Aromatherapy essential oils are the extremely focused essences of aromatic plants. The oils are found in several components of the plant like the flowers, twigs, leaves, and bark, or within the rind of the fruit. for instance, in roses it’s found within the flowers, in basil it’s within the leaves, in wood within the wood, and so on.
There are many uses of essential oils and the most popular are aromatherapy. Essential oils can be used either alone or in combination in aromatherapy to create desired effect or scents. One needs to understand the effects of essential oils before using it as an aromatherapy treatment.
The question is what aromatherapy is? Aromatherapy is the art of using essential oils to heal the body as well as the mind. The methods which are used to extract the oils are really time-consuming, expensive and require expertise experience. Organic essential oils can be extracted using different methods but most of them are useless now. Currently, steam distillation is the most popular extraction method. In this method, the plant is placed into a pressure cooker where pressurized steam passes through the plant material. The heat from the steam dries the plant and then oil evaporates. Then this essential oil vapors and steam passes out the top of the pressure cooker into a water cooled paper where these vapors are condensed from gas to liquid. At that point, essential oil separates from the water as the water floats to the top of the condensed liquid. This process is used by the professionals.
Do you know how much pounds roses used to extract just 23 pounds of jasmine essential oil? According to experts, it takes more than 8 million jasmine flowers to extract just 2 pounds of essential oil. Due to the large quantity of plant material required, pure essential oils are expensive but are also very effective. Only a few drops can do the job.
How essential oil work?
Essential oils have an immediate impact on our senses as well as the mind. When essential oils are inhaled, sense receptor cells are stimulated and the fragrance is transmitted to the emotional center of the brain, also called limbic system. The limbic system is connected to the areas of the brain linked to memory, blood circulation and breathing. The fragrance effects these systems.
When essential oils are used in massage, they are not inhaled but absorbed in the skin. It penetrates the tissues and does the same work as in inhaling.
