What’s in Your Bottle? Essential Oil Therapeutic Grade Quality
By Yvonne Lewis
For you and I it is hard to distinguish between a high quality, superior grade essential oil and one that has been “cut” or “extended”. Our noses are just not trained enough so we can’t tell the difference, although we can certainly learn. So we must investigate.
One of the main factors that makes an oil therapeutic grade is the kind and amount of chemical constituents it has. Examples of these are thymol, linalol, carvacrol, limonene, linalyl acetate, camphor, terpenes, sclareol, sesquiterpenes, to name but a few that you will come across when you learn about oils.
Very often the more of these in an oil the better because they balance each other out. They complement each other! For instance,
* Oregano is an oil with four important constituents. Carvacrol at 60% to 75% is highly anti-viral but also tends to make it a fairly ‘hot’ oil, which may cause some reddening on the skin. The other constituents help to balance this effect.
* Just recently a new species of oregano was discovered in Equador with an unprecedented eleven important constituents.
* Testing has shown this oil to be highly therapeutic and not reddening at all.
More constituents balance each other out. Awesome.
THERAPEUTIC , FOOD GRADE OR PERFUME GRADE
Few companies have in-house laboratories with the right equipment available to test essential oils for impurities. Gas-chromatography (GC) equipment is extremely expensive so many companies rely on independent labs to test the oils for them.
However, independent labs are mostly set up to test synthetic chemicals and industrial grade oils. Their GC does not use the needed 50 or 60 meter length of column for therapeutic grade substances. Besides GC testing, Mass Spectrometer testing should be performed to weed out oils that have even the slightest hint of possible adulteration or tampering with.
Mind you, sub-therapeutic grade essential oils are not destroyed after these tests and will most certainly end up in someone’s bottle. Even though they are only fit for the fragrance or food industry.
A good indication you are working with therapeutic oils is their labeling with ISO and AFNOR standards, set down by the European Community. And recently the Young Living Therapeutic Grade™ (YLTG) standard was introduced. YLTG means that “every essential oil Young Living distills or sources has the optimal naturally-occurring blend of constituents to maximize the desired effect” (product guide 2009).
FROM PLANT SEED TO THE OIL IN YOUR BOTTLE
To make sure all the valuable ingredients make it from the live plant to your bottle a company must start at the very beginning.
- Use great Soil. Plants should be grown on virgin soil, never treated with pesticides and herbicides.
- Climate and Water. Plants must have the right amount of sun and rain or be watered with pure spring or mountain water.
- Type of Plants. Getting lavender oil from the Lavendula angustifolia plant will produce something entirely different than the lavendin plant (Lavandula x hybrida). They may smell similar but the latter plant produces a lot of camphor, which can be hot and burn the skin. Lavendula angustifolia has hardly any camphor at all and a lot of linalol, which is soothing on the skin.
- Time of Harvest. It is crucial for plants to be harvested at the right time if you want to get all the constituents out of them. Time of day, before or after it flowers, resting time, stressing time, drying time, all contribute to the final product. The distillery should be close by so plants are fresh.
- Distillation Method. Once a plant is in the distiller, in small batches, most of them need time and gentle steam to release all their components intact. Frankincense needs as long as twelve hours to be properly distilled.
UNSCRUPULOUS VENDORS
From what you just learned you can see how often things can go wrong!
- Soil is treated with herbicides which will end up in the oil.
- Plants are watered with chlorinated water, which will show up in the oil.
- The wrong plant species are used, which may smell like the real therapeutic oil but contains none of the goodies.
- Plants are harvested at the wrong time of day and taken far away to a distillery. A lot of the good components die and will never make it to your oil.
- The distiller is not made of high alloy-, food grade, stainless steel and may interact with the plants
- Because the vendor needs to get as much oil out of the plant as possible, he distills the plants at extremely high temperatures (400 degrees), and even does second and third distillations using odorless solvents to increase volume.
All this adulteration is giving essential oils bad press. They don’t hold therapeutic value so nothing happens when they’re used and they may make things worse.
WHAT ARE THE DANGERS OF USING ADULTERATED OILS?
The story of the lady who used a lavender oil from the local health food store brings it home:
She had read of the ability of lavender oil to heal burns and used her oil on her arm after spilling boiling water on it. The pain intensified and the burn worsened so she complained that lavender oil was worthless in healing burns. When her oil was analyzed it was found to be lavandin, the hybrid lavender that is chemically very different from pure Lavandula angustifolia. Lavandin contains high levels of camphor (12-18%) and can itself burn the skin. True lavender contains virtually no camphor and has burn-healing agents not found in lavandin. (EODR, pg.11)
Synthetic, cut, extended oils can cause rashes, allergies and other irritations. Besides this they will not give you any therapeutic effects.
With the popularity and use of essential oils ever increasing I urge you to make sure you are using therapeutic grade oils. Ask questions from your vendor.
Learn more at http://www.Essential-Natural-Remedies.com and research your essential oil brand. The amount of diluted and adulterated oils out there is scary and many are barely fit for sniffing at. Definitely not worth their easy prices.
Always be sure to do a patch test with your oil and never use them undiluted on children and pets. Consult a doctor if you want to use essential oils but are pregnant or prone to epilepsy. This article is for educational purposes only, and not meant to substitute medical care, diagnose or prescribe treatment for any specific health condition.
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