What are Essential Oils?
Essential oil is the scented liquid extracted from certain plants using steam or pressure. It contains the natural chemicals that provide the plant’s distinctive odor and flavor. Many essential oils find use in perfumes, food flavorings, medicine, and aromatherapy.
Known also as volatile oils, essential oils form the foundation of aromatherapy. These oils come from the fragrant essences found in various plants. Plants produce these essences in special cells, often beneath the surface of leaves, bark, or peels, using energy from the sun and elements from the air, soil, and water. Crushing the plant releases its essence and unique fragrance. Extracting these essences through natural methods, such as steam distillation or mechanical pressing, yields essential oils.
There are very many essential oils used in aromatherapy. Each type of essential oil has a different chemical composition that affects how it smells, how it is absorbed, and how it is used by the body.
Essential Oils are made up of a large array of chemical components that consist of the secondary metabolites found in various plant materials. The major chemical components of essential oils include terpenes, esters, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, phenols, and oxides, which are volatile and may produce characteristic odors. Different types of oils contain varying amounts of each of these compounds, which are said to give each oil its particular fragrance and therapeutic characteristics.
These oils are very concentrated. For example, it takes about 220 lbs of lavender flowers to make about 1 pound of essential oil. Essential oils are evaporating quickly when they are exposed to open air.
Essential Oil History
People have used fragrant plants in healing practices for thousands of years across many cultures, including those in ancient China, India, and Egypt. During the Middle Ages, many cultures discovered methods to extract essential oils from these plants.
The history of modern aromatherapy started in the early 20th century when French chemist René Gattefossé coined the term “aromatherapy” and studied how essential oils could treat various diseases.
Gattefossé’s famous burn: Translated from French, this is Gattefossé’s own description of the incident: “The external application of small quantities of essences rapidly stops the spread of gangrenous sores. “In my personal experience, after a laboratory explosion covered me with burning substances which I extinguished by rolling on a grassy lawn, both my hands were covered with a rapidly developing gas gangrene. Just one rinse with lavender essence stopped “the gasification of the tissue”. This treatment was followed by profuse sweating, and healing began the next day (July 1910).”
Gattefossé’s use of lavender oil was clearly an intentional act, and the result impressed him greatly, and possibly saved his life. It was a special moment for him and for aromatherapy. It also helped make him famous, and we still remember the incident 106 years later. Subsequently he collaborated with a number of doctors who treated French soldiers for war wounds using lavender and other essential oils. The accounts of these cases constitute a large part of his 1937 book “Aromathérapie”, by the way, this was the first appearance of the word “aromatherapy” in print.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Western countries rediscovered aromatherapy as interest in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) grew.
Using Essential Oils
People use essential oils in various ways. The most common methods include inhalation, adding them to baths, mixing them with body or massage oils, creams, or lotions, using them in compresses or employing them in aromatherapy diffusers and lamps. Always use essential oils by the drop and keep them out of children’s reach. Avoid applying undiluted essential oils directly to your skin, as their concentrated essence might cause irritation. Dilute essential oils in a carrier oil, such as kukui nut oil, almond oil, coconut oil, or another vegetable oil, before applying them to your body. You can apply essential oils individually or blend them to create a synergistic mix that enhances their effectiveness and amplifies their vibration.
Methods of using Essential Oils
AROMATIC BATH: Add 10 drops of essential oils to a cup of Epsom salt or sea salt, or into an emulsifier such as milk or sesame oil. Bath salts disperse the oils safely into the water, while milk and sesame oil emulsify the essential oil so that it disperses. Relax in bath for 20 minutes. Benefits: Aromatic baths are excellent for skin problems, circulatory problems, respiratory symptoms, stress, nervous tension, insomnia, muscular, and menstrual pains. Caution: Overuse of essential oils in the bath can cause irritation. Use only mild, non-irritating oils.
INHALATION: Place 1 to 6 drops of Essential oil on a tissue or cotton ball or put them in an inhaling device and breath in deeply the aromatic fragrances.
AROMATHERAPY MASSAGE: Add 6 to 60 drops of Essential Oil per ounce of natural unscented massage/body oil. Allow to penetrate for 2 to 4 hours before bathing or showering.
COMPRESSES: Add 10 drops of Essential oil to 4 oz of hot water. Soak a strip of gauze or cloth, apply to the affected area for 20 minutes. Lie down and relax while applying the compress. Soak and reapply the compress several times. Benefits: Good for bruises, wounds, muscular aches and pains, dysmenorrhea, and skin problems
FACIAL STEAM: 1 – 5 drops on hot water in a pot, cover head with a towel, steam face. Benefits: Excellent for opening sinuses, headaches, and as a skin treatment
FOOT BATHS: Add 4-10 drops of Essential oil in Epsom salt to warm water in a basin. Soak feet for 10 to 15 minutes.
AROMATHERAPY DIFFUSERS AND LAMPS: Candle diffusers Electric heat diffusers Cool air nebulizing diffusers
TOPICAL APPLICATION Use them as a natural perfume in specially created blends. Or use them combined with reflexology points. Read “Healing for the Age of Enlightenment” by Stanley Burroughs for a complete understanding and description of all techniques.
HOME AND CAR: There are numerous ways to disperse the oils in your home. We encourage every user of essential oils to inform themselves. There are lots of excellent books on the use of Aromatherapy.
Essential Oil Safety Guidelines
1. Keep vegetable oil or another carrier oil nearby when applying essential oils, so you can dilute and remove them if needed. Do not try and dilute the essential oils with water, it will spread the oil and make it worse.
2. Do a skin test of the essential oil if you are using it on a person for the first time. The soles of the feet are the safest and one of the most effective places to use and test oils, especially for children and those with respiratory sensitivity.
3. People with respiratory sensitivities need to be extra cautious when using essential oils.
4. Certain oils that are high in phenols, citrals and cinnamic aldehyde can burn and irritate the skin if not diluted. We call them the “Hot” oils. Examples are: thyme, oregano, clove and savory (phenols), lemongrass (citrols), and cinnamon bark and leaf (cinnamic aldehyde).
5. Always use a dispersing agent. Use a bath gel base, Epsom salts, or baking soda when adding essential oils to bath water. Never add undiluted essential oils directly to the water, as they can cause skin irritation or burns.
6. Do not apply essential oils to parts of the body that are hot, dry, tender, damaged or affected by burns. Do not put essential oil directly into the ears and take caution not to get essential oils into eyes. Certain oils may sting the eyes and other sensitive areas. Essential oil residue on the fingers may damage contact lenses or cause eye discomfort.
7.) Pure citrus oils may compound the effects of sun exposure. Limit prolonged exposure to direct sunlight for up to 12 hours (up to 24 hours for lime; up to 48 hours for bergamot) after applying these undiluted essential oils to the skin.
8) Check with a health professional before using essential oils if you have a serious medical condition, are pregnant, nursing, or planning to become pregnant. DO NOT use clary sage or wintergreen during pregnancy.