There are a lot of different kinds of plants around the world. They come in various sizes, colours, shapes, and fragrances. Every one of these plants has vital compounds that can’t be seen with the naked eye since they hide within various parts of the plants including the bark, roots, flowers, or seeds. These compounds are where essential oils are acquired. They are extremely potent and highly concentrated. Essential oils or volatile aromatic compounds safeguard the plant from severe environmental conditions and pests, give a plant its scent, and even play a role in plant pollination.
The science behind essential oils
The word “volatile” could signify negative meaning to some individuals. But when looking at essential oils, volatility refers to the substance’s ability to alter its state quickly. The chemical makeup\composition of volatile aromatic properties in essential oils lets them to distribute quickly through the air. This is also why once you open the bottle of essential oil you are able to instantly smell the potentaroma of it even from a distance. The volatile aromatic ingredients move quickly over the air, then you will experience the scent when the compounds begin to interact directly with your brain’s olfactory sensors. With more than 3,000 forms of volatile aromatic compounds seen in oils, they greatly identify the aroma, benefit, and nature of each and every essential oil. Due to the unique chemical makeup, every essential oil differ from one another, from species to species, as well as from plant to plant.
How are essential oils produced?
Are you wondering how essential oils work? There are different methods to produce essential oils, but doTERRA® is targeted on steam distillation and expression. This is to create high quality oils which are efficient and cost efficient. Distillation and expression are organic and natural, and they allow the aromatic compounds to keep their potent and robust fragrance. Nevertheless, remember that its not all essential oils are created equal. Its purity can adjust depending on distillation methods, weather, geographic location, and plenty of other factors. Furthermore, regardless how well a plant is looked after, selected, and harvested, the quality of an essential oil can still change throughout the distillation process. That’s why focus to detail and precision are important in the distillation procedure. The distillers ought to focus and be exact when it comes to period of distillation, harvesting, temperatures, the volume of pressure used and much more. Here are more details concerning essential oils’ distillation and expression processes:
- Steam distillation
The steam distillation processes uses heated steam as well as pressure as a way to
extract essential oils from their plant parts. This process can produce clean and pure oils, and it’s the most frequently used process for creating high quality essential oils. The pressurization throughout steam distillation is essential in protecting the complex chemical substances of essential oils since it permits the oil to be distilled at temperatures below the regular boiling point.Other techniques that use increased temperatures could alter or harm the chemical profiles inside the oil. Steam distillation starts with boiling water, which leads to steam that passes through the plant material. As the steam passes through the plant part, the heat and also pressure releases the essential oil from microscopic protective sacs in the plant. The steam then holds the volatile aromatic compounds which were released from the plant into a collecting tube. In this section of the process, the steam cools and is condensed back into water, yielding a layer of oil. The layer of essential oil rises to the top, where it is separated from the water and collected. Because essential oils are lipid soluble, it becomes easy to separate them from water.
• Expression
As opposed to steam distillation, expression doesn’t use heat so that you can extract the essential oil. This process is used to extract essential oils from the peels of citrus fruits such as lemon, lime, grapefruit, orange, and bergamot. During this process, the rind of the fruit passes across grated cylinders that grind the peel’s surface, breaking open tiny sacs which contain essential oil. When the essential oil sacs are opened, the fruit is sprayed with water to collect the essential oil after it is released. This watery mixture then goes through a filtering process to get rid of any excess peel pieces, and centrifuged to split up the water from the oil.
source http://allurewellness.net/2017/05/23/facts-you-probably-didnt-know-about-essential-oils/
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