What Are Essential Oils?
Extraction methods
Essential oils can either be extracted by steaming or by pressing. In the steaming process, the plant or the part of the plant, is actually steamed, and then cooled. This separates the essential oils. This is then collected and stored in small bottles after adding the carrier oil. Pressing is used in plants such as grapes and lemons. Grapes when pressed, give grape juice while lemon rinds when squeezed, give out lemon oil. Today, the most common essential oils are lavender, peppermint, eucalyptus, lemon, balm, sage, orange,
blossom water etc.
Cost
The cost of essential oils used in aromatherapy vary. The cost depends on the magnitude of raw material used to extract; and the quantity of oil extracted. So, if the raw material has abundant essential oils in them, like that found in lemon rind, then the cost of the essential oil is quite less. The reverse is also true. Essential oils extracted from flowers are costly, as the quantity of flowers needed to extract them needs to be great, like you would need thousands of rose flowers to extract rose water or rose oil, thereby making it costlier. Hence we find that essential oils are the necessary element of aromatherapy.
