Essential Oils
What Are Essential Oils?
Essential oils are basically plant extracts. They're made by steaming or pressing various parts of a plant (flowers, bark, leaves or fruit) to capture the compounds that produce fragrance. It can take several pounds of a plant to produce a single bottle of essential oil. In addition to creating scent, essential oils perform other functions in plants, too.
“Essential Oils: Essential oils are extracted from plants and capture the plant’s scent and flavor – its "essence." These oils hold vibrational energy and quickly help us adjust and balance our energy and – with their permission - the energy of other
Uses: Essential oils may be inhaled, diffused, applied topically, or taken internally (if food grade).
Carrier Oils: Carrier oils are made from plants. Carrier oils are used to dilute essential oils and "carry" them to your skin. That’s because some essential oils are potent and can cause irritation when applied directly to your skin.
Most carrier oils are unscented or lightly scented and don’t interfere with an essential oil’s therapeutic properties. They nourish your skin while retaining the aroma and vibration of your chosen oil. Popular carrier oils include: Fractionated Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, Jojoba, Almond and Avocado.”
(Source: Melissa Swanson)
What Is Aromatherapy?
Aromatherapy is the practice of using essential oils for therapeutic benefit. \"Aromatherapy has been used for centuries,\" says Gujral. \"When inhaled, the scent molecules in essential oils travel from the olfactory nerves directly to the brain and especially impact the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain.\"
Essential oils can also be absorbed by the skin. A massage therapist might add a drop or two of wintergreen to oil to help relax tight muscles during a rubdown. Or a skincare company may add lavender to bath salts to create a soothing soak.
What Are Essential Oils Good For?
Although people claim essential oils are natural remedies for a number of ailments, there's not enough research to determine their effectiveness in human health. Results of lab studies are promising — one at Johns Hopkins found that certain essential oils could kill a type of Lyme bacteria better than antibiotics — but results in human clinical trials are mixed.
Some studies indicate that there's a benefit to using essential oils while others show no improvement in symptoms. Clinical trials have looked at whether essential oils can alleviate conditions such as:
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Anxiety
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Depression
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Nausea
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Insomnia
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Low appetite
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Dry mouth
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EVERYTHING ABOVE WAS WRITTEN BY JOHN HOPKINS MEDICAL CENTER
Reference: Written by John Hopkins Medical Center. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/aromatherapy-do-essential-oils-really-work
How are essential oils used in wicca, witchcraft, and other pagan spiritualities?:
When doing basic spells, divination work, potions, meditations, chakra cleansing, and other spiritual work, different smells, and sensations come from essentials oils, that aid in the potency and accuracy of your craft. They are also used for their healing properties, in herbal remedies.
How do essential oils work?
Essential oils are aromatic, volatile liquids obtained from plant material through steam distillation and named after the plant from which they are derived. Essential oils can be defined as either products or mixtures of fragrant substances or as mixtures of fragrant and odorless substances. These fragrant substances are chemically pure compounds that are volatile under normal conditions. Essential oils vary greatly, sometimes due to genetic causes, but also because of climate, rainfall, or geographic origin. They are composed principally of lipophilic and highly volatile secondary plant metabolites, principally mono- and sesquiterpenes, but other types of compounds such as allyl and isoallyl phenols may also be present. Other substances that have been identified in volatile oils include coumarins, anthraquinones, and alkaloids , which are often distillable, while some diterpenes, fat, and other nonvolatile compounds can be obtained from essential oils by methods other than distillation.
The applications of essential oils are diverse. Widely used in cosmetics and perfumes, they also have medicinal applications due to their therapeutic properties as well as agro-alimentary uses because of their antimicrobial and antioxidant effects.