Getting to Know Your Essential Oils – Constituents

A single essential oil—any essential oil from any plant species—typically contains anywhere from 100 to 400 different chemical compounds. (Recently chemists have been placing the upper range at 800 different chemical compounds!) There are certain compounds common to essential oils. However every plant and thus every essential oil contains compounds unique only to themselves. Sandalwood, vetiver, and spikenard are rich examples of such oils. This makes it very difficult to find a reasonably effective substitutes for the increasingly difficult to find sandalwood oil. If you add up the common compounds and the unique to specific species compounds the number of constituents has grown into the thousands.

Many of the most important compounds for aroma and therapeutic value are in infinitesimally small amounts, literally trace proportions. These trace elements play an absolutely essential role among the multitude of components in that particular essential oil.

It may surprise you to know that between trace components and as yet unidentified constituents, there has never been even one essential oil that has been completely and thoroughly analyzed. No, not even one! Chemists in laboratories the world over with all of their high tech equipment cannot and have not ever created a credible list of all of the constituents found in even one bottle of one basic essential oil. Let alone accounted for variations in growing conditions. Not to mention harvesting and processing methods! The technology (even if one was willing to spend the time and the money) simply does not yet exist.

Watch the video below to learn more about essential oil constituents.

Class

LaRee and Valaree are putting together an Advanced Online Essential Oil Video Class!! However this is a major project and we will probably not see the completion for some time. We would like to make the pieces available as they are finished.

This information is very important to understand before watching future parts. This particular section can be a bit dry and long but will be of immeasurable value as we continue. This is a section I would recommend listening to several times.
Valaree

Click to watch Video