Quality and Growing Methods
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The term "Essential Oil" was originally used to describe a liquid extract of pure aromatic plant material. Now unfortunately, it has become a buzz word and is being used to describe not only pure oils, but also adulterated oils, as well as synthetic aromatics which are created in a laboratory. This is a direct result of lack of education and information about essential oils. Maintaining the original definition, essential oils are of varying qualities, depending on growing and extraction methods.
There are three basic categories of essential oil extraction: large scale commercial, midsize commercial, and small scale wild and organic. Large scale commercial distillers in many cases do not produce pure essential oils. They cultivate plants with the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers and many times utilize inferior plant material or totally different plant materials as fillers and at times will use chemicals to extend the oil.
There are a good number of midsize commercial producers. Of these, there are some who do the job right. Unfortunately, many still use chemicals for fertilization and pest control. Most recently, a few have begun to switch to organic production in Europe.
Small scale distillers are few. They are certified and controlled by the government to ensure that there are no traces of chemicals in the soil, that they and that the oil meets with set guidelines. The same is true for agrobiologically or ethically wildcrafted (Agro/Wild) oils, but in this case the plants are not cultivated, instead they are wildcrafted in forests. The government gives permission to a limited number of producers who must follow very strict guidelines, requiring that the trees are not cut down, that only the branches/leaves/needles/berries are cut, or if the tree must be cut, that there is consistent replanting, thus replenishing the forest. With both methods a lot of manual work is done by the farmers, and more care is taken in extracting the oil.
It is ultimately very important to support sustainable agriculture. Though prices may be higher, in the long run organic cultivation and ethical wildcrafting must be the way of the future. It may take several years for all midsize producers to switch over to organic, but little by little, the trend in Europe will prove that the benefits far outweigh the added cost.