Here is a great question: “Can’t I just use the real deal versus what’s in these little bottles?”
Sounds logical right? If I want lemon in my water, I can just squeeze one into it. If I want the lovely benefit of calm with the scent of lavender, I can just get some lavender flowers right? Sure, if you have around 45 pounds of lavender to make yourself 5 ounces of oil.
The truth is no. It’s not logical that you can use the actual leaves, plants, herbs or fruits to gain the full benefits because the essential oil itself can only come from the distillation process.
Don’t get me wrong, it is highly recommended to squeeze lemon juice in your water every day because of all the benefits like being an excellent source of potassium, enhancing enzyme function that stimulate your liver and boosting your immune system with a punch of vitamin C. But the truth is, you have to go deeper than that.
The truth is Essential oils are highly concentrated substances. It is the distillation process that gives the oils the high concentration, making them more potent — sometimes up to 100 times more — than the natural herbs and plants that they are distilled from. This is because it requires a huge amount of plant part to produce a small amount of essential oil.
For example, it takes 3000 lemon rinds to produce approximately 35 ounces of lemon essential oil. With rose petals, 5000 pounds are needed to produce 1 kilogramme of rose essential oil. And, 1300 pounds of cinnamon wood or bark is needed to produce 5 ounces of oil.
Not only are the oils more potent but the molecules of essential oils are relatively small which allow them to easily and quickly penetrate into the body’s cells.
Each essential oil is a complex structure of hundreds of chemical constituents, including phenols, terpenes, esters, alcohols, and oxides. A single essential oil may contain between 80 to more than 300 different chemical constituents which they all contribute to the oil’s effects on the body and emotions which is the true benefit of using essential oils.