What Are Essential Oils?
A plant’s scent is created by special oils called essential oils. To find plants that possess these oils, just smell the plant. If the plant has an aroma, it contains essential oils. Roses, violets, and even Christmas trees all owe their distinct scent to essential oils.
Essential oils are removed from a plant by various techniques. After it is extracted, a pure essential oil is somewhat oily to the touch. Even though it is officially an oil, it is much thinner than vegetable oils we use in cooking, such as canola oil or olive oil.
Essential oils are made up of such tiny compounds that the oils not only feel thin, but they seem to vanish when you rub them between your fingers. They also do not stain when you put them on cloth, and they evaporate quickly into the air. Because they disperse so rapidly, a different name for essential oils is volatile oils.
Special scent glands in a plant create these essential oils. These glands may appear anywhere, but are most likely in the flowers and leaves and least to be expected in the stems. Essential oils perform many important functions for the plant:
- They attract bees and other pollinators.
- They keep away harmful bugs.
- They repel other plants so that they don’t take up all the space.
- They kill bacterial, viral, and fungal infections.
- They close up the plant’s wounds.
- They make the plant water-resistant.
- They increase the plant’s resistance to disease.
The beauty industry welcomes aromatherapy because essential oils improve the health and beauty of skin, hair, and nails. As an extra fringe benefit, they smell terrific when you apply them to your skin. Essential oils assist the human body in many of the same ways they help the plants they come from:
- They kill bacterial, viral and fungal infections.
- They cure wounds.
- They decrease inflammation.
- They regulate hormones.
- They tone up and moisten your skin.
- They stimulate the immune system.
- They repel bugs.
Here are a few additional things they will do for your body:
- They heat up your skin when you apply them in a warm massage oil or liniment.
- They help blood flow and digestion.
- They reduce sinus and lung congestion.
The information for this post was taken from: Kathi Keville. Aromatherapy for Dummies. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc, 1999
Tags: Aromatherapy, Essential Oils, Esther Naturally, Natural Skin Care, Olive Oil, Organic Skin Care
