Essential Oil for Medicinal Aromatherapy
I have been using essential oils for many years with my clients and for personal use. Since I knew many people who sold essential oils, I never felt the need to seek out my own supply. However, something recently grabbed my attention. Good quality essential oils did indeed have a profound and often immediate desired effect. How could that be improved upon for therapeutic benefit? How could I choose essential oil for medicinal aromatherapy?
I began my search for the best essential oils, reading all that I could on therapeutic grade oils. Yes, there is a difference! What I discovered was a sense of “knowing” when I used certain oils. There are many nice quality oils in the world, but I could feel a difference in the oils produced by a small handful of suppliers like Young Living, Wisdom of the Earth, and Eden Botanicals.
How is essential oil determined to be therapeutic grade?
(credit Dr David Stewart) You will find “Therapeutic Grade” defined, not only in Young Living literature, but also in CARE Publications such as “Statistical Validation of Raindrop Technique,” “Healing Oils of the Bible,” and “The Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Simple.” Since Young Living adopted the term and defined it, after first criticizing Young Living for using it, many companies are now using it for their own oils without defining what they mean by the word, thus implying that their oils are “just as good as Young Living’s oils.” That is why Young Living has modified and Trade Marked the statement that YL oils are “Young Living Therapeutic Grade Oils™” No one but Young Living can use that phrase to describe their essential oils.
Whereas meeting standards like those of the French AFNOR (Association Francaise de Normalization) or the ISO (International Standards Organization), ISO and AFNOR only consider whether an oil has sufficient percents of the main compounds to legally claim it to be the species on the label. For example, if an oil contains enough menthol, you can legally sell it as “peppermint” when, in fact, there may be no actual peppermint plant oil present whatsoever. Hence, an aromatic oil can be 80-100% synthetic and meet AFNOR/ISO standards. AFNOR/ISO only takes into account the end product by testing for the percents of a few compounds that account for flavor and/or aroma. These standards do not take into account the manner by which the oil was obtained nor whether any of the healing compounds are present. In fact, the compounds responsible for healing can all be absent and an oil can still meet AFNOR/ISO standards, which may be adequate for perfumes and flavors, but totally ineffective for healing.
By contrast, Young Living’s “Therapeutic Grade” standard takes into account everything from planting the seed to marketing the oil. With Young Living, “Therapeutic Grade” means there has been verification of the correct species when the seed was planted, the purity and manner of cultivation (no chemicals or nearby pollution, etc.), the proper time of harvest to optimize the healing properties in the oil, the proper manner of distillation to capture all of the therapeutic compounds, the right chemical composition as determined by sophisticated laboratory tests, and the purity of the packaging–i.e. nothing added, nothing taken away, stored in light-protected containers (amber or blue bottles) of glass, ceramic, Teflon, or stainless steel, and kept in a suitable environment of appropriate temperatures. All of this is taken into account with Young Living’s definition of “Therapeutic Grade.” No other company maintains or can claim such a standard, even though they may use the word.
When people come to you saying they have found “cheaper oils that are just as good,” ask if they know how the plants were grown, cultivated, harvested, distilled, tested, and packaged and if a true “therapeutic” standard was held and maintained throughout the process. You won’t find another company that maintains such meticulous standards from “seed to seal” as does Young Living. Gary Young and Young Living stand alone in the world of essential oils in measuring up to such standards. You can visit the Young Living farms, distilleries, laboratories, and packaging facilities to verify these standards for yourself. Anyone can. Is this possible with any other company?
There are so many competing essential oil companies these days, how can you tell which one will work best for you and your clients? Most companies claim that their oils are “100% pure, Therapeutic Grade, Organically grown, etc.” But most of the time their claims and labels are misleading and do not fulfill the standards they claim.
I've personally experienced this. Essential oils I purchased from other companies or at the grocery store offered minimal benefit, and even became rancid over time. This of course indicated impurities in the bottle, essential oil diluted with a carrier oil. Pure essential oils don't go bad.
They are 1. Plants, 2. Preparation, 3. Purity, and 4. Potency.
Essential Oils for Medicinal Aromatherapy
The process a company uses when planting, cultivating, harvesting, and distilling a batch of oil is crucial to retaining its vital compounds. Without the exact blend of naturally-occurring plant chemicals, an essential oil can lose its beneficial properties and fail to produce the desired effect.
An understanding of harvesting and distilling plants for optimal naturally-occurring blend of constituents to maximizes the desired effect comes from knowing not only your source, but also the nature of the plants themselves.
1. PLANTS
An oil’s potency can be affected not only by selecting the proper plant to cultivate, but also by where the plant is grown, the quality of soil in which the seed is planted, and even the time of day it’s harvested.
2. PREPARATION
Gentle steam-extracting the most potent essential oils ensures quality, without added chemicals.
3. PURITY
Be aware of any essential oil that smells off. There could be added carrier oils, or chemicals could have been used to extract the plant essence. Purity of essential oil matters in medicinal aromatherapy.
4. POTENCY
The plants themselves are potent and alive. That translates into potency and effectiveness of the essential oil - plant essence - as long as the processes for sourcing, distillation, and intention are adhered to. Intention means that only the purist practices, from the foundation of the company, the resulting products, and the hands that hold and share the essences are as high a vibration as can be produced. Not all companies fit that description.
Learn About Essential Oil
To learn more about essential oils, enroll in my online course, The Spirituality of Essential Oils.
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