What are essential oils?
People can often be confused as to what essential oils are. With so many herbal items hitting the market as of late (and even more names for all of these things) it’s easy to see where the confusion comes from. People ask why you can’t consume essential oils if you can consume tinctures. Why can we consume the whole herb and not the oil? Why are some oils deemed to be more risky than say the herb? Aren’t they technically the same thing?
No, essential oils are concentrates of that herb. For a more technical definition: “An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants.” Now, before we freak out because essential oils are called chemicals and volatile let’s address this. Everything is made up of chemicals, chemicals are not inherently bad. Volatile is also not a bad word here, this simply means they evaporate very quickly. It doesn’t mean they are harmful or dangerous. In short essential oils are highly concentrated plant matter. A common saying is that one drop of peppermint essential oil is equal to 30 cups of tea. This is actually true, give or take a few cups. They are extremely potent, and while this is not a bad thing they need to be used with care so that they don’t cause issues for someone. It is incredibly easy to overdose on essential oils because they are so concentrated. 250 pounds of lavender is the plant matter required to make 1 pound of the essential oil. Each plant will yield about 1/4 to 1/2 pound of flower buds. Other essential oils require the entire plant to be picked. That is a lot of plants! If you are thinking that this sounds a little unsustainable you’d be right, some companies care very little about sustainability and honesty when it comes to harvesting and distilling essential oils. Make sure to look into where they are sourcing oils, and if the company can’t tell you I would consider this a red flag. Here is a hint, if you ask where the oil comes from and all they can tell you is “well they have their own farms” then show you pictures of lavender fields(but no other fields), they are not transparent about where they source their essential oils. Especially if they are offering essential oils such as frankincense which is most commonly sourced overseas.
Okay, so they need 250 pounds of plant matter. What do they do with that plant matter? In most cases they steam distill the essential oil. This means that they put the plant matter in something called a steam distiller, pictured below. They then run steam through the plant matter which causes the little sacs with the essential oils to rupture. The steam then travels, carrying the oil, through the apparatus to the condenser which cools the steam down. The oil then floats on the water and can be siphoned off until nothing but the oil remains. The remaining water is called a hydrosol and is a much less concentrated version of essential oil, sometimes even containing slightly different properites than the essential oil itself. Other methods include cold extraction (usually done with citrus oils) where they press the oil out and solvent extraction where they use a solvent to extract the essential oils. Solvent extractions are generally called absolutes and do contain a little of the solvent that was used.
Steam distiller
Used to extract essential oils by steam. Most oils are extracted this way.
Well if something is so potent why do we even need it? Can’t we just use the herb? Yes, you can. In a lot of cases an herb is the ideal choice. We don’t often need the strongest does of something, and if we can accomplish the same thing with other aromatherapy/herbal products than we should do that. Here is a little chart I whipped up of the different aromatherapy/herbal options. There are many reason to chose essential oils, despite their potency. Sometimes the highest dose is required, and essential oils should be diluted so we are not getting the full potency when we use them anyways. Essential oils are also a better choice than artifical frangrances and you can’t achieve quite the same scent with herbal infusion sometimes. Essential oils are also an easier version to use, it can be time consuming to make herbal infusions, where you can instead open a bottle of essential oil and use that instead. If you were wanting to ingest essential oils, think again and opt for an herb as that is a much safer and more effective choice in most cases.
This shows the different types of products and a quick over view of what they are or what they are good for.
I find this handy to help with deciding what I need, when and why. Essential oils are often used as a cure all but in reality there is a time and place for them. Herbs are wonderful choices a lot of the time.
This doesn’t mean that I believe essential oils are pointless though. I believe they have many great uses and are incredibly useful. I also believe they are overused and over marketed especially with large companies monopolizing the essential oil world. So when is a good time to use essential oils vs the herb? It honestly depends on what you are hoping to achieve. If you are looking for symptom control when sick, it honestly just depends on how you are doing and what you have. For general sickness I find that tinctures work best. For specific symptoms I turn to essential oils. If I have congestion and/or a runny nose I find that doing a steam with some essential oils can really help me. If I have body aches and possibly a fever taking a tincture full of immune supporting herbs really helps me. For topical pain relief I find essential oils help a lot. A lot of the time I combine the two, using herbal oils with a dose of essential oils.
As a general fragrance replacement I turn to essential oils, this achieves my desired fragrance much easier and far better than an herbal infusion or dried herbs even. I know other people prefer a simmer pot but I personally don’t use any kind of aromatic in my house that often so my fragrance replacement come in the from of products. Lotions, deodorants, bath products. While I keep in mind what oils I am using, I know that I largely use them because I like to smell good or smell good things on me. For a bath I might pick some oils to pair with bath salts that help relax me and ease muscle aches. But I am also picking them because I enjoy the scent.
This can really look different for different people as well. Essential oils have their place and while I don’t agree that they are to be used for everything, I think they can be incredibly beneficial. We just need to keep in mind how potent they are and use them accordingly.
Thank you so much for reading, your support means a lot. If you have any questions feel free to email me at holisticary@gmail.com or call/text me at 641-631-6355This blog post was meant to educate and entertain, it is entirely my opinion and not meant to treat or diagnose anyone or to be taken as absolute unwavering fact. Please seek proper medical care and advice. Some links might contain affiliate links, this is at no cost to you and helps the blog.