Essential Oils
Essential Oils
Essential oils have been used in alternative complimentary medicine for over ten thousand years, their use dating back to the early Egyptian and Chinese healers. They are fairly new in the United States only being used for aromatherapy since the early 1980's. These were first introduced into the perfume industry which used very low grade essential oils cut with cheap vegetable oils. Unfortunaely the marketing industry allows labels to say "pure" when they have a only a few drops of the original oil. One way to tell if you are truly buying a "pure" grade of essential oil is if it is oily. Most essential oils are not oily. One way to test this is to place a drop of the essential oil on a piece of blotting paper, if it leaves an oily residue then it is not "pure."
It takes at least a pound of the leaves of the plant to make a small amount of the essential oil. If blossoms are used it can take two or more tons of these blossoms to make only one pound of the oil. Most essential oils are extracted through the use of some form of steam distillation which temporarily uses temperatures of over 140 degrees in the extraction process. Citrus oils are made from the fruit or its skin and are cold or expelllar pressed. A few called absolutes have to be extracted by using a chemical solvent which can be easily removed from the essential oil. These absolutes include Jasmine, Neroli, Onycha and various types of Rose
Essential oils are used as a part of alternative complimentary medicine in many healing fields today. They can be used for the healing of body mind and spirit. Researchers at the universities in Berlin, Gernany, Vienna and Austria have discovered that some of the essential oils like Frankincense and Sandalwood contain sesquiterpenes. These sesquiterpenes are able to cross the blood brain barrier. The use of these in alternative complimentary medicine can aid in the healing of such diseases as Alzheimers, Lou Gehrig's Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson's Disease.c