Refrigerating and Otherwise Protecting Essential Oils

[Guest guest]

Hi y'all,

 

Since we are gaining so many new members each week .. and since the

below is a subject that crops up often .. and since most folks don't

bother to research the archive ;-) I'll present it again and answer

some questions that haven't been asked lately. :-) Butch

 

 

Butch Owen <butchbsi

Refrigerating and Otherwise Protecting

Essential Oils

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 06:26:21 -0700

 

Hi Jennifer .. other good folks ..

 

> One more thing, I keep my EO's in the fridgerator because I had read

> they would keep fresh and potent longer.... Is this correct thinking?

 

Generally speaking .. its a good idea. Can't harm any of your EO by

refrigerating .. and some (like cold pressed Citrus, all " Blue " oils,

and Elemi (Canarium luzonicum) should ALWAYS be refrigerated.

 

But .. if we refrigerate some EO, Rose Otto (Rosa damascena) and Anise

Seed (Pimpinella anisum) come to mind now .. when we take them out we'll

find they have crystallized. Won't hurt them as they will come back to

their normal consistency/density when they warm up to room temperature.

 

Refrigeration slows down some chemical deterioration .. far less so for

the distilled oils than for cold pressed oils .. with some exceptions to

that statement too. Almost anything said in this industry will have an

exception or two .. and many things will have many exceptions because

the statements are wrong from the git go. ;-)

 

But .. lack of refrigeration is not as harmful for oils as is exposing

them to light and oxygen .. two things needed to sustain life .. and the

two things that age oils .. and human critters.

 

Y'all know how to protect your oils from light .. use colored glass

bottles .. and keep them in a dark place.

 

As for protecting them from oxygen .. the easiest thing is to keep the

tops on tight. Also .. if you are using large bottles you can pour the

oil into smaller bottles as you use it up .. this reduces the dead space

that oxygen creeps into. Two other ways to do this .. get a bottle of

the spray Nitrogen from a good wine shop .. this is good to top off the

larger bottles as nitrogen is heavier than oxygen and displaces it ..

and nitrogen is NOT harmful to ANY essential oil. " Nitrogen flushing "

is not easy to do for small bottles but something else we can do for the

small ones (besides switching to smaller bottles) is to drop pure glass

beads into them. That too will displace oxygen.

 

Where does one find these pure glass beads? I have no idea. I have

often considered having some of the Turkish glass makers do me up a few

thousand of them .. just didn't get around to it because (1) I doubt

that folks would bother with them .. and (2) we don't use them in my

company .. we use nitrogen flushing for our stock .. not in the little

bitty bottles .. but for our shelf stock.

 

So .. in addition to refrigerating oils .. we gotta keep the tops on

tight, keep'em out of sight .. and treat'em right by reducing exposure

to oxygen.

 

My statements above are not cutting edge or avant-garde .. they are

simply plain old common sense IF we understand the chemical processes

ongoing when heat, light or oxygen hits oils.

 

Since I began messing with EO (in 1995) I have seen few new questions

asked about them .. we continue to put out the same old fires and squash

the same old rumors. Rumors often created by instructors who quote

unreferenced " novels " written by writers quoting other unreferenced

" novels " .. and by the misinformation/disinformation and marketing hype

put out by some who wish to make an easy buck. The industry of AT

thrives on misinformation. Were it not so there would be a " Bible "

folks could turn to and get all the answers .. wouldn't need Newsgroups

like Oils & Herbs.

 

Actually, there is nothing really critical about most of the bad info

unless it is unsafe info .. but the situation we have created in AT does

much to ensure that AT is never validated .. never accepted as a viable

alternative mode of self treatment.

 

One can talk or write on Aromatherapy and rarely be wrong as there are

no universal " truths " in AT .. plus there are many ways to skin the cat

when using EO .. and things that work for some don't work for others.

But when one speaks or writes on Essential Oils its no longer in the

realm of personal opinion .. they gotta do a bit of research or they

gonna be challenged by them whut have done it.

 

I have no intention of ever devoting time to writing a book on EO or AT

because they are the least significant things I have done in my entire

life. I might write on some experiences I've had .. maybe Largemouth

Bass fishing or SCUBA or raising Bullfrogs or Bird Dawgs .. something

real important and interesting like that .. but never on AT or EO. But

I will never entitle my book " The Complete Book of Anything " .. I always

run away from books with such titles. ;-)

 

> Thanks

> Jennifer

 

Yes'm .. welcome you are.

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch http://www.AV-AT.com