Myth
#10:
Company Y is the only company in the world who sells pure or
therapeutic grade essential oils.
There are many companies in the world producing pure
essential oils. But finding those companies may not be the easiest of
tasks, and even if you find them, they may not be selling their
product in small retail bottles. As a general rule, the farther down
the supply chain you go the less likely you are to be getting pure
product. There are a lot of companies out there selling essential
oils and most of them have no ability (or in many cases no desire) to
do the necessary quality control to verify what they are getting from
their supplier before they pass it on to their customers.
Additionally, pure does not necessary equate with good quality. A
pure oil can be distilled incorrectly or could have been obtain from
a particular variety of plant species that was not ideal.
Furthermore, with regards to therapeutic grade, we need to be
diligent at discerning what the claim really means. There seems to be
a misconception that there is some kind of independent body that
certifies oils as therapeutic grade, but to this date there is no
such body, at least not one that is widely recognized. Does this mean
there is no such thing as therapeutic grade? No, but just realize
that any therapeutic grade standard out there right now is an
internally derived company standard. Now this standard may be an
overall great standard and perfectly acceptable to me or any other
analyst or aromatherapist out there but it just needs to be noted
that its not an independent standard. Some of the company standards
that I have been privileged to access have in fact even been quite
exceptional in some cases, surpassing the conventional standards of
ISO, etc. In the end, for most people who don't have access to their
own GC/MS, it all boils down to who do you trust to give you the pure
oil. If the leader of a company has a history of misinformation,
arrest records for practicing medicine without a license, getting
sued for injuring people by improper use of essential oils, using the
names of credible people inappropriately for personal gain, and
questionable ethics in general then its probably not a company whose
"therapeutic grade" standard would really carry much weight
with the aromatherapy community at large and should also not be taken
seriously by an educated EO consumer.
Dr. Robert Pappas is a chemist with
more than two decades of experience in the essential oil industry. He
has worked extensively with professionals from around the world, and
focuses primarily on essential oil analysis and education, performing
quality and purity testing for clients large and small. His opinions
are widely respected in the essential oil industry. For a time, Dr.
Pappas' relationships with growers prompted him to begin sales of
essential oils to better serve the needs of his customers as they
sought the best options for essential oil purchases. It was during
this period of time that Welcome to Life! began. Although Dr. Pappas
later sold the burgeoning business to his brother, we continue to
provide our oils exclusively from from this source. We feel confident
that the oils remain as pure and amazing as they were under Dr.
Pappas, and are pleased to offer them to our clients.
Dr. Pappas continues to study, analyze,
and educate about essential oils. With his permission, we reprint his
Essential Oil Myths so you can know the truth among the lies in the
essential oil industry. For further study and verification, please
visit Dr. Pappas' Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=essential%20oil%20university