4 EASY Ways To Determine the Purity of Essential Oils
According to the Aromatic plant research center, it is estimated that 80% of essential oils on the market are either contaminated or adulterated.
It is vital that we ensure the essential oils we use are pure. Why? By using an essential oil that isn’t pure, you run the risk of putting germs, heavy metals, or adulterants onto or into your body, which can provoke irritation, adverse effects, or even sickness. Additionally, the greater the purity of the essential oil the more effective it will be. Be cautious though, unfortunately just because a bottle is labeled as pure it doesn’t mean that it is. But wait, that’s false advertising you may say, and you’d be 100% correct! Before letting you in on some secrets to figure out the difference, let’s talk about what contaminated and adulterated essential oils are.
Contaminated essential oils usually contain unwanted chemicals (contaminants). These contaminants may come from plastic bottles in which oils are collected or stored in. Essential oils should be collected in either glass or stainless steel containers. If they are collected or stored in plastic they can draw the chemicals out of the plastic and into the essential oil itself. Pesticides can also contaminate essential oils. Essential oils do not have to be organic to be free of pesticides or contaminants. A lot of plants grow in environments where pesticides are not used. For example, Frankincense comes from the resin of a tree grown in Somalia and Oman. It takes 5 months to collect the resins and make essential oils from them. It’s not a farm, you can’t certify it organic in the wilderness of Somalia.
So, we now know what contaminated oils are, but what are adulterated oils? They can be diluted with vegetable oils, water, alcohol or can include synthetic chemicals that mimic the scent or chemical composition of the essential oil and therefore their aroma. For example, synthetic linalool can be added to Lavender which is commonly adulterated. Birch and Wintergreen, which are essential oils rich in methyl salicylate are typically adulterated with 100 percent synthetic methyl salicylate.
We can’t always determine with certainty if the essential oils we use or would like to purchase are pure and genuine, but here are 4 things to watch out for which will help:
1. Know the source of essential oil
Most essential oils are adulterated by a middleman or distributor. They typically get the essential oils from many different farmers and then sell them on the open market, usually wholesale in large barrels. It’s possible to buy those big barrels, repackage them, and then sell them individually. The barrels are not tested for purity since it can be pricey and it would cut into profit margins. Your best bet is to either purchase essential oils from a company that sources their essential oils directly from the farmers themselves or from a company that knows where the essential oils come from and which tests every single batch.
2. Cost
A clear giveaway that essential oils are not pure is when they are sold at unreasonably low prices. But how do you determine what’s an unreasonably low price? For example, it takes 3.5 pounds of Lavender flower to produce a 15ml (1/2oz) bottle of pure essential oil and 10 pounds of Helichrysum flower to produce 5ml (1tsp) of Helichrysum essential oil. One of the most commonly adulterated essential oils is Rose. It takes 232,000 petals to produce 5ml (1tsp) of Rose essential oil. Most reputable essential oil companies do not retail Rose essential oil in quantities larger than 5ml. The average market price for a 1/2oz of Rose essential oil is over $200. I’ve seen 10 ml Rose essential oil bottles being sold on Amazon for $18 which is an incredibly low price. You can know with certainty that those bottles are not pure even though the label will state 100% pure essential oil. In the world of essential oils, it is safe to assume that you get what you pay for.
3. Paper test
Often, odorless vegetable oil is added to stretch the volume of essential oils. You can easily determine if that’s the case by performing a paper test. Just add a drop of essential oil on plain white paper. If no vegetable oil has been added then the oil will completely evaporate without any residue. If it contains vegetable oil there will be an oily residue left on the paper. Essential oils, even though they are called oils are not the same as say olive or grapeseed oil. They are the essence of the plant and may contain over 1000 different chemical compounds. They will never leave an oily residue if 100% pure.
4. Chemical Analysis – GC/SM Report
Reputable essential oil companies will provide a GC/SM (Gas Chromotography/Mass Spectrometry) report that is readily available or can be provided per request. A gas chromatograph is a chemical analysis instrument used to separate and identify individual constituents found within a given essential oil. Mass spectrometry is utilized to identify specific compounds registered on the gas chromatography report by separating ions by their unique mass. This is the most reliable way to determine if essential oils are contaminated or adulterated.
Whichever essential oil brand you decide to use, I highly recommend you choose the one that can provide you with a GC/SM Analysis for each batch.
To make your decision easier, I’m sharing some great research from ConsumerAdvocate.org. They conducted independent lab tests on Lavender, Peppermint and Tea Tree oils from some of the more well known brands in the essential oil industry and the results might supprise you! You can find find the report HERE.
You may wonder, why would anyone sell fake essential oils? It’s profit driven of course. The great example is snake oil. Real snake oil comes from fat extracted from the Chinese water snake which is rich in omega-3 acids and can help reduce inflammation. It was used throughout history in China for joint pain. It was brought to the U.S. by Chinese immigrants and it worked. At that time, it was so popular that many saw an opportunity for a quick profit. This led to many frauds who sold fake snake oil resulting in the negative connotation that snake oil has today.
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