Rosemary appears in Aajonus Vonderplanitz's body of work in two distinct and separate contexts that must be understood independently. The first context is rosemary as a fresh, raw culinary herb used in specific recipes, most notably the Italian Sauce recipe documented in The Recipe for Living Without Disease, where fresh rosemary is finely chopped and steeped in stone-pressed olive oil as a flavoring agent. The second and far more significant context is rosemary oil in its distilled, commercially processed form, which Aajonus identifies as a toxic, solvent-active substance that was added to Green Pastures fermented cod liver oil as an antioxidant additive, a practice he explicitly condemned.

These two contexts represent fundamentally different forms of rosemary with fundamentally different effects in the body, and Aajonus's commentary makes clear that the method of processing is what determines whether a substance is food or toxin. The distilled rosemary oil is characterized as a dangerous chemical, while the fresh herb in small quantities is used in culinary preparations. This distinction is critical to understanding everything he said on the subject.

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Aajonus was direct and unambiguous in his characterization of distilled rosemary oil. When informed that Green Pastures fermented cod liver oil contained "a small amount of organic virgin rosemary oil as an antioxidant in minute quantities," his immediate response was:

"The rosemary oil is distilled and very toxic, solvent active."

This is his complete and categorical assessment. It contains two distinct characterizations that need to be understood within his broader framework:

"Distilled", the process that makes it toxic: Aajonus's consistent teaching across all his workshops and writings is that distillation is a high-heat process that destroys the biological integrity of any substance. He frequently referenced that even essential oils and fragrant oils are processed at temperatures far above what nature produces them at. In one workshop he noted: "Even yams, which are, you know, distilled at 257 degrees. He says in his book, nature does it at 62 to 72 degrees. Not 257 degrees. So his oils are better than those that are done at 257 and higher. But still, his are done at 257 degrees. That's too high. Turns it into plastic. And it has a, you know, a very toxic vaporous reaction."

This temperature framework explains exactly why distilled rosemary oil is classified as toxic: the distillation process, which requires high heat to volatilize and then recondense the aromatic compounds, operates far outside the temperature range at which nature produces these oils. When any oil is processed at those temperatures, Aajonus teaches it undergoes a transformation that makes it not only non-nutritive but actively harmful.

"Solvent active", the mechanism of harm: Throughout his workshops, Aajonus repeatedly characterized processed vegetable and plant oils as solvents rather than foods. He described solvent-active substances as things that dissolve tissue and disrupt the body's natural processes. He stated in multiple contexts: "Pressed oils are mainly used by the body as solvents to dissolve toxicity for removal." A distilled essential oil would represent an even more concentrated and more chemically active form of this solvent action.

He further explained in his discussions of herbs and plant oils generally: "The more herbs that you have, the more you're going to have to rely upon solvents to clean your body, rather than bacteria. Because they destroy bacteria." This principle applies directly to a substance like distilled rosemary oil, which would, according to his framework, act as a bactericidal agent in the gut, destroying the very bacterial populations that the body depends on for health and for natural detoxification.

Green Pastures added the rosemary oil specifically in its role as an antioxidant, to preserve the fermented cod liver oil from oxidation. Aajonus did not comment on whether this antioxidant function was effective at its stated purpose; his objection was categorical: the substance itself is toxic regardless of the function it is being used to perform. The fact that it was added in "minute quantities" did not alter his assessment of its toxicity. He described it as "very toxic" without qualification based on quantity.

This is consistent with his broader teaching that toxins in any amount require the body to respond and detoxify them, and that the cumulative burden of such substances undermines health over time.

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Aajonus's framework throughout his teachings consistently returns to the principle that the same plant material can be either a food or a toxin depending entirely on how it has been processed. Rosemary represents an important case study in this distinction.

Fresh rosemary (finely chopped): Used in at least one documented recipe (Italian Sauce, discussed in detail under Culinary Applications below). In this form, rosemary is a raw, unheated, mechanically processed herb, simply chopped with a knife and then steeped in stone-pressed olive oil. No heat, no chemical solvents, no distillation.

Distilled rosemary oil: Requires high-heat steam distillation to produce, concentrating and chemically transforming the volatile compounds of the plant. This is the form Aajonus condemned as "very toxic, solvent active."

"Organic virgin" rosemary oil: The person who questioned Aajonus was at pains to note that the rosemary oil used by Green Pastures was "organic virgin", suggesting they believed this designation offered some protection against toxicity. Aajonus did not acknowledge the "organic" or "virgin" qualifications as meaningful mitigations. His response focused entirely on the fact that it was distilled, which is the process that renders it toxic, not the growing conditions of the original plant.

This is fully consistent with his general teaching on the "organic" label. He stated elsewhere: "And organic does nothing. Absolutely nothing. If you look at the organic standards on the USDA and FDA sites, they let over 300 chemicals they say are safe." The organic designation addresses how the raw plant material was grown, not how it was subsequently processed, and the distillation process is the source of the toxicity.

Aajonus addressed distilled aromatic and fragrant oils as a category in his workshops, placing distilled rosemary oil within a broader condemnation of all commercially distilled essential oils:

"You know, fragrant oils, any of them. Aromatics. Aromatics, any of them. Or solvents, again, for you... Well, they're all heat processed. Even yams, which are, you know, distilled at 257 degrees."

He then offered an alternative for those who wanted the genuine fragrant oils of plants: "So if you want real oils that will be fragrant for you, eat the flower petals. Early in the morning, before they vaporize. Before oils vaporize." This principle, that the real, biologically active oil of any plant is available in its fresh, unprocessed form and destroyed or transformed by distillation, is the framework within which his condemnation of distilled rosemary oil must be understood.

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The specific context in which distilled rosemary oil arose was during an email correspondence documented in Aajonus's Q&A archives from 2008. A correspondent was verifying the integrity of Green Pastures fermented cod liver oil, a product Aajonus had worked to help develop and had approved. The correspondent relayed:

"They only add a small amount of organic virgin rosemary oil as an antioxidant in minute quantities, but they are going to reestablish the product without same this summer."

This communication reveals several important points about sourcing:

1. Green Pastures had, at some point after Aajonus's initial involvement in formulating the product, added distilled rosemary oil to the formula. 2. The company described this addition as "small" and "in minute quantities." 3. The company had apparently already acknowledged the problem and planned to remove it ("reestablish the product without same this summer"). 4. Aajonus was clearly not aware of this addition until the correspondent informed him.

Aajonus had described his extensive work with Green Pastures in workshop transcripts: "There's one conliver oil that I worked with Green Pastures to formulate over a two-year period. Every time they came back, what if we do this? I'd say, you can't do that because this will happen and it's now toxic and it doesn't work. So I said, all you have to do is go back to the old way. Have stinky, bad-tasting fish oil. You just ferment it and you separate it and don't do anything else with it."

He further noted in a workshop: "You know, the whole concept of what is healthy is not pretty. So, they put this oil, this food oil in it. Rosemary, thyme. Different oils that they put in. Licorice. Different flavors in it. But the one you just want pure, no additives to it, it's okay."

This workshop statement expands the picture: it was not only rosemary oil but also thyme oil and licorice flavoring that were being added to various flavored versions of the cod liver oil to make the product more palatable. Aajonus's recommendation was consistently for the unflavored version with no additives whatsoever.

Aajonus specified: "all you have to do is go back to the old way. Have stinky, bad-tasting fish oil. You just ferment it and you separate it and don't do anything else with it." This is the sourcing standard: fermented, separated, and nothing added. The addition of rosemary oil, even in minute quantities, even labeled organic and virgin, violated this standard according to his framework.

He elaborated on his reasoning for rejecting the flavored versions: "Because of the nasty taste and the odor. Everybody wants a pretty one. You know, the whole concept of what is healthy is not pretty. So, they put this oil, this food oil in it." This language suggests he viewed the addition of rosemary and other flavoring oils as a commercial compromise driven by consumer preference for palatability, not by any genuine health benefit.

This episode also illustrates Aajonus's approach to verifying product claims. In the same email thread, he was advising the correspondent to speak with the chief chemist of a company rather than with executives or the president: "Presidents and other top executives of companies are not reliable sources for confirmation of processes; that is why I asked you to speak with the chief chemist for the company. If the president is also the chief chemist for the company, then his confirmation is probably accurate."

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When asked "HOW toxic? I've been consuming a lot of his cod liver oil. How should I detox it?", Aajonus responded:

"Probably, the amount of rosemary in it is bonded with the cod liver oil and it did not cause you any problem with storage or injury."

This is a significant and nuanced statement. It represents Aajonus applying his general principle, that animal fats bind with and neutralize toxic substances, to the specific case of distilled rosemary oil in a cod liver oil medium. He is not retracting his characterization of the rosemary oil as "very toxic, solvent active"; he is saying that in this particular delivery vehicle, at the minute quantities used, the toxic distilled oil is likely bonded to the surrounding animal fat in such a way that it does not cause direct harm.

This is consistent with his broader teaching that animal fats act as protective buffers for toxins. He frequently advised consuming raw animal fat alongside any toxic exposure to bind and safely shepherd the toxic substance out of the body. In this case, the cod liver oil itself is the fat vehicle, and because the rosemary oil was present only in minute quantities within a large volume of fatty fish oil, the binding effect appears to have been sufficient to prevent significant injury.

This response also implies that consuming distilled rosemary oil without an accompanying fat buffer, or in larger quantities, or in a non-fatty medium, could result in the full toxic and solvent-active effects he warned about.

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The one documented recipe in Aajonus's published works (The Recipe for Living Without Disease) that explicitly uses rosemary is the Italian Sauce. The full recipe is:

Italian Sauce 2 Servings

• 5 ounces stone-pressed olive oil
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped basil
• 1/4 garlic clove, pressed (optional)

Instructions: Stir all ingredients together in an 8-ounces jar for 1 minute. Cap and let stand in cupboard for at least 3 days. Do not refrigerate at any time.

Scaling up: If you would like to flavor a bottle of olive oil, triple the quantities of rosemary, basil and garlic, add to bottle of oil and let stand for at least 3 days.

Several important details emerge from this recipe:

"Finely chopped": The rosemary is mechanically reduced by chopping, no heat, no chemical extraction. This preserves its status as a raw, unprocessed ingredient.

Three-day minimum steeping period: The herb is allowed to steep in the olive oil for at minimum three full days before use. This transfers the aromatic oils of the fresh rosemary directly into the olive oil through a cold maceration process, the exact opposite of distillation. Rather than using heat to volatilize the oils and then recondense them, the raw plant material slowly releases its compounds into the fat medium at room temperature over an extended period.

"Do not refrigerate at any time": The sauce is kept at room temperature throughout its preparation and use, which facilitates the ongoing maceration and prevents the fat from congealing.

The scaling instruction, tripling the herbs to flavor a full bottle of oil, shows that this technique was intended for ongoing use and that Aajonus considered the room-temperature maceration of fresh rosemary in olive oil to be an appropriate and acceptable method of incorporating the herb into food.

This recipe stands in direct contrast to distilled rosemary oil: rather than a high-heat industrial extraction of concentrated aromatic compounds, the Italian Sauce achieves its rosemary flavor through patient, cold, fat-based maceration of the whole fresh herb.

While not rosemary-specific, Aajonus stated a general guideline that applies to rosemary's culinary use: "I say in my book, if you're going to use an herb, no more than two tablespoons of herbs of any kind of vegetable with your meat meal. So it's got to be a small amount. Just like she created a small amount. You also created some of that, right? No? So there was just enough to flavor it without causing a digestive problem. That's the way to do it."

The Italian Sauce uses exactly 1 tablespoon of rosemary per serving, within the upper limit of this guideline, and it is delivered in a fat medium (stone-pressed olive oil), which aligns with his principle that herbs taken with fats are less disruptive than herbs taken alone or with incompatible foods.

In his workshop discussion of flavored cod liver oil products, Aajonus enumerated rosemary alongside other oils used for flavoring: "So, they put this oil, this food oil in it. Rosemary, thyme. Different oils that they put in. Licorice. Different flavors in it." This listing positions rosemary oil as one of multiple flavoring agents used by manufacturers to make fermented cod liver oil palatable, all of which Aajonus rejected in favor of the plain, unflavored version.

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Aajonus described his two-year collaboration with Green Pastures to develop a properly formulated fermented cod liver oil: "There's one conliver oil that I worked with Green Pastures to formulate over a two-year period. Every time they came back, what if we do this? I'd say, you can't do that because this will happen and it's now toxic and it doesn't work. So I said, all you have to do is go back to the old way."

The subsequent addition of rosemary oil (and other flavoring agents) to the product after this two-year collaboration represents exactly the kind of commercial modification that Aajonus had apparently spent those two years fighting against. The 2008 email correspondence makes clear that at some point after his involvement, Green Pastures added distilled rosemary oil to the product as an antioxidant, without Aajonus's knowledge or approval, and that this change was apparently eventually reversed ("they are going to reestablish the product without same this summer").

This episode illustrates a recurring theme in Aajonus's commentary on the food industry: companies modify their products for commercial reasons (in this case, both palatability and oxidation stability) in ways that compromise the health integrity of the product, sometimes without informing the health advocates who approved earlier versions.

Aajonus named the palatability problem explicitly as the driver behind the addition of flavoring oils including rosemary: "Because of the nasty taste and the odor. Everybody wants a pretty one. You know, the whole concept of what is healthy is not pretty." This commercial pressure, to make an inherently unpleasant-tasting product acceptable to a mainstream consumer base, is what led to the addition of rosemary, thyme, licorice, and other flavoring agents to what should have been a pure, unflavored fermented fish oil.

He further commented on the health impact of the flavored versions relative to his purpose for recommending the product: "Now, in my experiments with it, I didn't find that it increased the health in anybody who ate it, who was on the diet, 95-100%... So, I don't think if you're on a good diet, it's something that's unnecessary." This suggests that even before the rosemary oil issue arose, Aajonus had concluded that cod liver oil, in any form, provided minimal additional benefit for people already eating a full Primal Diet, making the commercial modifications all the more pointless from his perspective.

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