What are Essential Oils?
Essential oils are the concentrated, fragrant and volatile extracts from plants. Essential oils are found in parts of the plant such as the leaves, roots, spices, rinds of citrus fruits, seeds, woods, and flowers. Essential oils play a key role in the biochemistry of the plant since they are contained in small bag like chambers between the cells and act as regulators or messengers. They are referred to as the blood of the plant because they contain the life force of the plant that they come from. Each essential oil has multiple benefits to which the mind and body respond. Since some of their properties are antiseptic, purifying and stimulating to the immune system, they are considered to be part of holistic herbal medicine.
Essential oils contain the true essence of the plant it was derived from. An essential oil is a liquid that is distilled from the stems, flowers, leaves, bark, roots, or other elements of a plant. Essential oils, despite the use of the word oil, do not feel oily at all. Essential oils are believed to contribute various properties to your emotional as well as physical well being.
Essential oils occur naturally in some plants and are in fact the aroma that one smells. Essential oils are tiny droplets, which are found in glands, glandular hairs or sacs in different parts of the plant. They can be found in flowers, leaves, stems, bark, wood, roots and fruits of plants. For instance squeeze the skin of an orange and out pops an aromatic, volatile essential oil. Essential oils are complex chemical compounds containing esters, alcohols, phenols, aldehydes, ketones, terpenes, ethers and sesquiterpenes among others. Each of the chemicals contained in an essential oil will impart its own unique properties to that oil. For example lavender essential oil would have analgesic, antidepressant, carminative, emmenagogue, rubefacient, stimulant and sudorific properties as some of its major chemical constituents are linalool, linalyl acetate, geraniol and lavandulol. Essential oils are volatile as they evaporate easily, and although called an oil are in fact not oily to the tou
They are oils that are derived from plants and have wide variety of uses; from ingredients in commercial products to home health remedies. The term “Essential” is due to the fact that the oils are a concentrated form of the “Essence” or intrinsic nature of the plant. One of the characteristics of these oils is that they contain the concentrated scent of the plant and they are very aromatic. The use of these special oils for therapeutic purposes has a long history and has given rise to the term “aromatherapy”. There are about 300 essential oils in use today. How are the oils extracted? A process called distillation is the primary method used to extract the oils from the plant materials. This is the same process used to extract alcohol from corn (think moonshiner’s still). Water containing plant material is boiled. As the steam exits it carries molecules of the oil with it. The steam is cooled and the water condenses back from a vapor to a liquid. As the liquid settles, the oil rises to
