WHAT ARE ESSENTIAL OILS ?

I LOVE essential oils, eversince i was a little girl , i have always been fascinated by essential oils. Especially since my dear dad, loves to put "attar" on himself... "tons of it". hehehee But , what are they really ? My standard reference for essential oil is the "Book of Sufi Healing" by Shaykh Hakim Moinuddin Chishti,an American , who converted into Islam in Afghanistan in the 70's and became a Tabib - a natural healer based on the traditional healing system of Ibn Sinna ( Avicenna). A copy of the book should still be available at Amazon.com. "The science of aromatherapy is based upon the preeminence of the sense of smell. Each flower of nature has its own ruh, or essence. A pure, natural floral oil may be used for its antiseptic effect on a wound. The Sufis have classified flowers according to their effect upon the soul in its evolution toward God." an excerpt from the book. Thus, essential oil is the essence of the flower/plant and that is why it will stimulate the senses deep within us, reaching our souls when we smell it... and that is why essential oils have been used for healing for hundreds of years. In the 10th century, Arabic physician Avicenna left us valuable written documents describing 800 plants and their effects on the human body. He is also credited with the development of the distillation process for essential oils. n the 12th century, the "Fragrances of Arabia" - in other words, essential oils - became famous in Europe. In the 16th century, there were comprehensive plant catalogs and anyone who could read had access to recipes for oils, perfumed waters and other methods of treating plants. The fragrances are stored in different parts of the plant. The most precious and captivating are the petal oils such as rose, jasmine and Ylang Ylang. You also find them in the leaves as is the case with sage or thyme, in the roots as with vetiver, in the seeds as with angelica, in the wood such as sandalwood, in the bark as with cinnamon, in the resin as with myrrh, or in the outer skin of the fruit as with lemon and orange. The Malays have been using essential oils as part of natural healing too, but most of this knowledge is passed on to the next generation through word of mouth. The Malays are synonym with "mandi bunga", meaning floral bath. Normally , 7 types of fragrant flowers and limes are used and in some instances, 40 different types of flowers were used. "Mandi bunga" has been used to eliminate negative energy and to enhance and strengthened the positive energy.

The most common way of extracting them is through distillation with steam. This process doesn't only deliver the best, purest products, it also achieves its goal in relatively easy and inexpensive fashion. In some cases, distillation does not achieve its desired success. This happens when the high temperature of the steam destroys sensitive odorants or the amount of the oil contained in the distilled materials is relatively small. Petals are often not suitable for steam distillation. In order to produce the odorants, other processes are used that involve the use of volatile solvents (such as hexane or, more recently, carbon dioxide) or fat to extract the essential oils, or they can be absorbed into fat. The precise method depends on which plant is involved. Extraction with solvents is generally employed for mimosa or vanilla, while jasmine and tuberose are produced by means of enfleurage.