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Essential Oil
Quality
What You Should Know About
Essential Oils
Unfortunately not all essential oils are created equal. In fact
many, if not all the oils on the market are what is called "perfume
quality" or "4th & 5th quality oils. These are over-processed,
chemical laden, highly adulterated & de-natured products that, in
reality, are little more than cheap perfume made from various
odorous plants. This includes oils found in health food stores.
Many people think that when they
buy an oil that is labeled as "100% pure" they are getting good
oils. This is far from true.
Pure unadulterated essential oil is
very hard to come by & can be very expensive. One reason for this is
because it can take as many as 500 to 2,000 pounds or more of raw
plant material to produce just a pound of pure essential oil.
To maintain all of the therapeutic
qualities, it must be extracted by steam distillation using
extremely low pressure & low heat so as not to defile the quality of
the oil.
There are 4 grades of essential
oils:
PURE - This means the oil
was not diluted with a lesser quality essential oil. For example:
lavender oil is often cut with lavendin, which has very little
therapeutic quality. "Pure" does not mean it has no chemicals added
to it. It could be 75% vegetable oil & 25% essential oil & still be
labeled "100% Pure." In the U.S., you are only required to have 5%
essential oil in the bottle to label it "Pure."
NATURAL - This means the oil
was not adulterated with vegetable oils, propylene glycol, SD
Alcohol 40 or other chemicals.
COMPLETE - This means the
oil was distilled at low heat & low pressure so that all the
therapeutic properties are there. They have not been rectified or
purified (which means stripped or redistilled.) Essential oils are
often redistilled to make a small amount of oil go farther. They can
make more profit that way. The problem is, when you redistill the
oil you lose the therapeutic properties. It's like using a tea bag
over & over again. ** An example: France is the number one producer
of lavender oil. In 1997 they produced 25 tons of lavender and 67
tons were shipped to the U.S. Melissa oil is another example. It is
very hard to produce. Out of 52 pounds of pure melissa oil, 1000
pounds were exported. What is wrong with this picture?
** There are anywhere from 200 -
800 chemical constituents that make up a single essential oil. When
the oil is not distilled properly, you will be left with as few as
10.
GENUINE & AUTHENTIC or GRADE A
- These are the cream of the crop. Great care is taken at every
step of the process. Seeds- not from hybrids, soil- organic soil
that never has chemicals put on it. Chemicals are never used on the
plants in the field. Distillation by steam at low pressure & low
temperature in upright containers & no chemicals are ever used in
the process. Must have clarity of definition (one plant could have
200 species.) The time in the distiller is also important- cypress
oil needs to be distilled for 24 hours. Many companies will distill
at higher temperature for a shorter time. This will destroy the
quality of the oil. The distiller must be no more than 50 miles away
from the sight where the plants were harvested, must have Gas
Chromatograph readings with an embossed seal that does not come from
their own lab. Then & only then can they have the words "Grade A" on
the label.
Young Living's oils are GRADE A
oils & meet AFNOR standards. They are one of the few companies in
the world that grows plants from seed, distills & bottles their
essential oils.
So, What Makes An Essential Oil Therapeutic Grade?
Most people read the label on essential oils bottles and see the
words "100% PURE" and think that is a therapeutic grade oil.
There is so much more involved in producing truly therapeutic grade
oils.
The key to producing a therapeutic grade essential oil is to
preserve as many of the delicate aromatic compounds within the
essential oil as possible. Most of these elements are very fragile
and are destroyed by high temperature and high pressure.
Nutritionists tell us not to boil our vegetables because the hot
water removes the vitamins and nutrients. Similarly, "boiling"
plants to extract their essence destroys many of a plant's fragile
constituents, which gives essential oils their therapeutic
properties. So keeping the distiller's temperature low is a must.
Distillation can determine the value of the oil, or destroy the
value of the oil. Essential oil distilling is not just a job, but an
art. The operator of the distiller must have a full understanding of
the value of oils in order to produce quality oils. If the pressure
is too high, or the temperature is too high, it may change the
molecular structure of the fragrance molecule, altering the chemical
constituents.
Essential oils MUST be distilled for the proper length of time to
release all their active constituents. A distiller who is only
interested in profit will distill oils for 15 minutes at very high
temperature & very high pressure. This way they can produce
more oil and thus more profits.
For example, cypress must be distilled for 24 hours to release all
the chemical constituents. Most distilling operations,
throughout the world, only distill cypress one hour and 15 minutes.
Similarly, lavender does not produce all its therapeutically
effective substances unless it is distilled for one hour and
30 minutes; but most lavender is distilled for only 15 minutes!
Three-quarters of the volume is extracted during the first quarter
of the distillation process. Many producers end the process
there because the increased time does not significantly increase the
volume. Time is "only" a crucial factor to extracting the
plant's therapeutic properties. Lavender should be
distilled at no more than 3 pounds of pressure, a temperature of no
higher than 245 degrees, and should be distilled for 2 hours.
Another trick some distillers will do to produce more oil, is to
redistill the plant material over and over as many as 5 or 6 times.
It's like using a tea bag over & over again. When the plant
material is redistilled, all the batches after the first
distillation are no longer therapeutic grade.
The oil distiller will then save the first batch to be sold as
therapeutic grade oils. Then the rest of the distillations are
sold to the unsuspecting public as so called "pure" oils.
There are many other factors that effect the quality of the oil.
A few examples:
How long did the plant material sit around before it was distilled?
Is the distiller made of chemically reactive metals or was it
stainless steel?
Was the soil fertilized with chemical fertilizers or organic
fertilizers?
Were any chemicals added to the distillation water?
Note: Many distillers add chemicals to the water as they are
distilling to produce greater volume in the distillation
process. They can say they don't use adulterants in the oil since
they only used it in the water. The chemical still gets into
the oil and it is stretching the truth to say an oil distilled this
way is pure.
Don"t be afraid to ask questions about the origins, extraction
process, and quality of any essential oil you purchase.
Insist on essential oils extracted from organically grown plants,
with no chemicals in the extraction process, at the proper
temperature and pressure, for the appropriate length of time.
If we remain ignorant and continue to emphasize price instead of
quality, essential oils will indeed be nothing more than a
charming novelty item.
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