Essential Oils: Essential Oils (The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Uncovering the Healing Benefits of Aromatherapy)
Authors: Abigail Cruise
Copyright 2016 by Abigail Cruise - All rights reserved.
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCING AROMATHERAPY AND ESSENTIAL OILS
CHAPTER 2: THE CHEMISTRY OF ESSENTIAL OILS
CHAPTER 3: ESSENTIAL OILS – METHODS OF EXTRACTION
CHAPTER 6: HOW SHOULD YOU ADMINISTER ESSENTIAL OILS?
CHAPTER 7: BLENDING ESSENTIAL OILS
CHAPTER 8: THE TOP TWELVE ESSENTIAL OILS FOR YOUR BODY AND MIND
CHAPTER 9: IMPORTANT CARRIER OILS
I want to thank you and congratulate you for downloading the book:
Essential Oils: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Uncovering the Healing Benefits Aromatherapy!
Is this book right for you?
If you want to experience the benefits of essentials oils then this is the right book for you. If you want to gain from the following benefits of essential oils then look no further! Essential oils can be used:
- As An Effective Antibacterial
- As An Antiviral
- As An Anti-Fungal
- As An Anti-Parasitic
- To Reduced Stress
- To Lower Anxiety
- As A Pain Relief
- As Immune System Strengthening Enhancer
What will you learn?
You will learn:
- What Is Aromatherapy And Essential Oils?
- How Do Essential Oils Work?
- The Chemistry Of Essential Oils
- Essential Oils – Methods Of Extraction
- The Grading System
- Understanding Purity And Quality
- Usage Guidelines For Essential Oils
- Diluting Your Oils
- Where Should You Apply Essential Oils?
- How To Administer Essential Oils
- Massage And Aromatherapy
- Blending Essential Oils
- The Top Twelve Essential Oils For Your Body And Mind Important Carrier Oils
- The Top Seven Carrier Oils
- Blending Your Own Recipes
:
INTRODUCING AROMATHERAPY AND ESSENTIAL OILS
Aromatherapy can be defined as the practice of using pleasant smelling botanical oils, including essential oils, absolutes, CO2s and hydrosols for the purpose of achieving physical and psychological well-being. In other words, it is the science of scent that allows you to take control and care for your mind and body. Hydrosols, milk powders, cold pressed vegetable oils, herbs, sea salts, clay, mud, etc. are some other complementary natural elements used in aromatherapy.
Essential oils are different from the fragrance oils that you see in a superstore. These fragrance oils are synthetic in nature whereas essential oils are derived from plants and are completely natural.
The term ‘aromatherapy’ was not widespread until the 20th century. However, the foundation of aromatherapy dates back to around 6000 years. The Egyptians, Romans and Greeks – all seemed to have used aromatherapy.
It is believed that the Chinese were the first ones to use aromatherapy by burning incense in order to create balance and harmony.
Around 6000 years ago, the use of fragrant oils for massage and bathing was suggested by Imhotep, the Egyptian physician also referred to as the Egyptian God of healing and medicine.
The father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, also used aromatherapy for scented massages and baths.
The term ‘aromatherapy’ was however coined by a French chemist Rene Maurice Gattefosse in the year 1930. He first used lavender oil in order to heal his burning hand and this led him to investigate the impact other essential oils could have on physical and mental healing.
The French army surgeon, Dr. Jean Valnet used essential oils as disinfectants during the World War II. Aromatherapy got the status of an alternative holistic therapy by Madame Marguerite Maury who prescribed essential oils for treatment to her patients.
Aromatherapy has been said to be most impactful when it is used to work its magic on both – the mind and the body.
The term ‘aromatherapy’ is somewhat misleading. It implies that the patient can get better simply because they can smell something. This is only partly true.
Sniffing oil can lead to mood alteration and that can be considered as medicine. This is accomplished through the fine hairs that line your nose. These hairs are termed as cilia and they are responsible for transporting the smell of essential oils to your limbic system (this is the area in your brain which controls your emotions, learning, memory and moods).
The brain wave frequency has been a subject of various studies. Most of these demonstrate that the sense of smell has a profound impact on the human mind. For example, the smell of Lavender elevates the alpha waves in the posterior portion of your head. This is linked to relaxation.
Similarly, the fragrant smell of Jasmine enhances the beta waves in the anterior portion of our head. This is linked to alertness. The tiny molecules of essential oils can pass through the blood brain barrier and hence lead the body and mind to experience a number of positive benefits.
Another way in which these oils can heal you is through permeability through the pores of your skin. From here, they can enter the blood stream through the capillaries located in the base of your dermal layer. And then circulate around the body to work their magic in a number of ways.
Therefore, we can say that essential oils can be administered in two ways:
through the nose (via inhalation) and through the skin (via absorption)
.
WHAT ARE ESSENTIAL OILS REALLY?
The term “essential oil” is derived from the original word “quintessential oil.” The main principle behind this is that everything in the universe is made up of four elements – earth, water, air and fire.
In the past, prior to understanding essential oils completely, it was said that the fifth element or ‘Quintessence,’ was the life force or the spirit of the plant. Since it was important to remove this spirit from the plants, processes such as evaporation and distillation were deployed to achieve the task.
This is also evident from our language since the term “spirits” is often used for distilled alcoholic beverages such as whiskey, brandy, and eau de vie. Overall, this meant the process of removal of the life force from the plant.
Today, it is known that essential oils hold no relevance to being spirits; they are physical in nature and are comprised of complex mixtures of chemicals.
“
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in their Vocabulary of Natural Materials (ISO/D1S9235.2) defines an essential oil as a product made by distillation with either water or steam or by mechanical processing of citrus rinds or by dry distillation of natural materials. Following the distillation, the essential oil is physically separated from the water phase
.”
In order to be a true essential oil, it should be separated by physical means only. The physical methods deployed here are distillation (these include steam, water and steam/water) or expression (also termed as cold pressing which is a feature unique to citrus peel oils). There is another method used for isolation of oils. This is limited to a few selected essential oil plants and is called the maceration process. This process involves maceration of the plant material in warm water with an aim of releasing the enzyme-bound essential oil. Examples of some of the essential oils produced through maceration are wintergreen, garlic, onion, bitter almond, etc.
To make things simpler,
essential oils can be defined as liquids that are usually distilled from the stem, leaves, bark, roots, flowers or other parts of a plant. Contrary to the name, essential oils do not have an oily feel. Most of them are clear, however, some are yellow or amber in color.
All essential oils contain the true essence of the plants they are extracted from
. They are extremely concentrated and a little quantity is generally enough.
Some More Related Terms
Absolutes
: Similar to essential oils, absolutes are exceptionally aromatic liquids excavated from plants. However, the process of extraction is a complex one and involves use of chemical solvents that are generally eliminated during the final stage of production.
In certain specific conditions, it may not be possible to extract a significant amount of essential oil through the steam or water method of distillation. In fact, hot steam is also known to harm the essential oil. In this kind of a situation, it is a good idea to use the solvent extraction method.
Simply because of the methodology deployed to extract them, absolutes are even more concentrated than essential oils. While a little essential oil is enough, a little absolute is generally more than enough!
Absolutes must be used with adequate knowledge, respect and care since minute amounts of solvent can sometimes remain in the final product. This is also the biggest disadvantage of using absolutes since the focus of aromatherapy is on usage of natural and pure plants.
CO2 extracts
: CO2 extracts are made through pressurizing carbon dioxide gas into a liquid state which is then used as a solvent on natural plants. This leads to the essential oil content getting dissolved in the liquid CO2. In the concluding steps of the process, the CO2 gas is pressurized once again into its natural gaseous state to ease the process of evaporation. The resultant product is an essential oil without any trace of chemical solvent.
CO2 extracts are not destroyed through heat.
They are thicker than the essential oils and are much more aromatic since they contain a lot more products than the essential oils extracted via the process of steam distillation.
Carrier oils
: Carrier oils are the vegetable oils that are extracted from the fatty portion of plants (including nuts, kernels and seeds) and are utilized for the purpose of carrying essential oils, absolutes and CO2 into your body.
Essential oils, absolutes and CO2s can cause adverse reactions in case they are used in an undiluted manner. This is primarily the reason why carrier oils are used.
It should however, be remembered that carrier oils differ from one another due to their different properties and therapeutic advantages. You must always choose carrier oils depending on the therapeutic benefits that you desire.
Carrier oils do not possess a strong aroma and can turn rancid if kept for long. In natural skin care, carrier oils are often referred to as vegetable oils, base oils or fixed oils.
It should however, be noted that not all base oils are vegetable oils. An example here would be fish oil or emu oil which is also classified as a base oil, but is never used as a carrier oil in aromatherapy.
Some carrier oils may be odorless, whereas others may possess a faint sweet or a nutty aroma. A very strong aroma indicates that the carrier oil has turned rancid.
Infused oils
: Infused oils are simply carrier oils infused with herbs. The main advantage here is that the infused oils provide you with the therapeutic properties of the carrier oils as well as the herbs they were infused with.
Sometimes, you may want to use a plant for certain therapeutic advantages it offers and it may be difficult to extract an essential oil from that plant. In this case, infusing a carrier oil with the herb can enable you to use the herb for its aroma therapeutic advantages. Infused oils too can go rancid in the long run. They have an oily feel to them depending on the vegetable oil that is used as a base.
Infused oils can be prepared at home in a crock pot at an extremely low heat setting. About 2/3 ounce of dried herbs can be added to two ounces of your chosen carrier oil placed in a crock pot. The crock pot is then placed at an extremely low heat setting and heated for approximately two hours, stirring every ten minutes. The oil is then strained twice through a muslin cloth. Herbs remaining in the oil can sometimes turn the oil rancid.
The quantity of herbs must be doubled in case you are utilizing fresh herbs to infuse your oil instead of dried ones.
Resins
: Resins are thick, sticky substances formed from injured trees. Sometimes, trees are cut at various spots in order to facilitate the production of resins. Resins are commonly utilized for their incense. In order to avail maximum therapeutic benefits, they are sometimes used in powder form.
Hydrosols
: Hydrosols, often called distillate water, floral water or hydrolats are considered as the by-product of distillation used to extract essential oils. Hydrosols are not as strong as their parent essential oils and can therefore, directly be used without any dilution. These are often used in place of water to create facial lotions, creams, skin care products and natural fragrances. They are also used as body sprays or in baths.
: THE CHEMISTRY OF ESSENTIAL OILS
The chemical components present in essential oils can influence your mind and body in numerous ways. The chemistry of these chemicals present in essential oils is fairly complex, and mainly involves aldehydes, alcohols, ketones, esters and terpenes. The impact of each one of these components is summarized below:
Alcohols
: These chemical components are energizing and stimulating. They work as diuretics, antivirals and bactericidal. In fact, your pancreas produce thirty two types of alcohols that are used during the process of metabolism. Petitgrain, Peppermint, Rose, Rosewood, Ginger, Tea tree, Sandalwood and Myrtle essential oils contain alcohols as a prominent chemical component.
Phenols
: Phenols are strongly bactericidal and possess an amazing power to boost your immune system. Though they are warming and invigorating, high doses can lead to toxicity in liver. They are highly used in cough drops and lip balms. Oregano, Cumin, Savory, Thyme, Cinnamon and Clove are some essential oils that contain phenols as their primary ingredient.
Aldehydes
: These are calming and sedative. They work as antivirals and anti-inflammatory compounds. Oils that have a characteristic lemon like fragrance such as Citronella, Lemon balm, Lemon grass and Eucalyptus contain aldehydes as their dominating chemical component.
Terpenes
: Terpenes are extremely stimulating with amazing antiviral properties. They may, however, lead to irritation in the skin. Black pepper, Bergamot, Orange, Lemon, Nutmeg, Pine oil and Angelica contain terpenes as their primary component.
Esters
: Esters are calming and sedative. They have great anti-inflammatory properties and are anti-fungal too. Petitgrain, Bergamot, Lavender, Clary Sage and Roman Chamomile essential oils contain esters as a prominent ingredient.
Ketones
: Ketones boast of wound healing and mucolytic properties. They also boost the growth of new cells and find immense use in nail polishes. Eucalyptus, Hyssop, Sage, Rosemary and Camphor are the essential oils that contain ketones as a dominant component.
Sesquiterpines
: These are sedatives and also possess powerful anti-viral, bacteriostatic, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. They can provide an excellent boost to your immune system. Immortelle, Yarrow and Blue Chamomile are the essential oils containing sesquiterpines as a primary ingredient.