Essential Oils|Aromatherapy|Pheromones

What Are Essential Oils?

April 1st, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

Essential oils, which are also known as ‘essences’, are extracted from assorted parts of plants, such as blossoms, fruits, roots, and barks by the distillation method. With the assistance of various extraction techniques, essential oils are prepared. Since the ancient times, essential oils have been revered among many civilizations because their curative properties.

What Is Used to Make Essential Oil?

A wide assortment of botanical materials is used to develop essential oils. Not only flowers, different parts of these curative plants are equally advantageous, such as, leaves, stems, roots, twigs, buds, barks, seeds, fruits, etc. In reality, a large quantity of botanical materials is required to prepare essential oils. This is primarily because in most of instances these plants have very low amount of oils in their oil-specialized cells.

Common Information on Essential Oil

Mother Nature always seems to know best. Many mainstream pharmaceuticals have been found in nature so it is no surprise that essential oil use is becoming more popular and recognized as being beneficial. The trend in recent years has also been a shift towards natural or organic products and away from the artificially manufactured. There is now wide variety of essential oils available in the marketplace ranging from the common to the very rare. Some of the most popular and most recognizable are basil, chamomile, cinnamon, clove, eucalyptus, geranium, ginger, jasmine, lavender, lemon, lemongrass, lime, myrrh, pine, rose, sandalwood and many others.

Various Extraction Methods

The choice of extraction technique is for the most part contingent on the type of botanicals that will be used in the process. The most typically used method in the extraction process involves distillation. During this type of extraction method, volatile solution is first vaporized and then the vapor is converted back into liquid to ensure the natural purity. Water distillation, steam distillation and hydro diffusion are the methods used under the distillation process.

Apart from the distillation process, expression is another extraction method used to extract essential oils from botanical materials. This method is typically used to extract citrus based essential oils. Sponge expression, Écuelle à piquer and machine abrasion are commonly used under the expression technique. Solvent extraction is yet another extraction technique that is utilized and includes maceration, effleurage, solvent and hypercritical CO2.

Application of Essential Oils

Many individuals simply want to know the beneficial applications of essential oils. You can use essential oils for different purposes such as air fresheners, bathing, massage oils, hair care, steam inhalations, flea repellent, and many others. When we talk about its application as a health care product, the possibilities are simply endless and are believed to help cure everything for cold sores to cancer. In addition, essential oil can work effectively as mood elevator or enhancers, making you feel everything from energized to relaxed and peaceful.