Thursday, December 26, 2013

Essential Oil Safety

Understanding how to safely work with essential oils and other natural plant extracts is important.  It is also an area most people seem to want to ignore.

Most essential oils are safe to use when diluted properly and used for short periods of time.  However, there are some health conditions that contradict the use of essential oils and some oils that can only be safely used at very low concentrations.

Over the past 15 years there has been many books published about aromatherapy that provide incorrect information about the uses of essential oils.  These books list many health conditions that essential oils may be used for, however, this information was taken from herbal data and usages.  

This herbal data is based on using the dried of fresh plant material in various formats such as tea, compresses, tinctures, capsules, etc.  Essential oils on the other hand are produced by steam distillation.   They are a very concentrated extract that can contain different chemical components that those found in the dried or fresh herb or plant material.  Thus, quoting and referring to herbal data and usage can by very dangerous.

Robert Tisserand has just published a new updated book on Essential Oil Safety and I highly recommend anyone who works with essential oils on a regular basis to purchase a copy.  It is a reference book you will not want to be without.  Click on the link below to purchase.

Essential Oil Safety Second Edition by Robert Tisserand | Rodney Young


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