Nightmare

Do you Know the Difference?
By Tabania Crockett
"And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there
will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their fruit will be
for food and their leaves for healing." Ezekiel 47:12
When I first became interested in essential oils, I
thought they were a novelty with a charming smell, like
incense. I had no idea I was about to embark on a life changing
experience. This article concerns the aspect of
essential oils that has become most significant to me, their
purity. Pick up any book on aromatherapy and you can read
about the effect of pure essential oils on one's
physical, emotional, and spiritual well being. One of the causes
of disease is the inability of nutrients to penetrate
the cell walls. By penetrating the cell walls, pure essential
oils transport nutrients and oxygen to the cells --
nourishing, cleansing, detoxifying, increasing blood circulation,
mobilizing the body's own self-healing powers. But
only PURE essential oils effectively start the body on this
health enhancing journey.
Many with whom I discuss essential oils comment that
"everyone says their oils are pure." This skepticism
caused me to question what "pure" means to essential
oil producers. I got some pretty shocking answers
while researching this article. Few of the above mentioned
aromatherapy books discuss purity in more than a
cursory manner. Some define "pure" essential oils as
those oils without carrier oils or other essential
oils added. Another source warned of "adulterated" oils,
but it, too, did nothing more than imply that
"adulteration" simply means other essential oils have been added.
With so much emphasis on the addition of oils, I was
more than a little surprised to find these books
barely discussed the effect of chemical additives, which
DESTROY the therapeutic properties of essential oils.
Pure essential oils have very complex molecular
structures; at present, more than 200 natural chemical
constituents have been identified. A very few of the
naturally occurring chemical constituents found in
essential oils include flavonoids, which increase
blood flow and cellular oxygenation; terpenes, which help
detoxify the body; phenols, which are antibacterial
and antiseptic; and ketones, which stimulate cell and
tissue regeneration. Their unique molecular structure gives
essential oils the ability to penetrate cell walls to
transport oxygen, nutrients, and the above mentioned
chemical constituents, and so much more. Chemical
additives fracture the molecular structure of
essential oils, altering their chemical constituents, thus
destroying their therapeutic properties. And, of course, the
chemicals themselves may present a health risk.
If authors of "alternative health" books don't
consider chemical additives, no wonder most producers feel
justified in calling their essential oils pure. I
flatly reject any suggestion that "pure" essential oils can possibly
contain chemical additives. Webster's Desk Dictionary
of the English Language, 1990, defines pure as "free from
ANYTHING of a different, inferior, or contaminating
kind." (Emphasis added.) The American Heritage Dictionary,
Third Edition, defines pure as "free from adulterants
or impurities." So to me pure, unadulterated essential
oils are essential oils containing NO chemical additives.
Period. Using that standard, few essential oils sold
in the world qualify. In fact many essential oils on the
market - yes, including those sold in health food stores - are
chemical-laden, highly adulterated, and, therefore,
have no therapeutic properties. Indeed, according to an
independent laboratory in California, Flora Research,
MOST essential oils sold are either synthetic or
adulterated with chemical additives.
How Chemicals Get Into Essential Oils:
Chemicals get into essential oils in several different
ways. Most commonly producers extend the oils by
simply adding alcohol, propylene glycol, or acetate to
the distilled essential oil.
Some oil producers do not actually add chemicals to
their oils. Instead, they inject chemical solvents into the
water in their boilers during the distillation process,
increasing output by about 18%. Imagine what happens to essential
oils when chemicals are added to water, which is
boiled into steam and then forced into plants to extract
their oil.
The very process of forcing chemically-treated steam
into the plants fractures the molecular structure of
the essential oils. It also seems impossible for an
essential
oil extracted through this method to avoid containing
at least SOME of these chemical additives.
Most surprising was the notion of purity implicit in a
book authored by the Research Chair of the
International
Federation of Aroma therapists in London. She
acknowledges that "for effective therapeutic use it is
crucial that only pure essential oils be used." Yet,
this author expressly included oils produced by solvent
extraction on her list of acceptable "pure" essential
oils. With the solvent extraction process essential oils are
extracted by immersing plants in chemical solvents,
such as hexane, petroleum benzene, ether, or carbon
tetrachloride. These solvents are later removed by
vacuum distillation. But . . . like the solvent
injection steam distillation process, do you think it is
possible to completely eliminate all toxic residue from oils
extracted by immersing plants in toxic chemicals?
These extraction processes both destroy essential
oils' therapeutic properties and bring their own health
risks from the residual chemical additives which remain in
the essential oils they produce.
Why would anyone add chemicals to nature's oldest
therapeutic substance? Probably a combination of
ignorance and profit. Depending on the plant, it takes
from 250 pounds to several tons of plants to produce a
SINGLE pound of essential oil. It takes about 250
pounds of lavender to produce a pound of pure lavender
oil, 1,000 pounds of jasmine for 1 pound of pure
jasmine oil, and several TONS of rose petals to produce a
pound of pure rose oil. As you might imagine, producers can
dramatically extend their profit margin by extending
the oils. The volume of lavender oil shipped from France
is 100 TIMES the volume grown and distilled there! This
suggests that 99% of all lavender oil coming from
France has been extended, adulterated with chemical
additives.
I am not suggesting these oil producers deliberately
put profit above health considerations. I seriously doubt
most producers have given it much thought, and consumers
have given them no reason to. The common feature
of each extraction method described above is that it
reduces cost and produces a greater volume of oils.
Essential oils are profitable in this "new age" era,
so they need to produce as much volume as possible. Few
essential oil consumers know enough to question the
source and purity of the oils. This is particularly
true in the United States, where we tend to consider price
above any other consideration. In this environment,
most producers simply need not concern themselves
with producing chemical free oils.
Other Factors Effect The Therapeutic Value Of
Essential Oils Temperature, pressure and time must be precisely
monitored to produce a complete essential oil, one
retaining its natural chemical constituents.
Distillation at lower temperatures and low pressure is the preferred
method for producing high quality, pure essential
oils. 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.
Essential oils MUST be distilled for the proper length
of time to release all their active constituents. 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.
Another factor in the purity of the oils is the land
on which the plants are grown. Inexpensive essential oils
are usually produced by large farm operations that use
chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Pesticides are
oil-soluble and their residue remains in essential
oils extracted from pesticide-treated plants. Some of the
lavendin grown in Russia and China (used to make much
of the so-called lavender oil sold around the world)
actually contains radioactive isotopes because of the
nuclear fallout from Chernobyl. Imagine using an
essential oil extracted from plants containing
radioactive isotopes AND to which chemicals have been added to
extend the oil -- synthetic linolol acetate to improve
the fragrance, and propylene glycol to increase the
volume!
According to Bio/Tech News, Young Living Essential
Oils, Inc. is the only MAJOR essential oil producer in
the entire United States whose products are steam
distilled, at low temperatures and low pressure, and extracted
without chemicals of any kind.
The very nature of the words "essential oils" speak
volumes. They are the vitality, the essence, the
energy of plants. Pure essential oils will penetrate cell walls,
affecting not just the skin, but the whole person -
both physically and psychologically. They nourish, cleanse,
detoxify, increase blood circulation, and support many
bodily functions. Please do not 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.