Essential Oils Quality

ESSENTIAL OILS QUALITY

As Appeared in CFA Magazine on August 18 2006

BY TODD CLARK, VP OF OPERATIONS
at New Directions Aromatics Inc.

Last quarter we covered Perception vs. Reality. Price points and marketing play larger roles in our buying patterns that we’d like to admit. This argument includes the purchasing and selling of essential oils. Whether we like it or not, quality assumptions are made on these factors.

This quarter we’ll focus on the Spiritual and Organoleptic methods of evaluating quality.

PART 2: Spiritual & Organoleptic (“Spiritual” and “Sensory” testing)

Simply smelling the oils, the Organoleptic method, continues to be the most common method of evaluating the quality of Essential Oils. It is also the cheapest.

Opinions certainly vary on the accuracy of this method. Most researchers agree that the trained human nose can pick up the majority of chemical constituents within an oil. Still, researchers also agree that many components within an essential oil have no odor, and therefore, cannot be evaluated.

Essential Oils also have varying degrees of complexity. The more complex the product, the less constituents the Organoleptic method can be expected to detect. Because of this, most professionals admit that this is a subjective method of evaluation best used as a guide. There are, however, guidelines for this approach to quality:

• Like a wine tester, Organoleptic practitioners should clear their “palate”. This can be accomplished by taking rapid short breaths through the nose.
• The oil should be evaluated off of a paper blotter rather than trying to evaluate the oil from the bottle through an orifice reducer.
• The place where evaluation should be clear of other odors, be free of any air movement, and if possible, warm in temperature.
• Lastly, it is important that we recognize our limitations. The brain can only process so much. Only a few oils should be evaluated at a sitting; some books recommend no more than 5 or 6.

Spiritual testing techniques are less common, but are used nonetheless. They often involve pendulums and crystals spinning in particular directions, or “energy” changes as a result of proximity to quality. Anyone selling oils for long enough has likely come across a few such test results.

While many readers are probably rolling their eyes, I guarantee that others are disappointed in the lack of enlightenment in the world of Aromatherapy. Regardless on your particular opinion of this method, it is accepted in certain circles of practitioners.

This leads into the topic for the next Quarter: General Physical Measures (Optical Rotation, Refractive Index and Specific Gravity). These methods are within the world of scientific Evaluation, and are more affordable to perform than some would think.

This months winner!

Congratulations to Ellen Watson for winning this months $100 dollar prize! Ellen was randomly picked from all the product reviews that came in the last month on our website.

Based on the positive feedback this contest has received we will be running it for another month. Any product review posted from now until the end of the month will be eligable to win a
$100 dollar gift certificate

Every review counts as an entry, so the more you write the better your odds!

Good Luck!

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