The Main tools of Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is the exact art and subtle science of using special extracts from plants to bring about change in the mind, body and energies of a person or place. The extracts most often used are Essential oils, Hydrosols and CO2 extracts.

Essential oils are steam distilled from the leafs, roots, bark, seeds, flowers, resins and sometimes fruits of plants from all over the world. They are not true oils, only oil like, most are very volatile and evaporate quickly, are light and non-greasy. Very large quantities of plant material are put into a distiller and steam is used to release the “oils”. For something to be a “true” essential oil, it must be steam distilled.

The distilling process produces a second subtends used in Aromatherapy, the Hydrosol. This is the water that has reconstructed after the distilling. It contains very small amounts of essential oil, but mostly it has the water soluble components of the plants. Unlike the essential oils, most hydrosols can be used internally, with the right training, and must be keep refrigerated. The one thing that sticks out for me with hydrosols is that they are even more energetic then the oils are.
The next extract is a CO2 extract. This is when they take carbon dioxide; put it under a lot of presser. At this point is becomes liquid and plant material is mix in. After a time the CO2 is release and the plant material is removed. What is left is, most times, a thick pasty, waxy stuff. A CO2 extract is a FULL extract with the waxes and more of the resins then an essential oil and it will have most of the water soluble components as well. What all we can do with this very new extract is still being looked into. The one thing we do know is that they are 30 to 50 times stronger then the essential oil.

There is one other type of extract used in aromatherapy and most of the time is grouped in with the essential oils. They are the cold pressed oil. Most of these come from fruits like lemon, oranges and the like. These extracts still have some of the water and waxes in them and have a much shorter shelf life.

There will be more about the extracts coming soon.