I heard of essential oils a long time ago, but I’ve only really been introduced to them within the last couple of months.  I’ve been doing some reading, and I am fascinated — and convinced.  Unfortunately, there are quality issues surrounding the essential oils currently on the market for healing purposes, and a good consumer has to be very educated about all the terminology in order to make a wise purchasing decision.

Even more unfortunately, there are a number of things that are simply a matter of trust, because we can’t, as individual consumers, actually test the oils at home to see if they meet the sellers’ claims.  But knowing what we’re looking for (and should be asking about) can be a very good start.  (Please note that most of these do not apply if you’re looking for essential oils purely for scenting something or, for the most part, for flavoring something.  We’re talking about finding oils for therapeutic/healing/medicinal purposes.)

What Does “100% Pure” Mean?

The first problem is that certain claims you’ll often see on a label or description either don’t mean anything (from a standardized/legal standpoint), or don’t necessarily mean what you would expect them to.  Some of you may be familiar with this concept from dealing with food labels.  “Wheat bread” is a relatively meaningless term when shopping for bread.  The savvy consumer knows to look for “100% wheat bread,” if what she’s looking for is what the average consumer considers “wheat bread.”

The claim of a manufacturer that an essential oil is “100% pure” is similar.  This merely means that the portion of the contents which are essential oils are unadulterated/-altered.  The essential oil can still be “cut” with a large proportion of a carrier oil and bear this claim.  (I think that as much as 90% of the bottle can actually be carrier oil, but don’t quote me on that number.  Suffice it to say, we’re not talking 1-2%.)

What Does Therapeutic Grade Mean?

In theory, “therapeutic grade” would mean that the oil is of good quality, unaltered, unadulterated, uncontaminated, uncut, and safe for internal use.  In actuality, “therapeutic grade” doesn’t mean anything at all.  It’s not a regulated term, so it’s one that companies toss around to make their oils sound good.  But this “therapeutic grade” oil may or may not be what you’d hope to get.

What Do “Natural” and “Organic” Mean?

Again, these terms are essentially meaningless.  They certainly don’t mean what the average consumer expects them to mean.  “Natural” can, for instance, mean “completely manufactured in a laboratory to mimic a truly natural compound.” Yep, really.  (This is true of “natural flavors” in your food, too, by the way.)  And “organic” may just as well be mineral-based as plant-based.

So What IS Meaningful?

Well, you know you don’t want “aromatherapy grade”  (which, by definition, means it’s diluted in carrier oils), “USP grade,”  or “BP grade” (which, by definition, mean the oils are laboratory-altered to meet specific, consistent standards).  What you do want is likely not on the label, and you may have to do a little digging to find it out.

1. You want an oil that is essential oil only, with no carrier oil or anything else added to dilute it.  (You can dilute it for use, depending on your purpose, but you don’t want to pay for “essential oil” that’s already diluted.)
2. You want an oil that is distilled without chemicals and, as much as possible, without heat.  With a few rare exceptions, you want it to be either steam-distilled (and from the first distillation), or CO2-distilled.  (There are a few plants whose essential oils cannot be extracted by these more common means, but they are the exception, not the rule.)
3. You want an oil that is considered safe to take internally.  Although not everyone recommends the internal use of essential oils, and although you may not choose to ever use them internally, a company’s telling you that their oils are safe for internal use should confirm a certain minimal degree of purity.
4. You want to buy from a company that is well aware of the path of their oils from grower to distiller to them.  There are any number of ways that an oil may be altered or adulterated along the way — even to the point of manipulating lab testing — and your supplier will have no way of knowing this if they are not intimately familiar with their suppliers.
5. You need to be able to trust your supplier.  As noted earlier, we do not have the capability to test our oils at home to be sure we’re not being lied to, so you will have to trust your supplier to be giving you honest answers to your questions.

Ideally, a company will tell you, for each oil, what its botanical name is, where it came from (country of origin, for instance), by what method it was distilled, and what part(s) of the plant was/were used.  If they don’t know these things, I would not trust them to be sufficiently familiar with the path from grower to distiller to bottling/selling.  Many of the most reputable companies are also able to provide additional information, such as the traditional uses of a given oil, ‘though many don’t (assuming that an experienced aromatherapist will already know).

Your Turn

I would love to know if any of you, my readers, are already using essential oils.  If so, do you have any tips for identifying the “good ones”?  (I welcome comments from a variety of perspectives, but please don’t respond saying that only one single company sells acceptable oils.  I don’t believe that to be true and will delete such comments as salesmanship.  It’s perfectly fine, though, if you specify a strong preference for one particular company. 🙂 )

Disclaimer: Nothing in this post is intended to diagnose or treat anything – which I hope is obvious.  I am not a medical practitioner, and this should be considered as informational only, not as medical advice.  As always, exercise your own judgment and common sense. 🙂

Credit: The vast majority of the information in this post was gleaned from Healing Oils of the Bible, by David Stewart, Ph.D.  This is an incredible book chock-full of information, and highly recommended.  In the coming months, look for a review of this book, as well as his Chemistry of Essential Oils.

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