Aromatherapy - Introduction - What Are Essential Oils

What Are Essential Oils?

Essential oils are concentrated liquids that are extracted from plants. It appears plants produce essential oils for several reasons:

1. The attraction of insects, which help them to pollinate and reproduce
2. To act as an antiseptic, killing mold and bacteria that grow on them
3. To deter certain predators and insects which may be react negatively to the essential oils
4. To communicate with other plants
5. To protect the plant from rain (most essential oils do not mix with water)

Essential oils may be extracted from the roots, stems, rhizomes, leaves, fruit or, in some cases, the peels of plants. These oils are so concentrated that it may take anywhere from a few ounces to a couple hundred pounds of raw plant material to produce one ounce of essential oil. Bear in mind that, while using essential oils, they may be anywhere from 75 to 100% stronger than the plants they came from. It is important to use them with care.

Essential oils are composed of hundreds of natural compounds that have a medicinal or psychological effect. A number of popular drugs are derived from plants, including aspirin, morphine, the contraceptive pill, and many more.

Despite their name, essential oils are actually liquids that evaporate quickly. This is quite different from fatty oils, which tend not to possess this property. A bottle of exposed, high quality, essential oil would completely evaporate within a few hours.

Essential oils contain the true essence of the plant it was derived from. They are not the same as perfume or fragrance oils. Where essential oils are naturally sourced from the actual plants, perfume oils are artificially created or contain artificial substances. They do not offer the therapeutic benefits of essential oils.

Essential oils are very expensive to produce due to the labour intensive process and the quantity of plant required to produce the oil. Approximately 400kg of thyme would produce 1kg of essential oil, 30 bulgarian roses makes one drop of oil, 6 tonnes of orange blossom produces 1kg of neroli, and 4 million jasmine flowers produces 1kg of jasmine absolute.

The benefits of using essential oils go beyond their pleasant aromas. Many of them have distinct effects and serve some functional purpose. Many oils have antibiotic and anti-inflammatory properties, behave as a sedative, or emerge as a stimulant.

Aromatherapy is not the only practice that makes use of essential oils. The food industry uses them for flavour, the perfume industry for fragrance and cosmetics, and the pharmaceutical industry for drugs and antibacterial agents. Since the natural chemicals found in plants change from day to day due to weather, soil, pollution, and precipitation, industries must chemically alter the essential oils so these chemicals remain intact, prolonging shelf-life. This is not the best way to benefit from essential oils as the long-term use of synthetic chemicals is not known.