Essential Oils and Aromatherapy:
The Art and Science of Cleaner Living!
There is a whole spectrum between natural, clean, healthy living, and not. Wherever you fall on that scale, that’s OK. Typically, it’s not always about what you have done, but where you are going and what you are going to do about it moving forward. One small change at a time can be extremely beneficial for your overall health. I always say, once you know something, you can’t unknow it. Like the next few facts for example:
- According to the EPA, the air INSIDE your home can be 2-5x more pollutant than the air outdoors.
- The European Union has banned over 1,300 chemicals found in cosmetics. The FDA has only banned 8 and restricted 3.
- 60% of what we put onto our skin is absorbed into our body, because our skin is our largest organ.
- Research by Bionsen, a natural deodorant company, found that the average woman’s daily grooming and make-up routine means she ‘hosts’ a staggering 515 different synthetic chemicals on her body every single day.
- Lastly, did you know that synthetic chemicals, chemicals that are made by humans, are hormone disruptors, have neurodevelopmental effects, suppress the immune systems, and can potentially cause cancer.
This list of chemicals are ingredients in many personal care products.
- Parabens are preservatives used in cosmetics, skin care products, soaps, cleaning products and baby products to extend shelf life. But these can also cause skin and allergic reactions. Parabens collect in breast tissue and can stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells.
- Phthalates are preservatives used in soaps, shampoos, cosmetics, beauty and skin care products, and cleaning products. Phthalates impact our endocrine system, particularly reproduction and male fertility.
- Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is a lathering agent that make our soaps sudsy and frothy. SLS can cause severe skin irritation and can be contaminated with known carcinogens. It can also build up easily in the brain, heart, lungs, and liver.
- Fragrance is an umbrella term for thousands of chemicals that are untested and potentially unsafe. Used in soaps, shampoos, beauty care and skin care products, and cleaning products. Fragrance can trigger allergic reactions, respiratory issues like asthma, headaches and hormonal disruptions.
- Propylene glycol is used for hydrating in soaps, shampoos, cleansers and other beauty products. But can also cause skin rashes and contact dermatitis. It may also cause damage to the kidneys and liver, as well as neurotoxicity in children.
- also included in this list is talc, aluminum, fluoride, formaldehyde, and DEA, plus more!
The small amounts of the chemicals in these lists are found in many products. However, since it is ‘such a small amount’ it passes laws and remains in products. What has not been accounted for is bioaccumulation. Bioaccumulation is the gradual accumulation of substances, such as pesticides or other chemicals, in an organism. Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a substance at a rate faster than that at which the substance is lost or eliminated by catabolism and excretion.
A few places to start, flip over different products you use in the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen. Things like cleaning supplies, lotions, shampoos, soaps. Start to Google the ingredients and see what you find in your products. Thinking about switching to cleaner, more natural products will allow your body to eliminate built up products in your body. Or consider a detox that eliminates these different harmful chemicals. Although you might spend more money upfront, you cannot pay for your health, but you will pay for your illness!
Sourcing
Just like the concept of farm to table, from the seed that is planted in the ground, to how it is cultivated and harvested, and then distilled, every single stage is imperative in producing the therapeutic grade oil at the end. So how do we know our essential oil company is sourcing our oils well? First, your essential oil company should be willing to be transparent in their entire sourcing and distilling process, so transparent that you should be able to go to the farm or watch the distillation process because there is nothing to hide.
Trust a company that performs extensive testing to ensure that things like herbicides and pesticides have never touched the soil that the plants will be grown in. Also, trust a company that has high standards, but also brings in a third party to test and validate these standards. When a company owns their own farms or partners with local farmers it allows full control to uphold the standards in place and take intricate care of the local ecosystem already established. This is important because intrinsic factors related to the plants and the interactions with the environment such as soil type and climate will directly affect the essential oil that is produced at the end (Dhifi etl al, 2016).
Now, that only covers the preparation of the land prior to planting the seed. After the seed is planted, the cultivating and care is up next. Depending on how fields are taken care of, this is where cost can be driven up or down. From a farming perspective, it is much more cost effective and time effective to use pesticides or herbicides to get rid of weeds and pests that could harm the plants. However, this directly affects the finished essential oil at the end. Obviously, it takes a lot more time, effort and energy to hand pick the weeds and walk row by row. Yet, this maintains the integrity of the plant by not compromising the natural constituents.
When it is time to harvest the plant, did you know that if the plant is harvested in different seasons, the final essential oil produced could smell drastically different (Tanoh et. al, 2020)? Furthermore, the maturity of the plant or the harvest time during the day will affect the produced essential oil (Dhifi et. al, 2016). Think that’s really specific, we’ll go another step further. Even what part of the plant is picked or how it is picked will affected the essential oil produced (Dhifi et. al, 2016). It seems excessively intricate, but that is why you want to find an essential oil company that takes pride in upholding these sourcing standards.
Everything is directly affected by the environment it is in. Hypothetically, let’s take the wildfires in California or the hurricanes in the Southeast. If that was the location of all of a company’s lavender fields and the entire crop was wiped out because of the natural disasters, lavender essential oil would then be unavailable for a period of time until their sourcing can be replenished. This would indicate that a company is not willing to put synthetics, contaminants, or cheap fillers in a bottle and claim it as a therapeutic grade essential.
A list one should consider for sourcing standards is below.
- Authentication
- Agricultural Practices
- Harvesting & Collection
- Extraction & Distillation Practices
- Testing
- Traceability
- Storage & Bottling
Remember, the sourcing directly impacts the essential oil that is produced at the end of the distillation process. That means that everything we discussed above will directly affect the therapeutic benefits that we want from the use of the essential oil. Therefore, the sourcing becomes highly relevant when considering a therapeutic grade essential oil.
Resources:
- Dhifi, W.; Bellili, S.; Jazi, S.; Bahloul, N.; Mnif, W. Essential Oils’ Chemical Characterization and Investigation of Some Biological Activities: A Critical Review. Medicines 2016, 3, 25.
- Tanoh, E.A.; Boué, G.B.; Nea, F.; Genva, M.; Wognin, E.L.; Ledoux, A.; Martin, H.; Tonzibo, Z.F.; Frederich, M.; Fauconnier, M.-L. Seasonal Effect on the Chemical Composition, Insecticidal Properties and Other Biological Activities of Zanthoxylum leprieurii Guill. & Perr. Essential Oils. Foods 2020, 9, 550.
Distilling
How do we get the natural, therapeutic grade essential oils? That’s a great question. In addition to how the plant material is sourced, distillation is another important area to consider.
Essential oils are distilled from trees, flowers, roots, resins, fruits, rinds, bushes, shrubs and herbs and they are the most powerful part of the plant. An essential oil consists of hundreds of natural, organic compounds and constituents, which is what synergistically works with the chemistry make up of our bodies. Distillation is more of an art than a science. There are many different methods and ways to extract essential oils from the plants that includes solvent extraction, carbon-dioxide extraction, and steam distillation. A couple other types of oil production include expressed oils and absolutes, which neither actually produce essential oils but are pressed from the rinds of fruits and create essences, respectively.
We will spend most of our time learning about steam distillation, since that is the most common method, in addition providing many advantages over the suggested methods above. However, we will quickly review solvent-extraction because as the name suggests, this uses an oil-soluble solvent (such as hexane, dimethylenechloride, and acetone) for extraction. But, with the use of the solvent for oil extraction, there is no guarantee that all the solvent is removed from the finished product. Remember, the only thing that we want in our bottle of essential oil is 100% pure therapeutic grade oil.
Did you know that it takes 5,000 pounds of rose petals to produce 1 pound of pure therapeutic grade rose oil? Wow! Right, now we can start to understand why pure essential oils that provide therapeutic benefits can be more expensive. Yet, you can pay for your health or pay for your illness.
Back to steam distillation though. Companies can follow each of these steps precisely to create pure, therapeutic grade essential oils or cut many different corners to create an essential oil at the end of the process but one that does not have the therapeutic benefits.
So, the process. Steam distillation involves creating steam and sending it into a cooking chamber that holds the raw plant material. As the steam rises, it ruptures the oil membranes in the plant and release the essential oil. The steam then carries the oil to the condenser, where the oil-water mixture reliquefies. It is then sent to a separator where the oil is separated from the water. The run-off water is called ‘floral water’ (Essential Oil Desk Reference, Special First Edition, 2016).
Alright, now that we went through the basic process here are some items we want to make sure that our essential oil company does. Make sure that your essential oils are distilled at a low pressure (5lbs or lower) and low temperature. Additionally, the size of the cooking chamber, the type of condenser and separator. With higher pressures and temperatures, the chemical constituents of the essential oil, along with the pH and electrical polarity can be altered.
Also, each essential oil has an ideal period of time it needs to be distilled for, and if a company decreases the amount of time by increasing the pressure and temperature in the chamber, this affects the essential oil that is produces also. This is where some companies cut their production costs, but they also cut the therapeutic benefits too. Moreover, we want our essential oils to be distilled in non-reactive metals like stainless steel material compared to cooper or steel, to reduce the chances of the essential oil from being chemically altered.
Lastly, a way some companies keep costs low is through a process called redistillation. We all understand coffee, right? The coffee on the left was the first pot of coffee I brewed this morning with fresh ground beans. That’s first distillation cup of coffee. I then brewed another cup using the same grounds as before. Second distillation. Making sense? I did this four more times using those same coffee grounds getting me all the way to the 6th distillation cup of coffee. Just like essential oils, with each successive distillation the coffee or oil gets weaker and less potent.
How your essential oils are distilled will directly affect the essential oil that is placed in your bottle. There are many places to reduce costs to speed of the process and reuse materials, but again this compromises what you get in the bottle.
Utilization
There are hundreds of studies demonstrating the therapeutic benefits of authentic essential oils for every system in the body, in addition to overall alertness, focus and mood. The use of essential oils has been around since biblical and medieval times, has been used in Chinese medicine, and once again is growing popularity in current times.
First, it is to note that not all essential oils are created equally. Every essential oil does fall into one of four categories: authentic, manipulated, perfume, or synthetic.
- Authentic means the oil is 100% pure, with no added synthetics or other additives in the bottle.
- Manipulated means the final product has been made to smell more pleasing and less earthy. Some of the heavier molecules have been stripped out; or another additive has been introduced to enhance the aroma.
- Perfume oils are not pure. They are mixed with synthetics to enhance the aroma and these oils have no therapeutic action. Furthermore, solvents are frequently used to extract the plant.
- Synthetic oils are not true oils. They do not smell like the original plant and are typically label as “scented products”.
We all want authentic essential oils, right? Because these are the oils that work! Many bottles of essential oil are labeled ‘100% pure therapeutic grade’. However, essential oils are minimally regulated by the FDA and only 5% of pure essential oil content must be present to maintain this label. Therefore, it is extremely important to take the extra step of turning the bottle over and reading the label, the contents of the bottle and knowing and understanding the sourcing of the essential oil.
Now, there are different schools of thought on how a person can use an essential oil. But again, the biggest determinant for use of an essential oil will be dependent on how the essential oil was sourced and if it is authentic or not. Always read the label and follow the directions that are listed on the bottle.
With authentic essential oils, there are three ways to use them.
- Aromatically, which means you inhale the essential oil often times by use of a diffuser or by place a drop of oil in your hands and cupping them around your nose and mouth.
- Topically, which means applying the essential oil onto an area of the body (because your skin is the largest organ of the body!). Common places include the wrists, neck, behind the ears, chest, stomach, or feet. ‘Neat’ describes applying the essential oil directly from the bottle onto the desired area. Dilution, which is typically recommended especially for those with sensitive skin and children, is when the pure essential oil is mixed with a carrier oil, also known as a fatty vegetable oil.
- Internally, which means you ingest the essential oil if it is designated to be safe for internal use. One could ingest an essential oil by placing a drop or two in water or tea or using a capsule.
One drop of essential oil can go a long way, so a motto to follow is ‘start low, and go slow’ when considering how many drops to use and how quickly you choose to add more. A few safety items to note, citrus oils are photosensitive. Therefore, it is not recommended to use them topically or internally if you will be spending the day in the sun. Also, when ingesting an oil, always use glass or stainless steel.
