an office manager in North Van, thinks so. She recommended the products to a couple of co-workers who have psoriasis on the scalp and “they said that it did help,” she says.

McKay likes the skin cream because, she says, “it seems to continue working even after you wash your hands. When you put it on, it goes right into your skin.”

The products may feel good on the skin but North Van dermatologist Dr. Tom Taylor dismisses any medicinal claims as “extravagant nonsense.”

A cosmetic can only improve appearance, he says. “It does never change the texture of the skin of the body, otherwise it ceases to become a cosmetic.”

The use of tree tars is an old-standing treatment for psoriasis, he says, but the Gollners' claim that tree essences reduce symptoms of arthritis, bronchitis, coughs, colds, flue and fever “is stretching it,” says the doctor.

He also cautions that many people are allergic to natural products.

The doctor's advice for psoriasis sufferers hoping for a cure-all: “they should approach such things very carefully.”

“Not all nature is good. Most of the poisons we use are derived from nature. And many of the things people apply actually cause a tremendous reaction.”