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This key section help you understand how quality is determined in essential oils and why quality is so important in aromatherapy products.

7.1 Understanding Quality

Quality essential oil means genuine essential oil produced in a manner that preserves its chemical components. The chemical constituents of an essential oil work together in a harmonious manner to provide an aromatherapy benefit. There is no one “active” constituent that can be measured to quantify the quality of an essential oil. Therefore, a quality analysis of an essential oil must include a complete picture of all of the constituents to make sure that the right combination is present in the proper range of amounts for that plant and that the constituents are all naturally present in the oil (not added and not synthetic). The oil must have a characteristic appearance and aroma and not be degraded in any way. The combination of constiuents should also show the oil was correctly extracted from the correct species and that the plant was properly cultivated and harvested.

Quality of essential oils is important to insure the aromatherapy user is getting the full benefits of the chosen plant. Oils that are made from a different plant, or that have added synthetic constituents, won’t have the same aromatherapy benefit as the true oil. Oils that have had their chemical make-up manipulated by the addition or subtraction of constituents (even natural ones) won’t be representative of the synergistic energy of the original oil. And essential oils that have degraded may include chemical by-products of degradation that are not present in good quality essential oil and may even be harmful or irritating. In order to get the full aromatherapy benefit, only good quality, pure, natural essential oils should be used

Pure essential oils are expensive and your customer deserves to get what they pay for. Oils that are falsely labeled are cheating the customer.

7.2 Quality Tips for Essential Oil Users

Use complete oils. Some oils, such as peppermint, are redistilled to remove the “heavier” components and give a lighter, more minty flavor. While this creates oil with better flavor for use in baking or to flavor chewing gum, the complete oil is what is used in aromatherapy. Other essential oils may be enhanced by adding a natural or synthetic version of an important component in order to meet a customer specification, standardize the oil for medicinal use, or to mask inferior oil. Eucalyptus oil, for example, is often sold standardized to particular eucalyptol content—and is often enhanced to reach that content. There are only a few oils used in aromatherapy that are not complete oils—ylang ylang for esthetic reasons and camphor and bitter almond because of safety concerns. In all other cases, however, you should use the complete essential oil to achieve the full aromatherapy and therapeutic benefits of the plant.

Avoid fragrance oils. Fragrance oils are a combination of various natural and synthetic aroma chemicals, created in the lab by an aroma chemist. Fragrances attempt to mimic the aroma of an essential oil or the aroma of a plant that doesn’t have an essential oil (apple, lilac, gardenia and carnation, for example), or to create an entirely new scent. Fragrances are used in perfumery and to scent all types of products such as toiletries, soaps, room fresheners, paper, tobacco products and paints.

Fragrance oils that are synthetic versions of expensive essential oils like rose and jasmine are often sold. They are a great way to save money when making a rose-scented potpourri, but fragrance oils are not appropriate for use in aromatherapy.

7.3 Ensuring Quality

The best way to be sure that your store carries only good quality essential oils is to carry oils only from companies that have a quality assurance program in place that will insure their oils are 100% pure, high quality and authentic. The components of a good program are reliable sourcing, clear specifications, sampling, careful handling and rigorous quality testing.

Sourcing. Quality starts at the source. Identifying reliable produces and exporters of quality essential oils is a must. Good essential oil buyers must be knowledgeable about the oils they purchase. They must know the market prices and conditions for each oil and the problems and quality schemes to watch out for. Inspecting fields, production facilities and warehouses are important parts of the evaluation and qualification process. It's also important to educate suppliers so they understand the quality and kind of essential oils. But even with these efforts you can't put all your faith in a supplier. Even the best-intentioned supplier can make a mistake, and greed offers a powerful incentive to cheat for the less ethical. Good sourcing is crucial, but by itself, it isn’t enough.

Written Specifications. It’s hard to buy the right thing if you don’t know what you want. Defining the essential oil a company wants to carry and clearly communicating that information to suppliers is very important. Specifications need to include the botanical name, (and chemotype where applicable), origin, and a physical and chemical description of the oil. A physical description of an essential oil includes color, the aroma profile desired and specifications for specific gravity, optical rotation and refractive index. A chemical description includes ranges for key constituents or markers (important identifiers of the oil). Specifications might also specify the type of distillation (expeller pressed lime oil rather than distilled), the grade (ylang extra rather than ylang #1), and the age of the oil (some oils—such as vetiver—get better with age, others—like orange—are best when fresh).

Sampling. Once suppliers have been found who can meet the company’s specs, it's a good practice to obtain samples for testing and comparison. These samples should be evaluated thoroughly, just as an actual shipment of oil would be. After purchase, each shipment of essential oil should be sampled and evaluated to insure that it meets all quality specifications. Even the most reputable supplier can make a mistake and it is up to the manufacturer to be diligent to catch any errors or quality problems.

Handling. Once approved for use, oils should be handled, stored, and packaged under Good Manufacturing Practices. A GMP program insures the integrity and quality of the product is maintained while in the control of the manufacturer. A good program includes appropriate handling and storage procedures, documented manufacturing practices, appropriate labeling, lot code tracking systems and a comprehensive sanitation program.

Quality Testing. An understanding of a good quality-testing program is useful in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the programs of essential oil companies. Aura Cacia's testing program, one of the best in the natural products industry, can serve as a model for gaining an understanding of what is involved in evaluating the quality of essential oils. There are three main categories of testing done to insure the oils measure up—Sensory, physical and chemical

Sensory Analysis. It all starts with the nose. Evaluating the aroma profile of an essential oil is a very basic, but important, first step to determining its quality. That is to say, if the oil doesn’t smell right, then all the testing in the world won’t make it right. An experienced evaluator can often identify adulterated oil by smell alone, although not all adulterations can be detected through this carefully controlled sensory analysis.

Physical Analysis. Any differences in the supplier documents and labeling are noted (such as a different origin, botanical name or chemotype than what was specified). The color of the oil is noted and checked against the specification. Three tests are also preformed at this time—specific gravity, optical rotation and refractive index. Specific gravity measures the density of the oil as compared with water. A 1.0 specific gravity means the oil is exactly the same as water, less than 1 means the oil is lighter than water and greater than 1.0 means the oil is heavier than water. Refractive index measures the speed at which light is bent as it passes through the oil. Optical rotation measures the degree and direction light is bent as it passes through an essential oil. A negative number means it is bent to the left while a positive number means it bends to the right. Each essential oil has a unique set of specifications for these three measures and, taken together, they can point to quality and purity problems—although they usually can’t determine the actual problem.

Chemical Analysis. Gas chromatography (GC) is a sophisticated method of separating an essential oil into its chemical components and measuring them. The chromatogram (the read-out from the GC test) shows a peak for each chemical component. By calculating the area of the peaks, the concentration of chemical component can be determined. Since essential oils consist of many chemical constituents that are present in certain ranges, constituents that are out of those ranges are reliable indicators of mislabeling, adulteration or poor quality. There is a lot of published data on essential oil constituents and common adulteration problems. However, there are also plenty of gaps and inconsistencies. Aura Cacia’s recognized essential oil expert, biochemist Dr. Denys Charles, has been studying, evaluating, teaching and writing about essential oils for more than ten years. Using published research, contacts with experts around the world, and his years of research and experience, Dr. Charles has established dependable chemical specifications and a catalog of adulterants and quality problems for essential oils.

In addition to GC, Dr. Charles also utilizes a variation called chiral GC that can determine whether a constituent is natural or synthetic. In nature, a chemical constituent is either all (or almost all) a plus or a minus (chirality). When created in the lab, a synthetic constituent is 50% plus and 50% minus. By using a special type of chiral column, components of the essential oil are broken into their plus and their minus versions which the chemist uses to identify adulteration with synthetics in, for example, an oil like rose that is often spiked with synthetic components.

7.4 Common Adulterations and Quality Problems

Adulteration of essential oils is widespread. Adulterated oils are found almost everywhere from the shadiest, small operator to well-respected, larger companies. Essential oils are adulterated for two reasons: 1) it's easy to do (because most buyers don’t have the ability to detect the frauds) and 2) it’s profitable. Adulteration of an essential oil can occur anywhere in the buying chain, starting with the grower, and ending with the person who bottles and labels the finished product. It can be intentional—as when a solvent is added to rose to stretch the essential oil and increase profits—or unintentional—as when a company is adding a constituent in order to meet a customer’s specification and it is then sold to an unsophisticated buyer who fails to clearly communicate what they want to buy. For instance, eucalyptus essential oil is often sold by its eucalyptol content, with the higher content considered better for some applications. If the buyer specifies a 60% natural eucalyptol content, but doesn’t make it clear that they want only 100% distilled eucalyptus oil, the supplier may in good faith add naturally derived eucalyptol to meet the customer specification.

There are three categories of adulteration most commonly found with essential oils – stretching, synthetics and substitution. As ability to test and detect adulterations has become more sophisticated, so have the adulterations, but most still fall into one of these categories.

Substitution is where less expensive oil is labeled and sold as more expensive oil.

Synthetic adulteration is mixing together various aroma chemicals to simulate the fragrance of the authentic essential oil.

Stretching is adding an odorless solvent to an authentic essential oil in order to stretch or make it go farther. Oils are being adulterated in this manner because it is so easy to do and difficult to detect without GC testing. Solvents add no value to the oil and are often undesirable compounds in natural products. Some of the solvents we have identified through GC testing in essential oils are dipropylene glycol in lavender, diethyl phthalate in myrrh and frankincense and phenylethyl alcohol in rose otto.

The list of commonly adulterated essential oils is long—and you'll see many of the most popular oils on it: lavender, rose otto, neroli, rose absolute, jasmine absolute, peppermint, bergamot, clary sage, myrrh, frankincense, juniper, clove, cinnamon bark, anise, oregano, thyme, rosemary, vetiver, wintergreen, ylang ylang, cedarwood, geranium, patchouli, sandalwood, and melissa. Unfortunately, if an essential oil is not on this list, that doesn't mean that it has never been or won’t be adulterated—only that it is less commonly adulterated in our experience.

7.5 Quality Myths in Retail

You hear them, we hear them, your customers share them with each other—those little “hints” on how to determine the quality of essential oil. Here we’ve listed the myths we’ve heard—along with the facts you should know about each one. Let us know if you’ve heard something we’ve missed, so we can look into it and get you the facts.

The Blotter Test
Myth: Place a drop of essential oil on a sheet of paper and let it evaporate. If it leaves a stain or any residue, the oil has been cut with something else.

Facts: Like many myths, there is some truth in this, but a blotter test does not give the whole story. For distilled oils that evaporate quickly, residue is a sign of a non-volatile component. However, very slow-evaporating oils such as sandalwood or vetiver may be visible on the blotter for days thus giving the impression they are not pure. Pressed oils such as lime, lemon or orange peel contain small amounts of non-volatile components, such as wax or pigments that will not evaporate. And essential oils that are cut with solvents such as alcohol evaporate very quickly and do not leave a residue on the blotter.

Aromatherapy Versus Food Grade Essential Oil
Myth: The way to make sure you are buying pure essential oils is to request “aromatherapy grade” oils.

Facts: There is no universally accepted standard or grading system for aromatherapy oils. Oils used in aromatherapy should be 100% pure, unadulterated, complete oils. .

Food Grade Essential Oils
Myth: Some companies sell “food grade essential oils” for aromatherapy and these are not acceptable for aromatherapy use.

Facts: Essential oils, when used in food may be required by the manufacturer to conform to the Food Chemical Codex (FCC) or the International Standards Organization (ISO) standards. Essential oils in compliance with these standards are not necessarily unsuitable for aromatherapy use, in other words as long as the oils are pure, unadulterated and complete oils, and what they say they are, then they are the same oils used in aromatherapy. Compliance with one of these standards by itself says nothing about their use in aromatherapy. We don't recommend cooking with essential oils.

Price
Myth: Price is a good indicator of quality and purity of an essential oil

Facts: Comparing the price of one company’s essential oils to those of another company will in no way tell you whether either company has pure oils. Many factors are involved with pricing, including quantities bought, where in the distribution chain a company is buying, efficiency of production, bottles and merchandising support, margin requirements and product positioning. However, two pricing situations to watch for are 1) line-priced oils and 2) oils that are too cheap. The cost of essential oils varies a lot—from under $10 a pound to hundreds of dollars a pound—so it just isn’t feasible to charge one price for every oil in a line. And, of course, too good of a bargain is probably just that—so when you see a $3.00 bottle of rose oil, you know it can’t be the real thing.

First Distillation Oil
Myth: Essential oils obtained from the first distillation are the best quality.

Fact: The full aromatherapy benefit of an essential oil comes from the complete essential oil (that is the oil with all of its constituents). To get the complete oil, distillation is carried out until the plant material is totally exhausted of all its oil. A second distillation is only possible if oil is left in the plant material. Because the lighter, more volatile components distill off more quickly, the heavier, slower to volatize ones will not be represented in a first distillation oil. (Ylang and camphor oils are exceptions to this as various grades are produced by removing fractions of the oil at various points of distillation.)

Make Your Own Essential Oils
Myth: Only buy essential oils from companies who make all their own oils.

Fact: Essential oils are usually distilled near where the plants are grown. This is the most cost-effective and ecologically sound way to distill essential oil. Transporting 100# of an herb or spice to remove 3# of oil is not very efficient. And putting the 97 pounds of plant residue back into the fields where it was grown is a sound farming practice. Distilling a high quality essential oil is both science and art and often times the expertise for distilling a particular plant is found in the region where that oil has been grown and distilled for hundreds of years – sometimes by the same family or village. Also many essential oils are distilled from fresh or partially dried plant material which can only be done near the fields where it was harvested. And finally the diversity of soils and climate needed to grow the many plants used in aromatherapy means they can’t all be grown in the same place. While some dried plants are routinely shipped to another area or even another country and distilled, many excellent quality pure essential oils are produced on or near the farms where they were grown.

7.6 Storage/Shelf Life

General

As far as natural products go, properly stored essential oils are pretty stable. Just like the plants from which they are derived, light, heat and air are the three main factors that must be controlled in order to get the maximum life from essential oils. Oils should be stored in tightly closed glass bottles in dark, cool conditions (and be sure to store the bottles right side up to prevent leaking). When stored in this manner, most oils should remain stable for two or more years. (The more a bottle of oil is opened and used, and the emptier it becomes, the faster it may degrade.)

Special – citrus, anise, etc.

Some oils are especially vulnerable to oxidation (oxygen in the air can combine with constituents of the oil to change them) such as those with significant levels of terpenes. Monoterpene-rich oils include all citrus oils and conifer oils. These oils are best when used within 12 months after opening.

Anise oil contains anethole that solidifies at cooler temperatures. (We most often hear from customers during the winter shortly after their anise essential oil arrives with a residue on the bottom of the bottles.) The solidified anethole will appear as a white, crystalline substance in the oil and can be liquefied again by gently warming the oil.

Myrrh thickens at colder temperatures and liquefies again slowly with consistent warmth for a period of time. You may find it thickened in a tester bottle and crusted around the top so that the bottle becomes hard to open and the oil won’t stick to the applicator. (If this happens, Aura Cacia will provide you with a new free tester.)