Can I Make Essential Oils at Home?

Can I Make Essential Oils at Home?

Now, you may have wondered how essential oils are produced and whether or not you can make them at home.

The production of essential oils is a rather complicated process which usually requires specialized equipment and LOTS of plant materials. In the case of the production of rose otto, or rose essential oil, it takes about 2,000 pounds of roses to produce one pound of essential oil.

Although home distillation kits are now available, and you probably can find a few sources through the internet, they are fairly expensive and, for most people, making their own essential oils takes too much time, money and effort to make it worthwhile.

Processes of Extraction from Plants

There are many complex processes for extracting the oils from plants, depending on the herb. For this course, we will only discuss the primary processes of extraction. The two main methods used for extracting essential oils from plants are:

* steam, water or dry distillation or
* simple expression or pressure, (that is, the squeezing of the skin of an orange, for example)

Steam Distillation

The majority of oils such as lavender, myrrh, sandalwood and cinnamon are produced by steam distillation. This process isolates only the volatile and water-insoluble parts of a plant.

Essential oils are usually liquid, but can also be solid (orris root) or semi-solid according to temperature (rose or oakmoss). They dissolve in pure alcohol, fats and oils but not in water.

Unlike plant oils, such as olive oil, essential oils evaporate when exposed to air, leaving no oily residue behind.

I have seen where someone spilled German Chamomile, also known as Blue Chamomile, on a white shirt and within an hour or so; the stain was gone because the oil had evaporated. Other oils, such as patchouli or sandalwood may leave some slight discoloration.
Steam distillation does not leave chemical solvent residues

Cold Pressing

Simple expression or pressure is used to extract essential oils with this method. Basically, this involves squeezing of the skin of an orange, lemon, lime or grapefruit, for example.

Pick up a lemon, an orange and a grapefruit at your local grocery store. Slice the skin off of each of these fruits. Squeeze the skin
between your fingers, folding it over itself. You will see a small spurt of oil and the scent of the fruit will be magnified.

Here in essence, is the essential oil of these citrus fruits. And speaking of citrus fruits, this is a good time to consider the healing qualities of one of the freshest, and relatively inexpensive, essential oils you will find.

Take out your notebook and bottle of sweet orange essential oil. Put one drop on a tissue paper and inhale its scent. (Inhaling directly out of the bottle may be too intense.) Before you read further, consider the following questions and note your responses in your notebook. Be sure to list the full name of the essential oil as well as the day and date of your notations.

Now, consider the following: How were you feeling before you sniffed the oil? How are you feeling now that you have sniffed the oil? Do you like the scent? Why? Why not?

Once you have written down each question and your responses, continue reading.


Sweet Orange, Citrus sinensis

It’s not surprising that sweet orange essential oil is known as an antidepressant. Its fresh, bright scent is uplifting and cheering for most people. It is also helpful in relieving nervous tension and stress.

Diffused into the air, it can not only alleviate mild depression, it can help in dealing with colds and flu, bronchitis and chills
Whatever the plant and however its essential oils are extracted, aromatherapy probably has found some use for the concentrated energies of its oil.

Found in Various Plant Parts

Unlike fixed oils, essential oils are volatile. This means they evaporate rapidly at room temperature, whereas fixed oils, such as vegetable or motor oils, are more stable. Chemically, essential oils consist of a complex mixture of 30 to 100 or more compounds.
The oils themselves are found in various plant parts. Peppermint, patchouli, basil and geranium oils are derived from their leaves and stems. Clove oil comes from flower buds. Jasmine, rose and tuberose oils are derived from the open flowers. Essential oils are also derived from the seeds, wood, bark, roots, needles and skins of various plants.

The following essential oil is derived from the fresh or partially dried leaves and young twigs of a tree.

Take out your notebook and bottle of eucalyptus essential oil. Put one drop on a tissue paper and inhale its scent. (Inhaling directly out of the bottle may be too intense.) Before you read further, consider the following questions and note your responses in your notebook. Be sure to list the full name of the essential oil as well as the day and date of your notations.

Now, consider the following: How were you feeling before you sniffed the oil? How are you feeling now that you have sniffed the oil? Do you like the scent? Why? Why not?

Once you have written down each question and your responses, continue reading.

Eucalyptus globulus, Eucalyptus spp.


The essential oil is produced by steam distillation from the fresh or partially dried leaves and young twigs. The Eucalyptus tree is tall, at times growing more than 300 feet high. Young trees have round bluish-green leaves whereas the mature trees develop long, narrow yellowish leaves, creamy-white flowers and a smooth, pale grey bark often covered with a white powder.

Generally speaking, I've used Eucalyptus globulus in cool mist humidifiers (the manufacturers will NOT recommend doing this, by the way) by putting 10 to 15 drops in the water catch. I've also put 5 to 10 drops in a candlelight diffuser or potpourri pot...where you add water, add the essential oil and then light the tea light.

Eucalyptus is an excellent expectorant. Which means that, if you are congested, you may find yourself “coughing up a lung” along with a lot of phlegm!

Known for its use as a nasal and lung decongestant for colds and flu, Eucalyptus also inhibits proliferation of the cold virus, Patricia Davis in Aromatherapy: An A-Z says, "Eucalyptus used in air sprays or any form of vaporization during epidemics, will give a good measure of protection from flu and the infectious illnesses of childhood."

Essential Oils

How Do Essential Oils Work?

Essential oils work in many ways. Scientists have been especially interested in how fragrances can trigger memories and in how pheromones--fragrant, hormone-like substances, influence physical attraction.

The nose connects to the olfactory bulb, the only place in the human body where the central nervous system is exposed directly to the environment. The cells of the olfactory membrane are literally brain cells.

Fragrant substances, like most essential oils, pass on to the limbic system without being registered by the cerebral cortex. Even before we become aware of an aroma, our subconscious reacts to it.

How Can We Use Essential Oils?

Massage

Massage is one of the more popular ways to use essential oils. Because they are so concentrated, it's usually best to dilute (almost always) essential oils with a neutral carrier oil, such as sweet almond, jojoba, coconut or olive, to avoid irritating the skin.

Even such oils as lavender, tea tree, sandalwood and rose should be diluted before use on the skin because undiluted use may lead to sensitization and the inability to get the healing benefits of those oils when they are most needed.

When working with essential oils, keep them away from the eyes and mucous membranes.

Because people's associations with oils and scents vary, always allow someone to smell an oil first before using it in a massage. If someone has a negative reaction to an oil's scent, you are better off finding an oil with similar properties that is more to their taste.

Because skin types and chemistries vary, you must watch carefully for adverse reactions.
There are many benefits to massage, including relaxation of the muscles and movement of the lymph fluids.

Inhalation:

Inhalation of essential oils can be both a simple and fairly complex process. Special (and expensive) electronic aromatherapy diffusers will spread a scent throughout a room. A few drops of oil placed on a clay light-bulb diffuser will also do the job.

Using candles scented with essential oils can release the aromas into a room as the flame warms the wax, which in turn moves the fragrances into the air. Scenting the water in potpourri pots with essential oils is another way to gently lighten up a room.

By using a sprayer you can disinfect or perfume a room very quickly. Fill a spray bottle with water and a dozen, or so, drops of your chosen oil(s). Shake the bottle and then spray. As essential oils do not actually mix with water, make sure you shake the bottle to blend it (temporarily) before spraying.

Even putting a few drops of essential oil in a humidifier can do the job.

Bathing:

A few drops of an essential oil in bath water, just before you step into the tub, can do wonders for your mood. Bathing with essential oils gives you a double benefit--contact with your skin and inhalation of the scent as it rises from the water.

Because essential oils are not soluble in water, that is, they do not mix with water, it's best to add your essential oil to milk or a carrier oil before adding it to bath water. The last thing you want to do is put sensitive body parts on top of undiluted essential oils floating on top of your bath water.

Hand or Foot Baths

If you're going to perform reflexology on someone, soaking his or her feet or hands in a bowl of warm water scented with the appropriate oils can be very relaxing as well as antiseptic.

Again, use only one or two drops of essential oil dispersed into warm water. Check the water yourself to make sure that it is not too hot before allowing your subject to put his or her hands or feet in the soak.

Dispel Headaches

Both the inhaled scent and physical application of lavender essential oil (three drops of the essential oil to a 1/2 teaspoon of sweet almond or olive oil) to the outside of the sinuses and forehead can also help dispel headaches. Use only a finger's dab of this blend to apply to your sinuses and forehead. Repeat, if necessary, in a half hour or so.

Others find inhaling peppermint oil to be indispensable to ridding themselves of such pain.

Sweet Dreams

I also know many people who burn lavender stick incense at night to help them sleep peacefully.
The herb itself has been burned in rooms where a woman is going to give birth. More than one midwife wears lavender oil to set up soothing and calming energies.

BASIC SAFETY TIPS
• Store essential oils in a cool, dark place
• Always keep out of the reach of children and away from any pets.
• Avoid using directly or near the eyes or mucous membranes. Use whole milk or vegetable oil to help flush out any essential oil that might have splashed into the eye. Remember, essential oils are NOT soluble in water, so water is not the best medium for removing them. If problems persist, seek medical assistance as soon as possible.

• Do not use the same essential oil every time, whether for skin application or inhalation. Rotate your essential oils to avoid becoming sensitized and to avoid overexposure to any one essential oil.
• Remember, just because an essential oil is derived from a plant, it cannot be used in the same way as the plant. (Herbalists will note similarities with the use of many essential oil as to traditional uses of herbs, but essential oils and the herbs themselves are NOT interchangeable.)
• If you develop a skin rash, stop using it right away.
• When working with essential oils, make sure you have adequate ventilation. Open up windows, put on the exhaust fan. This is especially important for practitioners, who will tend to be exposed to essential oil fumes more than the average individual.
• Do not use essential oils internally UNLESS you get much more training!
• Always dilute essential oils before using them on the body.


If making a one-ounce massage oil blend,
remember the following:

• 1 oz. equals approximately 30 ml
• 1 teaspoon equals about 5 ml
• 1 tablespoon equals about 15 ml or 1/2 ounce

*One percent essential oil in a one-ounce blend would be about 10 drops.
*Two percent essential oil in a one-ounce blend would be about 20 drops.
*Three percent would be about 30 drops.

Because essential oils are so concentrated, it's usually best to dilute (almost always) them with a neutral carrier or base oil, such as apricot kernel, jojoba, coconut, emu or olive, to avoid irritating the skin.

Even such oils as lavender, tea tree, sandalwood and rose should be diluted before use on the skin because undiluted use may lead to sensitization and the inability to get the healing benefits of those oils when they are most needed.

Carrier oils are referred to as such because they carry the essential oil onto the skin or in the product that they are used in. Different
carrier oils offer different properties and the choice of carrier oil can depend on the therapeutic benefit being sought.

Carrier oils are generally cold-pressed vegetable oils from the fatty portions of the plant. Cold pressing means that no external heat has been used while the seed is being pressed.

The following essential oil is often used in “sensual” massages because it has a reputation as an “aphrodisiac.”

Take out your notebook and bottle of patchouli essential oil. Put one drop on a tissue paper and inhale its scent. (Inhaling directly out of the bottle may be too intense.) Before you read further, consider the following questions and note your responses in your notebook. Be sure to list the full name of the essential oil as well as the day and date of your notations.

Now, consider the following: How were you feeling before you sniffed the oil? How are you feeling now that you have sniffed the oil? Do you like the scent? Why? Why not?

Once you have written down each question and your responses, continue reading.

Patchouli, Pogostemon cablin

Many people think of patchouli as a "hippy's herb" from the 1960s. During that time of "love fests" and heavy use of marijuana, patchouli incense was often burned to cover up the scent of the burning drug. Then a lot of people who weren't using drugs found they liked the scent.

But most people don't know that patchouli was rather popular in the 1860s as well. In the 1860s, Britain imported cashmere shawls from India. The shawls were packed with patchouli leaves to discourage moth infestation.

British merchants found that if they had cashmere shawls that were not packed with patchouli leaves, that they could not sell them. However, once they scented the shawls with patchouli, they did sell.

In addition to being known as an aphrodisiac which heightens sensuality, this relaxing scent is also known for its antidepressant and antiseptic properties.

Patchouli essential oil can help prevent viral infections and aid in the healing of wounds. The oil used to treat yeast infections both in the mouth and the vagina. As pointed out above, it is used in Asia as a moth repellant.


Anxiety: Clary Sage, geranium, juniper berry, lavender, lemon balm (Melissa), neroli, Roman chamomile, rose otto, sandalwood, sweet marjoram, ylang ylang

Mental Fatigue: Clary Sage, juniper berry, rosemary

Relaxing: Chamomile, lavender, lemon balm (Melissa), geranium, neroli

Uplifting: Clary sage, eucalyptus, juniper berry,

Euphoric: Jasmine, sandalwood, ylang ylang

Muscle aches: Birch, eucalyptus, juniper, rosemary

Respiratory problems: Eucalyptus, lavender, peppermint, pine, spruce

Depression: Basil, clary sage, geranium, lavender, melissa, rose, ylang ylang.

Headaches: Eucalyptus, lavender, lemon balm, peppermint, Roman chamomile, rosemary

Insomnia: Roman Chamomile, lavender, neroli

Origins of Aromatherapy

Origins of Aromatherapy

The use of fragrance goes back thousands of years. Originally, people used herbs, and the oils derived from them, directly as a part of their spiritual or religious practice, and often, more indirectly as medicines.

Aromatherapy and More
It is relatively simple to burn the actual herbs themselves, when using the herbs as incense. Or to release the scent of the herbs, by pouring boiling water over them, to produce a tea, infusion, tisane or steam inhalation. If a plant grows in your locality, you can probably prepare it for these types of use.

However, the use of essential oils is more complicated because one doesn’t just use the raw herb itself.
In most instances, the ancient world's use of botanicals did not include the use of actual essential oils. Rather, instead, many of the ancients used fats and oils infused with plant materials.

The Term "Aromatherapy"
In the 1900s, a French chemist, Professor Rene-Maurice Gattefosse, is credited with coining the term "Aromatherapy." His family owned a perfumery business. As he defined it, aromatherapy carries a somewhat narrow definition in the respect that it only includes essential oils, not other botanical products, which may or may not be considered a formal part of aromatherapy.



History

"To reach the individual we need an individual remedy. Each of us is a unique message. It is only the unique remedy that will suffice. We must, therefore, seek odiferous substances which present affinities with the human being we intend to treat, those which will compensate for his deficiencies and those which will make his faculties' blossom."
--- Marguerite Maury. "The Secret if Life and Youth".

Aromatherapy is a multifaceted healing art, which uses the essential oils of plant and trees to promote health of body and serenity of mind. Although the roots of this beautiful therapy are ancient, I have set out to prove that the basic principles on which aromatherapy is based are no less valid today.

Aromatic plants have been used by humankind since the dawn of history. There is evidence that over some 4,000 years ago, the Ancient Sumerians made use of the scented herbs such as cypress and myrrh, while in the 1870's George Ebers discovered a 21 meter scroll of papyrus that listed over 850 Ancient Egyptian botanical remedies, dating from about 1500 BC.

Ancient Greek Physicians such as Hippocrates and Galen interpreted the microcosm of the human being according to the Elements of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air, while the masters of the Chinese tradition saw five elements at work. In either case, they employed a rich and varied language of Nature - not to describe their observations as fixed phenomena, but like the physicists of today, to use these concepts to expose the dynamic force that masquerades as matter.

Aromatherapy also has a few intriguing diversions, such as the art of natural perfumery, the making of cosmetic lotions and potions, and an exploration of sensual aromatherapy - for those wishing to enhance their love life through the alchemy of fragrance and the magic of touch.

Practices such as these were the beginnings of a tradition that embraced not one but several civilizations, and developed hand-in-hand with systems of science and medicine that were based on both empirical knowledge and informed intuition

By applying traditional wisdom to aromatherapy, we can avail ourselves of a corpus of knowledge that is immediate and profound, practical and intuitive. And through contributing to the synthesis of East and West, we can expand our awareness both of the human spirit and the plant essence.



War Time Uses of Essential Oils

Gattefosse experimented with essential oils on wounded soldiers during World War I. His work showed that essential oils, rather than chemical antiseptics, detoxified wounds and sped up healing.

His own personal experience with the healing properties of lavender made him a fan of that oil. He accidentally burned his hand in his laboratory when an experiment caused a small explosion. After he applied lavender oil, the pain ceased and (according to aromatherapy legend) the skin soon healed, perfectly cured.

This seems the perfect place to discuss one of Gattefosse’s favorite oils and a few of the ways you can best use it. Of course, we are talking about Lavender essential oil.

Take out your notebook and bottle of lavender essential oil. Put one drop on a tissue paper and inhale its scent. (Inhaling directly out of the bottle may be too intense.) Before you read further, consider the following questions and note your responses in your notebook. Be sure to list the full name of the essential oil as well as the day and date of your notations.

Now, consider the following: How were you feeling before you sniffed the oil? How are you feeling now that you have sniffed the oil? Do you like the scent? Why? Why not? Once you have written down each question and your responses, continue reading.



Lavender, Lavendula angusifolia

An antiseptic essential oil, lavender has found its niche in the treatment of burns, whether as a result of a kitchen or camping accident, or spending too much time at the seaside or hiking in the mountains.

Just a couple of drops of lavender essential oil mixed into a teaspoon of aloe vera gel makes a soothing, antiseptic and pain relieving lotion which not only relieves the pain of a burn, but also speeds up the healing process.

A few drops in a tea light diffuser at night before bedtime can help an insomniac relax and have sweet dreams.

Lavender essential oil also has a reputation for helping stressed out individuals calm down and take life a little slower. In essence, it helps them to stop and smell the flowers.