We are pleased to offer Young Living Therapeutic Grade
Essential Oils and Supplements and Raindrop Technique here at
The
Inn on Thistle Hill Bed and Breakfast!
Come and spend a couple of days in a wonderful, relaxing getaway
and indulge yourself with Raindrop Technique, Aqua-Chi and Energy
Balancing
Raindrop Technique Home Page |
Some Oils and Their Uses (coming soon)
| Order Your
Own Oils Here |
Wellness Center Home
 What
Makes Essential Oils Therapeutic Grade
The three most important areas that make an
Essential Oil therapeutic grade
are:
- Organic Farming
- Methods
of Steam Distillation
- Quality
Control
Organic Farming...
Young Living cultivates
over 2,000 acres of farm land in Idaho and Utah and makes herculean
efforts
to control every phase of organic herb production.
Species Selection - Only the species of herbs for
cultivation that will produce the most active and widest array of
constituents
are selected. The lavender grown is an authentic Lavendula
officinalis,
which yields an oil low in camphor and rich in lavendulol acetate
(believed
to play an improtant part of its therapeutic action).
Site Selection - Herbs are grown on land
uncontaminated by chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides or
herbicides. The
land is irrigated with pur mountain water and an advanced mix of
enzymes,
trace minerals, and organic biosolids are used to build and maintain
the
soil. Plants lacking certain minerals and nutrients yield oils
low
in therapeutic value.
Harvesting - Because distillation is part of the
farm where the herbs are grown, they are distilled fresh.
Monitoring of
the percentage of the plants in bloom, the time of day for cutting, and
many
other factors critical to top-grade, therapeutic oil production is done
consistently. German chamomile, for example, must be harvested in
the late afternoon to maximize levels of azulene and bisobolol in the
oil.
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Advanced Steam Distillation...
Young Living takes
extraordinary
measures to preserve all of the fragile chemical constituents in
the
essential oils.
- Plants are steam
distilled
in small batches for extended periods usig a special low-pressure,
low-heat
vertical steam technology developed by D. Gary Young.
- No solvents or synthetic chemicals of any kind are
used or added.
- The cookers are constructed from costly food-grade
stainless steel alloys to minimize the possibility of the essential oil
being
chemically altered by more reactive metals, such as aluminum, steel, or
copper.
The
results are Grade A masterpieces with unsurpassed therapeutic
properties.
Essential oils are rich tapestries of numerous chemical components,
some of which - even in small quantities - contribute important
therapeutic benefits.
Cypress, for example, requires 24 hours of distillation at 245°F
and 5 pounds of pressure to extract all of its active ingredients.
If
distillation is shortened by only two hours, 18 to 20 of its chemical
constituents
will be missing. To cut costs, some processors increase pressure
and
heat and cut distillation times dramatically. Even though the oil
is considered pure, it may only contain a fraction of its possible
complex
chemistry - and therapeutic value.
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Uncompromising
Quality Control...
Every batch of essential
oils received at Young Living's laboratories - whether grown at the
Young
Living farms or in a foreign country - is quarantined, inspected, and
tested
for purity and quality with both organoleptic and chemical analysis.
Samples
are sent to independent laboratories for analysis by state-of-the-art,
high-resolution
gas chromatography, mass spectroscopy, and infrared spectra analysis.
These tests unmask the chemical anatomy of each oil, helping to expose
oils that may be impure, adulterated, or even improperly distilled.
Some oils are subjected to further levels of testing at labs in
England, France and at Weber State Universitiy. Altogether, oils
can go through five separate levels of quality analysis before they are
released for our use.
Relying on certificates of analysis by independent labs is important in
determining whether the oils you buy are therapeutic grade, since the
results of in-house, supplier-based labs can easily be distorted for
self-serving ends. Simply showing higher peaks as evidence that
an oils is superior does not mean the oil is either pur or superior.
Higher peaks could, in fact, indicate that an oil is spiked with
synthetics or inexpensive essential oil fractions. A rich and
aried chemical profile is a far more important measure of quality and
purity.
Factoid:
According to the Lavender Growers Association, 100 times
more "lavender oil" was exported from France than is actually grown in
France.
Where is the extra oil coming from?
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