Guest guest Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 i recently read that there is a difference between the benefits of the eo's & the herbs themselves. i do not know if i agree. what i read about the benefits of the oils seems to be the same as for the herbs. any thoughts from you guys charlene Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 Hi Charlene I'm not any kind of expert on this so I'll defer to group members more knowledgable than me. But there are differences. That's because the distillation process excludes certain chemical components that are available in the whole plant, and concentrates the chemicals that do come through. Whether the particular therapeutic chemicals come through varies with different plants. The reason you have found what you have in your reading is because several aromatherapy authors are themselves confused about this issue. Any other thoughts? Patty --- On Tue, 2/17/09, charvmann2 <charvmann2 wrote: i recently read that there is a difference between the benefits of the eo's & the herbs themselves. i do not know if i agree. what i read about the benefits of the oils seems to be the same as for the herbs. any thoughts from you guys charlene Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 charvmann2 wrote: > i recently read that there is a difference between the benefits of the > eo's & the herbs themselves. i do not know if i agree. what i read > about the benefits of the oils seems to be the same as for the herbs. > any thoughts from you guys > charlene > Hi Charlene... This is one of those things that is yes and no.... EOs are made by distillation of a bio-source. In that process, certain parts of the source plant, i.e. those compounds of the plant that make up the essential oil of the plant, are separated and concentrated.... They emerge from the still as what we call an EO and a hydrosol..... Since the EO is not water soluble, it is separated from the hydrosol... Other parts and chemicals remain behind. So.....if the active ingredient(s) of an herbal is/are water soluble it won't be in the EO.....It may be in the hydrosol..... The active ingredient of the herbal may remain in the bio-mass left at the bottom of the still..... The active ingredient may be destroyed or altered by the heat of the distillation process... And finnally, the active ingredient may be in the EO.... The concentration caused by the distillation process may actually make the active ingredient, or something else in the herbal EO dangerous at full EO strength... So yes...the benefits of an EO may be the same as an herbal..... Another EO may not..... And yet another may have become hazardous, compared to its herbal source.... If anyone is implying that the benefits of EOs are the same as the herbals, without qualifying it.....pay no attention to them.... Especially if they're trying to sell you something... They do not even fundamentally know what they are talking about. Instead...get information about that EO from a reliable source that isn't looking to take yor money... Over the years, certain multi-level EO marketing companies have made that assertion the the actions of certain EOs are the same as the herbal of that EO is, to sell product to their followers...when it was definitely not the case.. I'm not sure who was more ignorant....the organization, or its followers, who shouldn't be fooling around with EOs at all, until they learn something about them, other than from a sales pitch...... -- Gary W. Bourbonais L'Hermite Aromatique A.J.P. (GIA) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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