How concentrated are essential oils?
Essential oils are the most concentrated and potent of all plant extracts. They are 75-100 times more concentrated than dried herbs. This is why only a small amount needs to be used. Essential oils are priced according to the concentration in the plant and the process of distillation. For instance, Eucalyptus is inexpensive because a large amount of oil is found in the leaves (50 pounds of plant material yields 1 pound of oil) and the distillation is easy. In comparison, Rose is very expensive and has small amounts of oil in the flower making it costly to produce (about 5,000 pounds of flower petals yield 1 pound of essential oil).
