With the increased awareness of our planet's environmental problems, we also gain insight to the parallel of our own problems with balancing our body, mind and spirit. Dr. Daniel Penoel, author of "Natural Home Health Care Using Essential OIls" states: "We can make the earth a vast garden of health, of phyto- medicines that will expand our persoanl health and the health of the whole biosphere. This pardigm shift begins with individual and family awareness. Hence the importance of learning natural home health care with essential oils.

Why would a physician devote his entire practice to Aromatherapy? In the U. S. with think of Aromatherapy more as recreational frangrancing. Let's consider what some other sources have to say.

“In the human body, essential oils stimulate the secretion of antibodies, neurotransmitters, endorphins, hormones, and enzymes. Oils containing limonene have been shown to prevent and slow the progression of cancer...Importantly, because of their complexity, essential oils do not disturb the body’s natural balance or homeostasis: if one constituent exerts too strong an effect, another constituent may block or counteract it.” (Essential Oils Desk Reference, 4th edition, p. 8)

In his book, The Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Simple, Dr. David Stewart, says, “In summary, we can state the following: There are no allergies to essential oils. Allergy-like reactions to pure, therapeutic grade essential oils are actually detox reactions, which, if handled with care and common sense, are usually a good thing and may represent a healing process that leads to recovery from many ills and a ticket to longer, healthier living.” NOTE: Dr. David Stewart is referring to the Young Living™, the only North American company he believes meets the standard.

The Essential Oils Desk Reference (4th ed. p. 15) describes “the complex chemistry of essential oils makes them ideal for killing and preventing the spread of bacteria, since microorganisms have a difficult time mutating in the presence of so many different antiseptic compounds.” Essential oils “have a unique ability to penetrate the cell membranes and diffuse throughout the blood and tissues. The unique, lipid-soluble structure of essential oils is very similar to the makeup of our cell membranes. The molecules of essential oils are also relatively small, which enhances their ability to penetrate cells.” (EODR, p. 8)

One of the most popular proprietary blends is the Thieves Oil Blend™
This blend was created based on research about four thieves in France who protected themselves with cloves, rosemary, and other aromatics while robbing plague victims. This proprietary blend was tested at Weber State University, Ogden, UT, and found to have a 99.96% effective rate against airborne bacteria. Other uses for Thieves™ essential oil blend & personal care products:

Toxic Mold
MRSA
Sinus Infections
Periodontal Disease, and more.

With many websites claiming to sell Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils and many suppliers saying they have the best, here is some information that helps people become informed consumers.

The information below comes from a few sources:
The 4th Edition of the Essential Oil Desk Reference published by Essential Science Publishing, my personal experience at visiting Young Living farms and distillery with my husband. Dick Weber is an electrical engineer, patent designer, physicist, and chemist who talked directly with the people who distill, farm and process Young Living essential oils along with having discussions with the head of laboratories of several companies. Our conclusion is that although they all can make claims, only Young Living truly meets the standards set. Here is the collected information.

Ninety percent of essential oils sold in North America are Grade B or lower. These oils may contain dilutants, chemical solvents, chemical and/or pesticide residues or degraded plant molecules. Such oils may cause problems for users.

For an oil to be therapeutic grade:

• Plants should be organically grown on virgin soil uncontaminated by chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides.
• Since mineral content of the soil is crucial to proper plant development, the soil should be nourished organically with enzymes, minerals, and organic mulch.
• Only pure deep-welled, reservoir, watershed, or mountain stream water should be used because of its purity and high mineral content. Municipally treated water or secondary run-off water can introduce undesirable chemical residues into the plant and the essential oil.
• Plants must be carefully harvested at the optimum time—if plants are harvested at the wrong time, they will provide a substandard essential oil.
• Different varieties of plant produce different chemical constituencies and qualities in the oil. Only those plants that produce the highest quality essential oils should be selected.
• To prevent herbs from drying out prior to being distilled or becoming contaminated in transit, distillers should be located as close to the field as possible.
• Therapeutic grade essential oils should be distilled at low pressures and temperatures, using chemical-free water and food grade stainless steel distillers with cone shaped lids. These distillers should NEVER be cleaned w/ synthetic chemical agents otherwise the essential oils will contain dangerous chemical residues. Furthermore, if any errors are made in the distilling process, the essential oil should be discarded.
• Therapeutic grade essential oils should pass independent testing before they are sold to ensure they are free of all contamination and meet the standards for therapeutic grade oils set by the French organization, AFNOR, in each case where those standards exist. Other oils may claim to be “therapeutic grade”, but if the label does not say “AFNOR,” “ISO-AFNOR,” or “EC-AFNOR” there is no guarantee that they meet this standard. Therapeutic grade has criteria for each essential oil that includes the exact percentile of therapeutic molecules. If these molecules are more or less than the standards, their action is not considered therapeutic. Currently, the largest producer of such oils in the world is an American company, Young Living.
• Properly analyzing an essential oil is a complex undertaking. Gas chromatography is the equipment of choice. The injection mixture, column diameter and length, and oven temperature must fall within certain parameters. The proper column length should at least between 50-60 meters. Almost all labs in the US use a 30-meter column that is far too short to achieve proper separation of all the constituents or to properly analyze the mosaic of natural chemicals found in an essential oil.
• There are two laboratories that are known to do proper testing through GC (gas chromatography) - the Central Service Laboratory and the Albert Vieille Laboratory, which are both AFNOR certified laboratories.
• Most American companies do not know the proper meter readings for the columns and make the claim that they are therapeutic by simply going by their own readings. However, if the same specimen were to be sent to a French lab, almost all companies’ essential oils would fail to pass as therapeutic. One exception to this is the American company, Young Living, who is acknowledged to meet these standards, its laboratory having been visited and inspected by the esteemed Dr. Herve Casabianca, PhD, part of the team of French-certified botanical chemists, to ensure its standards.