What Are Essential Oils

I know most of what I have been posting involves the use of essential oils. Some of you may have a good idea of what they are, but for those of you who are completely new to essential oils, I am going to break out the the basics for you with a brief introduction. When I first got into oils I wondered how they got them into such a concentrated form to be so effective. 

So, what are essential oils?
Essential oils are the liquids that are extracted from different parts of  plants. These parts can include seeds, bark, leaves, stems, roots, flowers, fruit, and more.

Oils protect the plant from environmental threats, and since our bodies are made from similar building blocks as plants, our bodies are able to benefit from them in the same way a plant would!

How are essential oils extracted from the plant parts?
There are two ways essential oils can be extracted; through steam distillation and expression.

The most common way of extraction is steam distillation method. I'll try to keep it simple, and explain in layman terms. Essential oils evaporate easily when exposed to air. They also do not mix with water, as they are not water soluble. During steam distillation the oils are exposed to a low heat steam in an airtight chamber. The steam flows into a second chamber, where it cools further, and separates into water and essential oils. As mentioned, oils are not water soluble, so it is easily separated during the distillation process.

The expression method is mainly used for extracting oils from citrus fruits. The oil sacs of these citrus fruits are found in the peel or rind. These parts are separated and then cold pressed with very low heat and pressure to extract the oils. 

There are lots of essential oil companies out there. Why the variance in cost? What is so important about having pure, therapeutic grade essential oils?

The therapeutic value of an oil is greatly affected by its chemical constituents. Constituents are affected by many different variables: part of plant from which oil was produced, soil, fertilizer, geographic region, climate, altitude, time of harvest, season, and method. Also, the process of obtaining higher grade oils is not very cost effective. Essential oils are 50-70 times more powerful than their herbal counterparts. For example, one drop of peppermint essential oil has the same benefit as 28 cups of peppermint tea. It can require several hundred, even several thousand, pounds of plant material to produce one pound of pure essential oil. The distillation process plays a huge factor in determining the therapeutic qualities in an oil. When oils are distilled under high temperature and high pressure, they lose some of their effectiveness. So even though they might all smell equally good, some will lack most (if not all) of the therapeutic qualities needed for personal holistic health care. All of these factors make for a very complicated, labor intensive, scientific process which is why you see the variance in price. In short, you get what you pay for!

For more information on how to purchase these oils, please feel free to contact me.

FDA Disclaimer: "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease."