Where are Aromatherapy essential oils found and how are they extracted.?
Several methods are commonly used to extract the essential oils from the plant material. The one that is most often used today is distillation. This incidentally is the oldest method and has stood the test of time. This involves the plant matter being heated during which process the volatile components are then able to be condensed and collected from the vapors that result Solvent extraction, maceration, expression and enfleurage are also methods which are used to extract essential oils from plant matter. Something many people don’t know and is a very interesting aspect is that there are different qualities of essential oils. Certainly there is no official grading system for these essential oils. However how and where the plant was grown can and does have a very significant affect on the quality of the extracted oils.
