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False Essential Oils, Adulteration and sales |
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by Mike Dowling Good Scents Essential Oils
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Before
starting this article I feel it only fair to declare my interests. Whilst
I am the International Coordinator of The Aromatherapists Society, I also
run my own essential oils business. Very unusually, in addition to both
these roles I am a fully qualified, practicing aromatherapist! Before
we look at what an essential oil is not, let us begin by looking at what
it is supposed to be. An
essential oil is described as "an
aromatic, volatile substance extracted from a single botanical source by
distillation or expression". That seems fairly simple
and is not difficult to explain. It means that essential oils have a
distinctive and usually fragrant smell and evaporate easily and rapidly
into the air when warmed, enabling us to detect them. A pure essential oil
is obtained from one type of plant either by distillation, which involves
heating the plant material with steam or hot water and separating the
resultant
vapour, or by
expression, where plant material is crushed to squeeze the oil out. It
is the essential oils that give plants their individual aroma or spices
their 'flavour'. Pure oils are very expensive as plants only contain
minute amounts. They dissolve only in alcohol or carrier oils and whilst
they do not dissolve in water they will impart their fragrance to it. You
may believe that essential oils are always genuine. After all, they are
widely available in shops and distributed through reputable outlets and
come in respectable looking packaging. It would not seem unreasonable to
assume that they must have been tested and checked for authenticity or
they would not be being sold. Unfortunately this is far from being true.
Many oils are adulterated or, worse still, are not oils at all but a
manufactured mixture of chemicals. So, why does this happen? The
use of essential oils and ‘aromatherapy’ has become incredibly popular
very quickly. They are now generic terms and used in common parlance for
almost anything from washing up liquid to toilet rolls, perfumes and, of
course, therapies. Good quality essential oils are expensive and of course
that is where the problem really lies. Currently
there is no legislation covering the testing of essential oils.
There are ‘ISO’ specifications which lay down the composition required
from a 'perfect' example of the more widely used oils but at present there
is no compulsion at any stage of production or distribution to compare the
actual composition of an oil to its ISO specification. The problem with
this, however, is that for 'natural' essential oils it would not work
anyway! The
majority of oils are produced for the food and perfume industries, which
require 'standard' oils. They need to obtain a substance that closely
matches whatever it was they had last time and that requires testing. I am
sure most of the readers will have heard of Gas Chromatography (GC)
testing which defines the principal chemical ingredient of a substance and
their relative quantities from a particular sample. This may indicate that
a particular user of peppermint oil requires a certain percentage of
menthol within it in order to make their peppermint sweets taste they do. Therefore,
in a simplistic way, if the crop of peppermint oil is low on merit it can
be added separately to bring the crop up to 'standard'. This manipulation
of oils used to take place by bulk hand of oils after importation but
increasing this is happening at a much earlier stage.
The reason for this is that in order to meet the current official
definition of and natural, essential oils cannot be altered after leaving
the still. So, if a crop is known to be of poor or non-standard quality a
farmer may pour chemicals into the still along with the plant material
prior to processing to produce the required substance at the end. This
substance can legitimately be sold as peppermint oil to food producer and
therapist alike! Although
not as common, the practice of producing fake oils or manufacture perfumes
posing as essential oils is a serious problem. Because the chemical
composition of fake oil may be completely unrelated to the real essential
oil they are not going to be of any us, therapy and may have the
additional hazard of being quite toxic. I am aware some substances that
have contained amounts of solvents and potentially dangerous chemicals
being sold as essential oils. Whilst GC analysis will identify such
substances very few people have access to such equipment and its use is
expensive. A good nose will he] identify bad fakes but good chemists
produce a very convincing fragrance, which can be very difficult to
distinguish from the real thing. So,
how do these alterations affect therapist or client? To be honest, no one
knows. In many cases there is no certainty which components in oil are
active ingredients and no knowledge regard their synergistic effects. What
can we say about chemicals found naturally in such tiny amounts that they
can be identified but not measured. These are called trace elements and
may have amazing properties. If the homoeopathic principle of less is more
is right they may be more important than the majority chemical but will
not be present if the substance not entirely natural. Then
of course there is the big ‘organic’ issue. If I could have a pound
for everyone who has asked me if my essential oils are organic I would be
rich indeed. My answer to them is always the same ~ they are as organic as
I can get. But what does this word organic mean? I suppose it means
whatever you want it to but how does this sound for an average? The plants
are not covered in sprays and chemicals while they are growing and they
are not genetically engineered. Only one type of plant is taken for
processing into a clean facility and nothing is added except for pure
water. If that is true I do not believe that by that definition organic
essential oils exist. Who has pure water without anything added to it
these days and how can you stop neighboring chemicals being wind blown
onto your crop of plants. Someone else pointed out to me about the nuclear
fallout from Chernobyl and the effects that will have on vast areas of the
planet for decades and of course the plants that grow on them. There is no legalisation that prevents anyone from producing his or her own 1 organic' certification and selling essential oils with that certification. From the earlier paragraph you will see that it is also quite legitimate to sell 'pure' essential oils even if they have been altered. So,
how can you protect yourself and the people you use oils on from fake,
adulterated or standardized oils? If
you are purchasing from a retail source you are more likely to find
genuine essential oils from well established companies following
guidelines with regard to labeling and including botanical and common
names, safety information and possibly batch details. Avoid buying from
markets and stalls unless you only want fragrances for oil burners or
non-skin application. Never
buy something just because it is cheap. Like it or not, essential oils are
expensive and no responsible supplier is going to give away oils at
substantially less than international market price. Pure oil of Melissa
rose or Neroli at £2 or £3 per bottle simply does not exist. If you see
such claims you should inform the local trading standards office who are
obliged to take action at no cost to yourself. If
you are buying from a specialist essential oil distributor or importer, it
is likely that they will have taken care to ensure the essential oil is
genuine and will know if it has been tested. It is always a good idea to
hold onto a little of your previous batch in order that you can compare it
with your next. Providing it is less than a year old and has been
carefully kept, a possible difference in fragrance may indicate a
variation in quality. If
you want to study the oils in depth ask for copies of GC analysis sheets.
Whilst this will only show you the percentages of the major components,
they can be used as a rough guide to continuity between batches. Do bear
in mind however that dear old Mother Nature does tend to change things
depending on country of origin, climate, rainfall etc. so even something
as widely used as lavender oil can vary greatly year on year. A good
supplier should know about seasonal variations and current international
availability so don't be afraid to ask, and they should be quite prepared
to answer your queries. The
business of supplying essential oils has been going on for hundreds of
years and is very complex. Unfortunately, these days it is not always as
honest as it should be and the therapists tend to be the unknowing
victims. When aromatherapy started to become popular the therapeutic use
of oils was very small. Now it accounts for a big slice of the industry
and hopefully, responsible suppliers will respect the needs of their
customers. It is up to you to make as sure as you can that they supply you
with the goods you need. Telephone/Fax:
01903 694435 Web
site: www.thearomatherapistssociety.net
Mike
Dowling Good
Scents Essential Oils web site: www.goodscents.co.uk Tel: 01903 694435 Visit Today's Therapist; email todays.therapist@ntlworld.com . A Brilliant International Trade Journal full of excellent articles and advice for the professional skin treatment therapist of the new millennium. |