Essential Oils and Aromatherapy
Essential Oils is what Aromatherapy is all about. What
are Essential oils? They are oils which naturally occur
within various parts of different plants including the
bark, the stem, the fruits the flowers the leaves and
even the roots. These oils have been extracted from
the plants.
It is important not to confuse Aromatherapy Essential oils with perfumes which are very often manufactured using a selection of synthetic ingredients. These synthetic ingredients to not provide the same types benefits to the body and the mind.
Where are Aromatherapy essential oils found and how are they extracted.?
Several methods are commonly used to extract the
essential oils from the plant material. The one that is most often used today is distillation. This incidentally is the oldest method and has stood the test of time. This involves the plant matter being heated during which process the volatile components are then able to be condensed and collected from the vapors that result
Solvent extraction, maceration, expression and enfleurage are also methods which are used to extract essential oils from plant matter. Something many people don’t know and is a very interesting aspect is that there are different qualities of essential oils. Certainly there is no official grading system for these essential oils.
However how and where the plant was grown can and does have a very significant affect on the quality of the extracted oils. Conditions in the environment such as the soil quality and the weather will influence the harvest as will the actual time when the plants are harvested
Farming methods used during planting and harvesting can have an effect as does, believe it or not, the way
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