[What are Essential Oils?]
Essential oils for aromatherapy are highly concentrated and complex aromatic molecules extracted from the flowers, leaves, roots, bark, fruits, seeds, and resins of natural herbal plants through methods such as distillation and pressing. They contain the plant’s unique fragrance, and these plants must be medicinal plants with therapeutic properties.
[Do you know how many plants it takes to make one drop of essential oil?]
Let’s start with essential oils extracted via the most common method, distillation.
Rose Otto Essential Oil: It takes about 4 tons to extract 1 kilogram of oil, meaning it takes 150-200 roses to produce just one drop of rose essential oil.
Neroli Essential Oil: It takes about 1 ton to extract 0.7 kilograms of oil, meaning it takes 70-100 orange blossoms to produce one drop of neroli essential oil.
Lavender Essential Oil (True Lavender): It takes about 200-250 kilograms to extract 1 kilogram of oil, meaning it takes 20-25 lavender flowers to produce one drop of lavender essential oil.
So, never underestimate a single drop of essential oil. Because every plant contains a different amount of aromatic molecules, and cultivation and extraction are both difficult, every single drop is precious. Therefore, true pure essential oils can never be compared to synthetic fragrances.
Be grateful to the Earth for bringing us such wonderful things.