Essential oils. We hear about them more and more these days and find them in many more stores than ever before. But what is an essential oil, how is it made and what are they used for?
Without getting too “sciency” or technical, an essential oil is the extracted volatile organic compounds of certain flowers, leaves, even resins (sap) from an amazing variety of plants. These natural extracts provide the fragrances of perfumes, incenses, soaps, lotions, and yes, even medicines. There are differing methods of extracting these “essences,” ranging from steam distillations to the exotic and ancient (though still used today) effleurage process used to extract the most fragile of essences from the most delicate of flowers such as roses, violets, the finest jasmines, and so many more. However, by far the most common extraction is steam distillation and that’s what we’ll talk about here.
Steam distillation involves boiling water and passing the steam through a vessel packed with flowers since that’s usually where the most oil is produced. The steam is hot enough to turn the oil into a vapor too and together they are then funneled into a cooling apparatus where they condense back into liquids. The essential oil, being lighter than the distilled water rises to the top and is then collected. It is a process whose origin is unknown but was described by Aristotle circa 350 BC. The process was well known to the people of ancient Egypt, Greece, etc. Fast forward several centuries and the process is still the same, but the equipment has been vastly improved. Where once the stills were made of clay vessels, they eventually were fashioned from copper, which is still in wide use today.
As a lavender farmer in the Applegate Valley, we grow several varieties that are not only well-suited to our Mediterranean climate, but also produce exceptional essential oils. We use a still with a high-efficiency stainless steel boiler. Our cooling tower has cold water circulating around the copper coils to condense the oil back into a liquid as rapidly as possible to avoid “cooking” it any longer than necessary to avoid certain unfavorable aromatic “notes” and the likely diminished therapeutic qualities of the essential oil.
Since I just mentioned the word “therapeutic,” this is probably a good time to talk about some of the uses of essential oils. In general, when you take a sip of tea, especially herbal tea, the majority of the therapeutic quality is attained from the essential oil extracted from it. In the case of essential oils though, they are by their very nature extremely concentrated and therefore used either very sparingly or not at all internally. There are however, many topical uses for essential oils and in the case of lavender, there have been countless references to its therapeutic value documented in herbals over the last several hundred years. But, there is revived interest in lavender oil as evidenced by some recent studies. One study I found most interesting was conducted in 2007 Meikai University School of Dentistry in Japan. Wondering how to allay the fears, tensions, and sometimes extreme anxieties that many dental patients experience, participants were placed in a room with the aroma of lavender essential oil. The researchers found that those participants experienced reduced levels of Cortisol (the stress hormone) in their saliva as opposed to the participants that were placed in a room without it. But that’s not all! The researchers found that the same subjects also displayed increased production of Free Radical Scavenging Agents—which are those little molecules travelling through the blood stream hunting and eliminating harmful, often called “cancer causing,” free-radicals, acting as an anti-oxidant, akin to Vitamin C or Vitamin E. This study also helps us understand why lavender has for so long been considered calming. Indeed, in another study, this one at a University in the Netherlands, scientists found, through a series of cognitive tests, a positive correlation between lavender aroma and interpersonal trust—most likely the result of its calming and positive effect on the mood.
In order to know whether an essential oil possesses the compounds known to be therapeutic, it is important to have a laboratory identify the presence and extent of such compounds. Although there is no formal regulatory standard in the USA for “therapeutic grade” essential oils, the results of analyses on the lavender essential oil we produce scores high for those compounds.
There are countless aromatic plants that we can extract and use their potent and effective essences through distillation, not only for simple pleasure, but for our health as well. It is a process that has been around for centuries and is on the surface is rather basic, but as a distiller myself, I find that the art of producing delightful and high quality essential oil takes finesse and a constant attention to detail.
John Rinaldi Jr., along with his wife Bonnie, operate Lavender Fields Forever—a seasonal u-pick lavender farm, farm store, and distillery. They are open Friday-Sunday throughout the summer. They are part of the Southern Oregon Lavender Trail, consisting of three lavender farms and a lavender nursery located in the Applegate Valley.
For more information on the Southern Oregon Lavender Trail, please visit southernoregonlavendertrail.com.