What are essential oils, and how do they differ from other oils?
On the underside of leaves, petals and other parts of plants are small glands that contain oil that give each plant its individual aroma. Plants are put through an extraction process in order to separate these oils from the rest of the plant’s matter. When a steam process releases the oil from these tiny sacs, they are the purest byproduct of distillation and are called essential oils. Other extraction methods will result is hydrosols, absolutes or pomades. Essential oils are not like the oils that we are accustomed to seeing in the grocery store. Olive oils and other vegetable oils come from a pressing process as opposed to the steam process mentioned above.
