Aromatherapy Labeling Fraud

This article was contributed by Shayla.

There are many, many essential oil brands on the market today in America. Aromatherapy is becoming greater in popularity and industry. Wonderful smelling plant oils, labeled “natural”; who wouldn’t think that sounds good! The problem is that in North America, there really are no set standards for therapeutic grade quality by any government agency yet. There are regulations for things like “organic” before you can call them such, but not for essential oils which are to be used for medicinal purposes. Therefore, anyone, producing even the worst quality essential oil can slap “therapeutic grade” or “pure” on the label and get away with it. So what is a consumer to to with so many brands to weed through?

Educating oneself in the criteria’s necessary to create an therapeutic grade oil is a good place to start. Although there are no government agencies in America to validate therapeutic grade oils, there are in Europe. There, they have the Association French Normalization Organization Regulation and the International Standards Organization (AFNOR and ISO)  standards which test for purity and potency. Presently, Young Living is the only company I know of that subjects their oils to AFNOR and ISO tests-even though they do not have to. The owner has been known to discard whole batches of oils that did not pass these tests, the oils of which other companies would gladly use.

Although AFNOR and ISO standards are good, they are not enough to prove an oil is therapeutic grade as they only focus on a few chemical constituents and purity.  The following table has some of the standards necessary to create a truly therapeutic grade essential oil.

• The way plants are grown (organically is vital, we don’t want to put condensed pesticides and herbicides on and in our bodies!)
• The amount of nutrients in the soil plants are grown in is vital. Without proper nourishment the plants will not contain the right chemical constituents in the right amounts. Does the farmer use natural land sustainability methods?
• When plants are distilled is important. There are specific times during a plants growing season when the healing properties are highest.
• Also, therapeutic grade oils should be distilled as soon as possible after harvesting.
• What the plants are distilled in is important too. For example, oils distilled in anything other then stainless steel or glass vats (such as aluminum and copper) can leach into the oils and contaminate it. Aluminum and copper have been linked to brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia
• Distilling at the wrong temperatures can completely destroy the medicinal or “therapeutic quality” of the oil.
• Length of time a plant is distilled is vital. Did you know that cypress oil, for example must be distilled exactly 24 hours at a specific temperature? Less time and it will not have enough healing chemical constituents, and any longer (even by a couple hours) and the constituents will be destroyed.
• After distilling, the oils should be bottled immediately (in only amber bottles-if you find an essential oil in a clear bottle it has lost healing properties and is perfume grade).

You see, essential oils processed properly will contain hundreds of chemical constituents in perfect delicate balances, some in great amounts and some in trace amounts, but each one vital to it’s healing capacities. This balance is fragile, and even distilling to quickly with too much pressure can disturb this balance, giving you an oil not as nature offered it. Some companies do what they can to produce medicinal, therapeutic grade oils but will fill in any gaps with synthetic chemical constituents that can be toxic!

Let’s use some common sense, and evaluate frankincense essential oil labeled as “pure” and sold by some companies for $16.00. Do a search “where/how is frankincense harvested?” on the Internet and see what you come up with. I learned that Frankincense trees require some specific growing conditions which few environments of the world produce. Northern Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya), Southern Arabia (Oman and Yemen), and India pretty much sum up the places frankincense trees are found. I also learned there are different types of frankincense, not all of them are Boswellia carteri, the specific frankincense noted for it’s medical and physiological benefits. Harvesting frankincense is said to be a very dangerous task as it often grows on rocky cliff areas. The way it is harvested is bark is scraped from the tree, the tree is marked and then left for a couple weeks, during which time the resins run from the tree and harden. The resins are later harvested and taken for distillation.

Now ask yourself, how is it possible someone can go to India, harvest (or purchase) Bowellia carteri frankincense resins, brink it back, distill it, bottle it and sell it for $16.00? In David Stewart’s book, The Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Easy, he writes the following;

“A common practice is to take a decent grade of essential oil and dilute it 90% to 95% with an odorless, colorless solvent (usually an inexpensive petrochemical)…”. He goes on to say that the bottle will say “100% pure” or “Genuine”, as this is allowed by the FDA (probably because the small amount of oil that is in there is pure)! He further states, “However, when you see a bottle of fluid labeled as “frankincense” for $10-$20 for a full ounce, you can be sure it has been diluted because you can’t gather the resins from the Arabian and Somalian deserts, transport them to France or England to be distilled, and then import them to North America (or any other country) for that  price and maintain quality and purity.

Mysteriously, for every pound of frankincense distilled in the world, more then a dozen pounds are eventually sold. Pure, unadulterated frankincense should cost around $140 per ounce. In Biblical times, a pound of frankincense oils was more precious than a pound of gold. In fact, in ancient times, it was called “liquid gold.” He goes on to say that if you smell true frankincense, you will know right away when you smell the diluted counterfeit. For more on Frankincense, Click Here.”

Other expensive oils to produce are Melissa, and Rose. It takes 2-3 tons of Melissa oil to produce  one pound of oil, and 5 thousand pounds of rose petals to produce  approximately one pint of rose oils. Some good rules of thumb that I go by are; if a company is selling rose, Melissa, or frankincense cheaply and labeling it “pure” “genuine” or “therapeutic grade” I know that company is lying. Therefore if they lie about one oil should I trust my family’s health with the rest of their oils? I don’t think so! So many essential oils on the market are created as perfume grade, and they have no healing chemical constituents left in them. They smell like they are supposed to, and if using them for nothing other then perfume then it’s no big deal.

The problem is when perfume grade oils are labeled as medicinal or “therapeutic”. It is actually recommended that you get to know your essential oil producers, visit their facilities, and farms. See how they grow their plants, and how they distill their oils. I will admit, I have not yet had the opportunity to visit Young Livings farms, but I have the advantage of having and aunt who has been to the farms many times, and has had many visits with the owner, Gary Young. She has harvested lavender and filled distilleries alongside many other Young Living patrons. She verifies that what Young Living promises in their therapeutic standard, from truly organic plants and superior natural land sustainable methods to strict distilling methods are all true (I’ve never heard her lie and I trust her judgment)! Year round, you are welcome to tour Young Living Farms.

References;
The Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Easy by David Stewart, Ph.D, D.N.M.

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