Are there Standards for Testing Essential Oils?
Unfortunately in the United States there are not standards for testing therapeutic grade essential oil. And if you have read through my website you may have picked up on the fact that the FDA has very loose standards on even labeling oils. So labeling is unreliable and in fact can be deceptive. Thyme can be simply labeled generically with no scientific name or chemotype. So what is it really? However, the Europeans, Asians and the Middle Eastern cultures who have been using essential oils and botanical extracts for thousands of years do have some guidelines! And the companies who are serious about providing real therapeutic grade essential oil to their customers test their batches and use those standards. The Association French Normalization Organization Regulation (AFNOR) standards or ISO certification (ISO standards) has the most reliable chemical constituent indicators of whether oil is therapeutic or not. However, no organization regulates whether a company is meeting those standar
