***Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils – Know What You Are Getting

Essential oils are not all created equal. If you are purchasing essential oils to use for therapeutic purposes (Aromatherapy, diffusing, putting on or in your body) you want to be certain that the oils you are using are Therapeutic Grade. Many oils that may smell good, are not necessarily good for you….

One of the factors that determines the purity of an oil is its chemical constituents. These constituents can be affected by a vast number of variables, including: the part of the plant from which the oil was produced, soil condition, fertilizer, (organic or chemical), geographical region, climate, altitude, harvesting methods, and distillation processes.

The key to producing a therapeutic-grade essential oil is to preserve as many of the delicate aromatic compounds within the essential oil as possible. Fragile aromatic chemicals are easily destroyed by high temperature and pressure, as well as contact with chemically reactive metals such as copper or aluminum. This is why all therapeutic grade essential oils should be distilled in stainless steel cooking chambers at low pressure and low temperature.

The plant material should also be free of herbicides and other agrichemicals. These can react with the essential oil during distillation to produce toxic compounds. Because many pesticides are oil-soluble, they can also mix into the essential oil.

Although chemists have successfully recreated the main constituents and fragrances of some essential oils in the lab, these synthetic oils lack therapeutic benefits and may even carry risks. Why? Because essential oils contain hundreds of different chemical compounds, which, in combination, lend important therapeutic properties to the oil. Also, many essential oils contain molecules and isomers that are impossible to manufacture in the laboratory.

Anyone using essential oils in the therapeutic sense must use the purest quality oils available. Inferior quality or adulterated oils most likely will not produce therapeutic results and could possibly be toxic.

Adulteration is such a major concern that every batch of essential oil that comes into Young Living must be tested by highly trained independent European laboratories which utilize AFNOR standards. Batches that do not meet the standards are rejected and returned.

As an example, today much of the lavender oil sold in America is the hybrid called lavandin, grown and distilled in China, Russia, France and Tasmania. It is brought into France and cut with synthetic linalyl acetate to improve the fragrance. Then propylene glycol, DEP or DOP (solvents with no smell and increase the volume) are added and it is sold in the U.S. as lavender oil. Do you want these products in your essential oils? I know I don’t…… that’s why I only use Young Living’s Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils!