Essential Oils for Beginners: The Background

It's a New Year and is filled with promise.  The best way to get started is to perhaps try something new and something beneficial to your overall health.  If you haven't tried essential oils and are curious about what it can do for you, let's just start the journey right now.  You will soon fall in love.

Essentials oils have been around for thousands of years.  Egyptians are said to have first begun using oils in their daily lives for religious ceremonies,  beauty routines, recipes and even used them to preserve mummies! These essential oils were considered so valuable, they were even used as a form of exchange for important things like gold and spices. The Greeks and Romans were the ones who actually began using essential oils for therapeutic purposes.  The Chinese and Persian doctors then focused on making more concentrated essential oils. As you can see, over thousands of years essential oils have been used to promote health and well-being for those who use them.

Today, we know that essential oils are highly concentrated and are made from the aromatic parts of certain trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses, resins and flowers. Here is what I learned from researching what essential oils are made from (https://dontmesswithmama.com/):

• Myrrh and Frankincense come from the tree resin
• Lemon, Lime, Orange, Grapefruit and Bergamot come from the peel of the fruit
• Cinnamon comes from the bark of the tree
• Ginger and Vetiver come from the roots
• Eucalyptus comes from the tree’s leaves
• Rose comes from the petals
• Cardamom comes from the seeds or pods
• Pine comes from the needles and twigs

Before choosing an essential oil to start, it is important to know a few things.  For example, it is very important to choose wisely.  That being said, some oils are derived from plants that were treated with pesticides and extracted with chemicals.  This is NOT what you want! You need to be on the lookout for pure, therapeutic-grade essential oils made from high-quality plants.  That's why I choose ZAQ.  Their oils are 100% pure essential oils and they have many organic oils to choose from as well. 

You may also wonder about the difference in cost for each type of essential oil.  For example, one would need 5 pounds of peppermint leaves to make 1 ounce of peppermint oil, or 15,000 roses to make .25 ounces of rose essential oil, or 45 lemons to make one 15 ml bottle.  As you can see, due to the plant material needed for each type of essential oil, the price will vary. This is only one of the reasons for the cost difference between oils. Of course, there are other factors as well, but you can see the sheer number of leaves and plants needed for each small bottle varies greatly. Timing is another reason for higher costs for some oils.  Jasmine has to be picked as soon as the flowers open and sandalwood has to be 30 years old before harvesting!

Now that you know a little of the background of essential oils, next week we will explore what you need to know about essential oils in order to make good choices.  I have lots of good information to share with you.  I even learned a few new things in my research that are good to know and I am excited to share them.  Enjoy your week!

Kris Bitar