Essential Oil 101 (7)：Purity of Essential Oils
One of the factors that determines the purity of an oil is its constituents. These constituents can be affected by a vast number of variables, including the part(s) of the plant from which the oil was products, soil condition, fertilizer (organic or chemical), geographical region, climate, altitude, harvesting methods, and distillation processes.
The key to producing a therapeutic-grade essential oil is to preserve as many of the delicate aromatic components within the essential oil as possible. Fragile aromatic components are easily destroyed by high temperature and pressure, as well as by contact with reactive metals such as copper or aluminum. This is why all therapeutic-grade essential oils should be distilled in stainless steel cooking chambers at low pressure and low temperature.
The plant material should also be free of herbicides and other agrichemicals. These can react with the essential oil during distillation to produce toxic compounds. Because many pesticides are oil-soluble, they can also mix into the essential oil.
Today approximately 300 essential oils are distilled or extracted worldwide. Several thousand constituents and aromatic molecules are identified and registered in these 300 essential oils. 98% of essential oil volume produced today is used in the perfume and cosmetic industry. Only about 2% of the production volume is for therapeutic and medicinal applications.
Young living requires all distillers who want to sell to Young Living to submit samples to be analyzed to ensure that all the constituents are present at the right percentage to be therapeutic. You can have pure oils, but if the plants are distilled at the wrong time of the day or with incorrect distillation procedures, the constituents that make the oils therapeutic will not be there, and you will not have a therapeutic-grade profile.
Adulterated and mislabeled essential oils may present dangers for consumers. One woman who had heard of the ability of Lavender oil to heal burns used "Lavender oil" purchased from a local health food store when she spilled boiling water on her arm. But the pain intensified and the burn worsened, so she later complained that Lavender oil was worthless for healing burns. When her "Lavender" oil was analyzed, it was found to be Lavandin, a hybrid of Lavender that is biologically different from pure Lavandula angustifolia. Lavandin contains higher levels of camphor (7-18%) which may burn the skin. In contrast, True Lavender contains almost no camphor and has burn-healing agents not found in Lavandin.
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Source：
Life Science Products and Publishing Essential Oils Desk References (8th Edition) Life Science Products and Publishing
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