Ecuadorian Discoveries
We were in Chongon in 2005 when I started teaching at the university there and doing research and looking for plants. On one of my expeditions into the desert jungle, I was looking at palo santo. I was the first to distill Palo Santo essential oil.
Here’s Mary, watching the workers chip ruta for distillation in 2006.
![Mary Young in 2006 watching the chipping of ruta for distillation at the Young Living farm in Chongon, Ecuador.](https://dev.dgaryyoung.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Mary-in-Ecuador-1.png)
Mary Young in 2006 watching the chipping of ruta for distillation at the Young Living farm in Chongon, Ecuador.
About that time is when I started cultivating rosa morta and dorado azul. Then when I was teaching at the university, I brought students out to a field of rosa morta to teach them about cultivation and distillation.
I was the first to domesticate dorado azul. In fact, it had no botanical identity until I found it and gave it its name. When you create a botanical name, you have to give it its origin. Guayas is the province, so it’s guayafolius. If it’s officially a wild plant, then it’s called officianalis. If it’s not a wild plant, then you don’t put officianalis behind it in the botanical identity. So its official name on record now is dorado azul Guayafolius officianalis.