Essential oils are used in numerous ways to help people with a variety of conditions such an anxiety. They form a major part of the discipline of aromatherapy which is classed as an alternative therapy and can be used to compliment traditional medicine but should always be undertaken after consulting with professional companies such as https://www.quinessence.com/ who supply essential oils. It is important that you follow the guidelines for using any essential oils to ensure that you do not put yourself at any risk.
Here are a few fun but interesting facts about the world of essential oils:
- The name oil is slightly misleading as essential oils are actually concentrations of plant compounds that are extracted using either a distillation process or a mechanical process such as cold pressing. They cannot technically be named as an oil because the plant extract contains no fatty acids.
- There are over 90 pure essential oils that have been extracted and there are thought to be around 300 different oils that could be made of a mixture of more than one pure oil. Even though this number increases each year it is thought that only around 10 percent of the worlds plant kingdom has been examined for its potential for therapeutic qualities.
- The plant compounds used in essential oils can be extracted form a number of different places within the plant. These include the leaves, seeds, bark, stems, roots, fruit and flowers. Regardless of where within the plant the compounds originate they will all be removed in the same way.
- It takes a large quantity of the plant to create just a small amount of the oil. This is why it is important to buy these essential oils from reputable companies that will be sourcing their products from ethical growers. Meaning that the plants will be cared for and for every one that is used in essential oil product a number of other new ones will be planted.
- Each individual essential oil is made up of hundreds of what is known as phytochemicals. These are compounds such as phenols, alcohols and ketones amongst just a few. There are in fact 13 different types phytochemicals that have been found and many other variations of each making up hundreds in total. For example in Lavender there are thought to be at least 200 different phytochemicals.
There is so much about our plant world that we have still yet to understand and analyse for the potential health benefits that they may have.
