What are Aromatherapy Essential Oils?
Essential oils are extracted from certain species of flowers, grasses, fruits, leaves, roots, and trees. Each individual oil has its own qualities and is used for many diverse purposes. It takes a great deal of work to produce a tiny amount of essential oil. Sixty thousand rose blossoms are required to produce one ounce of rose oil, whereas in the lavender plant the essential oil is more abundant and 220 pounds will provide 7 pounds of oil. In the case of jasmine, the flowers must be picked by hand before the sun becomes hot on the very first day they open, whereas the sandalwood tree must be at least 30 years old and thirty feet high before it can be cut down for distillation. Between these extremes, a whole range of growing and picking conditions apply to the plants that will ultimately provide the precious essential oils. The price of each oil reflects these conditions, and because it takes eight million hand picked jasmine blossoms to produce 2.2 pounds of oil, you can understand w
