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The Nature of Essential Oils
Have you ever wondered what an "essential" oil is? To begin with, it has nothing even remotely to do with essential amino acids. Essential amino acids are called so because the human body cannot synthesize them on its own. Referring to the oils, the "essential" simply means that the oil carries the characteristic scent, the essence , of the plant. Years ago, it came to my attention that some retailers were selling "ethereal oils". These were touted as the cadillac of oils used in aromatherapy. They were sold (and some retailers still sell them) at significantly higher prices than the "ordinary" essential oils used in aromatherapy. What is the difference then between one and the other? Absolutely none . I don't know about you, but when I hear the word "ethereal", in my mind I picture something celestial, something wispy floating in the air. Ethereal is simply another word for "volatile". So.... essential oils, ethereal oils, and volatile oils are all the same thing, and don't let anyone fool you about this. Maybe at this point we should refresh our memory regarding the term volatile . A volatile compound is a substance that has the ability to release into the air enough of its scented molecules to affect our sense of smell. Of the five senses, smell is the least understood (sort of like the brain, our final frontier). For the lower animals, the sense of smell is of paramount importance. They use it to find mates, to sense danger, to find food.
Throughout the course of human evolution, the sense of smell has remained closely connected with the parts of the brain that categorize our emotional responses. This is why for many people a certain smell will bring back memories of some past event, good or bad.
The extraction of essential oils from plants is accomplished by distillation. Do you remember distillation from chemistry class? You know, you put the leaves, flowers, peel or seeds of the plant into this glass thing (the proper name for the glass thing is "alembic"). You put the apparatus over water, and allow the water to heat. Eventually the steam created will pass through the plant materials, vaporizing the volatile compounds, which will then condense back to liquid by passing through a series of coils. There you go. Essential oil. Ethereal oil. Volatile oil. Same thing. Please remember that though essential oils are derived from nature, it does not mean they cannot cause harm if used incorrectly. Some of them, for example, are known to cause photosensitivity (unusual sensitivity to light). They include: orange, grapefruit, lime, and lemon oils. The list should also includes the root oils of angelica, cumin, bergamot, and ginger. But that's not all... In addition, St. John's wort, yohimbe, and kava are some of the natural remedies that can cause photosensitivity. In particular, St. John's wort should not be used by those who have skin laser treatments. St. John's wort is commonlhy used to treat symptoms of depression. Be careful with kava which, in addition to light sensitivity, may also cause liver damage. In case you're not familiar with it, yohimbe is used to treat E.D. (erectile dysfunction). Well, do you need a break? Just give me a few more lines first, please. I'm about to tell you of some exciting new discovery!
In one of my latest newsletters/ezines, I mentioned how researchers in Manchester, UK discovered an amazing property of certain essential oils. These oils (three, to be exact) successfully killed the potentially deadly MRSA bacterium; two of them killed it in under 2 minutes!
It is my hope that funding will be made available to continue the research. However, as mentioned in the newsletter, pharmaceutical companies are very reluctant to invest their money because they wouldn't be able to claim exclusive rights to these essential oils - or any other, for that matter.
There also seems to be an aura of secrecy about the identity of the three oils. I will “break” the rule and mention just one of them: geranium. Now, please do not go out there and stock up on geranium essential oil. Allow me to repeat that these substances should be handled extremely carefully. They are potent botanicals that can turn quite dangerous in the wrong, inexperienced hands. Many of them, including geranium oil, must NOT be applied directly to the skin, so please….
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