Did You Know……

Throughout all of written history humans have been using various plants for medicinal purposes. Contemporary medicine builds off of ancient plant wisdom to create many pharmaceutical drugs. While chemical medicine creates likenesses of the beneficial compounds in plants; unadulterated essential oils provide safe and effective ways to increase the uptake of the actual beneficial compounds in the human body.

While essential oils have risen to popularity in the modern era, phytotherapy is as old as humanity itself. The study of natural compounds and extracts used as medicine is found in every culture in history, and evidence of phytotherapy in practice dates back to as early as 3,500 B.C. Much of the extraction of medically beneficial compounds from plants and their parts was done using simple methods such as hydro diffusion, vaporization, decoction and basic solvents.

As chemical medications took hold in the 20th century, plant medicines were nearly eliminated from use in western practices. This was due to the fact that the potency of chemical medicines made from plants varied greatly based on the drying and extraction method used on the plants themselves. This sort of variation was unacceptable in such an exacting practice.

Essential oils capture the biological medicines of plants in a way that is very appealing to western society. Modern essential oils are extracted though a variety of methods; whichever is best suited to isolating the greatest amount of pharmacological compounds within the plant. The oils created are readily absorbed into the bloodstream via inhalation or diffusion through the skin. Most of the beneficial particles in essential oils can even cross the blood/brain barrier to positively affect the brain.