What Are Essential Oils?

Essential oils are quickly becoming mainstream.  But why?

Why are essential oils being seen everywhere from “The Doctors” tv show, to the shelves of stores like Whole Foods, Sprouts, and even Target and Wal-Mart?

Essential oils are the concentrated extracts of plants. Essential oils have been around for thousands of years, and are even mentioned in The Bible!

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Essential oils are contained in sacs on the leaves, bark, flowers, seeds and roots of plants. They protect the plant from predators, assist the plant in reproduction {by smelling great and attracting pollinators}.  They also help the plant repair itself when it is injured {think leaves eaten by insects, broken branches}.  Essential oils are released when the sacs they are contained in are broken open.  They are highly concentrated compared with dried herbs- 50-70x more potent! As an example, 1 drop of peppermint essential oil is equal to 28 cups of peppermint tea. What?!?!

Now you can start to see why they are so powerful, and have been sought after for centuries. Essential oils penetrate the cell wall and acts on a cellular level.