Are You Getting Pure Essential Oils?

By penetrating the cell walls, pure essential oils transport nutrients and oxygen to the cells thereby nourishing, cleansing, detoxifying and healing the body. Only PURE essential oils are capable of effectively healing and most oils that are not 100% pure add to the body’s toxic load.

Most essential oil producers say their oils are pure, but in fact there are no regulations. If 5% of the bottle is “pure” it can be labeled as pure!! Some essential oil producers define “pure” as those oils without carrier oils; others have loose definitions of “adulterated oils” with “harmless additives”.

Pure essential oils have very complex molecular structures with 100’s of chemical constituents. Flavonoids, for example, increase blood flow and cellular oxygenation; terpenes help detoxify; phenols are antiseptic; and ketones stimulate tissue regeneration. Chemical additives fracture the molecular structure thereby destroying the essential oils' therapeutic properties. A truly pure essential oil should be 100% unadulterated. Using that standard, few essential oils sold in the world qualify. Most, even those sold in health food stores, are adulterated with chemical or synthetic compounds and do more harm than good.

How do Chemicals Get in the Essential Oils?

Most commonly producers extend the oils by simply adding alcohol, propylene glycol, or acetate to the distilled oil. Other producers inject chemical solvents into the boiler water during the distillation process to increase their yield. This process alone fractures the essential oil molecules and residues of the additives bleed into the finished product. Still other companies use solvent extraction. This process immerses the plants in solvents (i.e. hexane, ether, carbon tetrachloride) and then attempts to vacuum out the residue. However, traces of solvent residue remain.

These extraction processes both destroy the essential oils’ therapeutic properties and add additional health risks from the chemicals. Why would anyone add chemicals to nature’s oldest therapeutic gift? This is probably due to a combination of ignorance and profit. Depending on the plant it takes several hundred to several tons of raw plant to produce a SINGLE pound of pure oil. It takes 250lbs of lavender plant to make a pound of oil; 1000lbs of jasmine to get one pound of oil and several tons of rose petals to yield one pound of rose oil! Producers can dramatically extend their profit margin by extending the oils; as you might imagine. The volume of lavender oil shipped from France is 100 times the volume grown and distilled there! This would suggest that 99% of all lavender oil from France is extended and adulterated!

Many producers are undoubtedly not aware of the impact on the quality of their oils and the public has still remained ignorant for the most part. As the demand for essential oils continues to rise there is pressure to produce as much as possible.

Other Factors Affecting Value of Essential Oils

Essential oils must be distilled for the proper length of time and at low enough temperatures. Nutritionists have taught us not to “boil” our vegetables because we affect the nutrients. Similarly, “boiling” plants at high temperatures destroys many of the fragile chemical constituents. In order to produce quality essential oils the distillation must be done at lower temperatures and pressure and for longer times. Again this slows down yield. For example, cypress oil must be distilled for 24 hours to release all the therapeutic agents. Most distillers are done in one hour! Similarly lavender needs approximately 90 minutes to be distilled properly, yet most is only distilled for 15 minutes! Three quarters of the volume is extracted in first quarter of the distillation process. Many producers stop at this point since increased time does not significantly increase volume.

Purity of essential oils is also determined by quality of the plants themselves. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides are oil based and do get into the distilled final product. The climate, soil, weather and all farming conditions do have an impact on the essential oil.

The very nature of “essential oils” speaks volumes. They are the vitality, essence, and energy of the

plant. Pure essential oils are an amazing gift from Mother Nature, do not be afraid to ask question about the origins and quality of oils you purchase.

To order pure essential oils go to www.youngliving.us and enter member #30650, when ordering.

August 2014