Essential oils are extremely concentrated and in many cases have been proven more effective than their man made chemical counterparts. In this article we’ll take a look at why they’re so powerful, some tips on proper administration and some other great resources to learn more. Essential oils are powerful medicine and can even by poisonous. Use this article for informational purposes only and always consult your doctor before any administration.
Here is a table showing the approximate ratio of plant material to extract some common essential oils. This table is based on 1000 pounds of raw material.
As you can see it requires a lot of raw plant material to make essential oils. That is why they should be carefully administered.
Essential oils are also known as volatile oils. This is because the molecules are unstable and vaporize into the air quickly.
At ZIA Zensations we pride ourselves on not using carrier oils with any of our single oils or even blends. This allows you to decide how much you want to dilute and it guarantees that your always working with pure oils as your preparing your recipes.
We highly recommend always using a carrier oil for any topical application. The carrier oil will help to stabilize the essential oil and prolong its effects as well as being milder on your skin. A typical dilution can range from 1% to 5% of essential oil to carrier oil.
https://ziazensations.com/complete-guide-to-carrier-oils/
There are many companies that sell essential oils and usually you will find plenty of marketing and sales information. In my opinion essential oils don’t need to be sold. There are some very reputable resources that have myriads of cold hard facts and clinical studies where you can learn for yourself which oils do what. That is why we have links directly to the US National Library of Medicine where you can view clinical studies and research on your own. There is an option called Clinical Studies under the Learn About Oils tab on our website, or click here.
Here is an abstract from another interesting article that proves essential oils to be more effective than antibiotics in some cases:
ABSTRACT
Biofilms are difficult to eliminate with standard antimicrobial treatments due to their high antibiotic resistance relative to free-living cells. Here, we show that selected antimicrobial essential oils can eradicate bacteria within biofilms with higher efficiency than certain important antibiotics, making them interesting candidates for the treatment of biofilms.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3346404/
There are also interesting studies showing the undeniable power of essential oils as antioxidants.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/?term=essential+oil+antioxidant
Check out these about using essential oils as powerful insect repellants
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/?term=essential+oil+insect+repellant
On the flip side, it is equally important to be aware of some documented adverse reactions to essential oils. Here is a website that has that:
http://aromatherapyunited.org/injury-reports/injury-reports-2016/
I hope these links provide some ideas to learn about the power of essential oils. I know it’s hard to find hard evidence based information about essential oils. These are some great starting points.