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If you asked me “what are essential oils?” I would probably tell you that Essential Oils are magical gifts from the universe provided by plants. But I’m betting you want something more substantial!
Essential Oils are the essence of a plant. They have evolved over millions of years to protect the plants from disease, predators, and help them adapt to changing environments. The oils are necessary for a plants survival.Essential Oils evolved along side humans. This means that parts of our development were triggered by our co-existence and co-evolution with the oils that plants produce. We were designed to take advantage of the magical gifts called Essential Oils. So our bodies know how to process Essential Oils to use them effectively and efficiently. This also means that some of the chemical components of Essential oils closely resemble neurotransmitters like serotonin, noradrenalin, dopamine, and hormones like endorphins to name a few because they evolved with us.Essential oils are very concentrated. It takes 220 pounds of lavender flowers and plant tops to make 1 pound of Essential oil. They are 75-100 times stronger than dried herbs. We get essential oils. The primary method of capturing essential oils is through distillation using steam. Steam passes through the raw plant material. The vapors created flow through a coil where they condense to liquid. The liquid is the magical gift of essential oil.

Of all the plants in the world approximately 15% produce Essential oils and only about 5% are good for aromatherapy. That is why there are only around 350 Essential Oils and you typically see the same oils.

Essential oils are extremely complex, as single oil can have more than 300 naturally forming chemicals that create it. All of these chemicals working together is what makes Essential Oils effective, they are synergistic. There is no one chemical that works the magic. These chemicals are also constantly evolving and modifying themselves to adapt to changes in the environment. Even oils from the same location will change every season because the weather is different, more sun less sun, more rain, less rain, cooler or drier all these factors alter the Essential Oil a plant creates. This makes Essential Oils nimble so pathogens can’t adapt easily to this moving target called Essential Oils and humans do not build a tolerance like we do with medications.

Pharmacology

Pharmacology doesn’t know how to evaluate Essential Oils with the current structure that they use. Pharmaceuticals specifically look at effectiveness. There are several aspects to this evaluation of effectiveness.

First to determine effectiveness you must have an experiment that connects a specific substance (chemical) to a specific response.

Then according to pharmacology if you increase the dosage then the response should last longer.

Once those two effects are proven true you would repeat the experiment but now on isolated area rather than the whole person.

And finally traditional pharmacology only looks at one ingredient.

This is why essential oils aren’t tested and accepted in traditional pharmacology. There are 200 plus chemicals that work on the entire person and often if you use more of the Essential Oil typically you get the opposite effect. Pharmacology doesn’t know what to do with that.

Medicine

There are approximately 120 medicines have their origins in plants. However, we do not use the natural ingredient. We create synthetic versions of them. Synthetics have larger molecules that do not penetrate the skin or olfactory system as well. Although we think of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy as things that smell good and scent a room, really it is the molecules from the diffused oils or the lotion going through your pores and entering your bloodstream that evoke the healing response in the body. That healing response can be physical like getting rid of achy muscles or mental like feeling calm and centered. This is important Essential Oils create a healing response from the body instead of attacking a symptom. Synthetics simply attack the symptom it was created for.

The tiny molecules from essential oils are in the bloodstream in 2 minutes working with our bodies going directly where they are needed. Pharmaceuticals have to work through the digestive tract and the acids and survive to the other side so 15 to 30 minutes later you get some relief.

Now with all of that information provided, I want to say that traditional medicine is not bad. It is very important. Essential Oils can be used to compliment traditional medicine and they provide additional options. I always tell my daughters options are good. When you start running out of options that is bad. Essential Oils do not replace good medical care, they can work synergistically with it.