Re oil grades-reply to Chris and Butch

[Guest guest]

Yes, we have to the separate marketing crap such as Young Living go

in for from the realities. Of course to say an oil is " therapeutic

grade " is complete garbage because one then has to consider what is

meant by " therapeutic " . A beautiful smelling fake oil can have a

very therapeutic effect on the emotions, but might be useless for

treating a bacterial infection for example.

 

The facts are that the aromatherapy market is and always has been

awash with fake or low grade essential oils. As soon as you look at

what is done to essential oils then the question of grades has to

come into the picture. The example I gave of lavender is perhaps one

of the better examples. And Butch you know as well as I do that such

adulterated " low grade " oils are common, why else would the better AT

suppliers have their oils analysed to ensure they are genuine?

 

You can start with perfectly natural 100% genuine steam distilled

lavender oil which could be considered to be top grade. All AT

suppliers will claim this is what they sell...yeah!!

 

However that oil can be and is manipulated in a number of ways:

 

1. You can cut it with chemicals extracted from other cheaper plants

such as linalool ex ho leaf oil which is added to lavender oil. That

oil could be considered a grade above the semi-synthetic version.

 

2. You can cut it with synthetic chemicals which makes it a lower

grade to the real thing.

 

3. You can fractionate the oil to remove certain compounds. This

makes it more useful in fine fragrances, foods, drinks and can give

it more effective therapeutic properties. Don't believe me, read the

book by Gatefosse which is all about terpeneless oils.

 

Essential oils can be processed the same as crude oil and you can end

up with dozens of different blends and fractions.

 

>Commercial Grade is one that has been manipulated by man<

ALL essential oils are manipulated by man whether that be variations

in temperature, length of time of distillation, method used, etc.

They ALL create chemicals that do not occur in the plant materials

and loose others to the air that occur in the plant materials. As

you know well, Butch, you can get genuine Turkish village distilled

rose oil that smells damned awful, or you can get the wonderful

carefully distilled oil that you sell. Both are " real " , but are you

seriously trying to tell me that the stinky village oil is a

better " grade " than yours because it has been produced by a method

not involving manipulation by man?

 

Back to grades: You can have a perfectly natural oil distilled badly

and as the result it smells bad. That same oil can be refined to

remove the burnt chemicals and the resulting oil can once again smell

fine. That oil is still 'natural' but the big players will recognize

the oil has been played with and mark it as lower grade and pay less

for it.

 

The commercial oils trade is constantly fractionating and refining

essential oils to create various grades and to turn bad materials

into usable materials. Anyone who claims such materials are not

widely distributed in aromatherapy are living in a fools paradise.

 

>Your example of Patchouli is a very negative position.<

All I said was that oils are available in grades and gave that as one

of many examples. In the commercial oils trade you pay for an oil

based on the quality indicated by analysis. If patchouli oil has

alpha gurjunene then a good analyst knows this due to the addition of

gurjun leaves. The seller gets a much lower price depending on how

much alpha gurjenene is in the oil because a lot of that indicates

a " low grade oil " . Yet, smell wise the untrained nose can hardly

tell the difference.

 

When I used to work for an analyst he had to test Cyprus grapefruit

oil for the content of one single chemical. If that was low the oil

was classified as " low grade " and the price was fixed accordingly.

The growers knew this and would try to ensure they harvested the

fruit at the best time to ensure that chemical was high and therefore

the price they got was better for a higher " grade " oil.

 

So grading of essential oils is a reality. Yes the issues involved

can be confusing, that is why people need to educate themselves

properly on the subject rather than rely on newsgroups and web sites

where the information given can be highly misleading.

 

Martin

http://www.aromamedical.com

[Guest guest]

Hey Martin,

 

So you're more referring to the use of the word " grade " as more of a

general synonym for the word " quality " , with some oils being of a higher

or lower quality than others. But you're not really referring to a

specific grading standard that is in place by either a gov't agency or a

standardizing " institution " of some sort. Like here in the USA Olive Oil

has to meet certain criteria set in place by gov't standards to be

called a particular grade of olive oil (same with other things like

eggs, etc ..). So someone might sell oils that are considered low

quality for one reason or another, and somebody else might sell oils

that are considered high quality and really good for one reason or

another, but nobody has recognized " Grade A " essential oils, or " Grade

B " essential oils (etc ...) or anything like that.

 

Am I getting this right?

 

*Smile*

Chris

 

http://www.alittleolfactory.com

 

 

 

 

aromamedical2003 [aromamedical-2]

 

 

 

Yes, we have to the separate marketing crap such as Young Living go

in for from the realities. Of course to say an oil is " therapeutic

grade " is complete garbage because one then has to consider what is

meant by " therapeutic " . A beautiful smelling fake oil can have a

very therapeutic effect on the emotions, but might be useless for

treating a bacterial infection for example.

 

<snipped to make the reading life of those on digest easier>

 

So grading of essential oils is a reality. Yes the issues involved

can be confusing, that is why people need to educate themselves

properly on the subject rather than rely on newsgroups and web sites

where the information given can be highly misleading.

 

Martin

http://www.aromamedical.com

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

At 12:03 PM 4/21/2004 -0000, Martin wrote:

 

>So grading of essential oils is a reality. Yes the issues involved

>can be confusing, that is why people need to educate themselves

>properly on the subject rather than rely on newsgroups and web sites

>where the information given can be highly misleading.

 

Heck, I remember when I took a course from Sylla in 1990 she insisted that

the oils she sold were the only " genuine and authentic " grade available.

She shortened that to G & A. Said they were the standard. I used to have the

price list she distributed, and G & A was next to each oil listed.

http://member.newsguy.com/~herblady

[Guest guest]

Sorry for delay in replying, been out of it for a few days.

 

Yes, the grading thing is not laid down by any Government agency.

It is an oil trade system, but it is International in that any decent

size oil wholesaler will have their own analytical gear and will

determine the " grade " of oil that a producer is offering them. You

must bear in mind that the real oil trade deals in essential oils by

the Ton and so a small bit of adulteration or low grade oil can make

aa huge difference to the payments made.

 

The use of the word " grade " or " quality " is just semantics, they mean

the same thing in the oil trade.

Martin

---------------

, " Christine Ziegler "

<chrisziggy@e...> wrote:

> Hey Martin,

>

> So you're more referring to the use of the word " grade " as more of a

> general synonym for the word " quality " , with some oils being of a

higher

> or lower quality than others. But you're not really referring to a

> specific grading standard that is in place by either a gov't agency

or a

> standardizing " institution " of some sort. Like here in the USA

Olive Oil

> has to meet certain criteria set in place by gov't standards to be

> called a particular grade of olive oil (same with other things like

> eggs, etc ..). So someone might sell oils that are considered low

> quality for one reason or another, and somebody else might sell oils

> that are considered high quality and really good for one reason or

> another, but nobody has recognized " Grade A " essential oils,

or " Grade

> B " essential oils (etc ...) or anything like that.

>

> Am I getting this right?

>

> *Smile*

> Chris

>

> http://www.alittleolfactory.com

>

>

>

>

> aromamedical2003 [aromamedical-2@l...]

>

>

>

> Yes, we have to the separate marketing crap such as Young Living go

> in for from the realities. Of course to say an oil is " therapeutic

> grade " is complete garbage because one then has to consider what is

> meant by " therapeutic " . A beautiful smelling fake oil can have a

> very therapeutic effect on the emotions, but might be useless for

> treating a bacterial infection for example.

>

> <snipped to make the reading life of those on digest easier>

>

> So grading of essential oils is a reality. Yes the issues

involved

> can be confusing, that is why people need to educate themselves

> properly on the subject rather than rely on newsgroups and web

sites

> where the information given can be highly misleading.

>

> Martin

> http://www.aromamedical.com

>

>

>

>