RE: Herbal Prep - On Essential Oils, what are they really?
I think that companies are using this way of marketing to make it understood that they do not add any additional ingredients. Like with Young Living, they are also very particular about the land their plants are grown in, the variety of plants, the time of harvest, the quality of those plants, the quickness to distill those plants (YL does them on site) as the longer the plant has been cut but not distilled, the quality of the oils decreases as they are volatile. There are so many factors to this. Believe it or not...a lot of oils out there are marketed as 100% essential oils when in fact they have been watered down, some add other cheaper oils to them to save on money, and much more including toxins. There is a difference. I don't come on here to be disrespectful, just telling you what I have learned through the book Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Simple and through other resources.
Take Lavender for instance: More Lavender is sold than actually harvested. How is that possible? Because some companies market their product as Lavender when it is actually Levandin. While Lavender is good for things like burns...Levandin is not...it will actually intensify burns.
Like Young Living, I have seen them discard entire batches because they test every batch both in house and through outside labs to ensure they are putting out quality oils. When even one of their tests shows that their oil is not up to their high standards they will not bottle those oils. Sadly, many of these other companies will buy this product off of YL and sell them as 100% therapeutic grade even though they have contaminants in them.
I know there are some places that do this, but the older companies, and Mountainrose in particular have the same high standards...
Most of the companies that claim therapeutic really raise the price up, when you can get the same quality oils at a much lower price from companies who have been around for far longer.
They also grow their own herbs, or import from people who do (not all herbs will grow in the same regions of the world of course)...and know when to pick and how to process them. They are the ones who wrote the book on it.
I would like the source on who counted how much lavender is harvested vs sold. But this is why we use botanical names. Home growers might not know the difference, but herbal companies do. Buy oils by botanical name and one does not encounter this issue.
People need to know their herbs, and learn the botanical names to avoid choosing the wrong herb...
They are all Lavender, and should be labeled as such. However, it is up to the practitioner to learn the botanical names and uses of each. It is not the company's fault if one does not do their research and buys the wrong Lavender for the job at hand.
Oils diluted for perfumes or soaps should be marked 40/42, and all reputable companies know this and mark accordingly.
But no matter how we turn it...the bottom line is that it either IS an essential oil, or it is Not.
Each person chooses herbs for their own reasons, but myself, I infuse a mix of 30% Vitamin E oil, 70% Almond Oil...with Red Clover flowers (high vitamin B) and Rose Hips (high vitamin C)...and add a bit of aloe gel after infusion if the patient has no latex allergies...for a burn treatment. It can be diluted in a 50/50 mix with apple cider vinegar for a sunburn spray as well.