Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils – Fact or Fiction?
We get quite a few questions about essential oil quality, with most of them falling into one of the following categories:
- Are your oils therapeutic grade?
- Isn't the term "therapeutic grade" or "aromatherapy grade" just marketing hype?
- I've heard that only "XYZ" Company has certified therapeutic essential oils. Is that true?
We thought it might be helpful to reprint here an answer that Dr. Power gave in the FAQ section of our website. Dr. Power, who founded Dreaming Earth Botanicals, has been working with and teaching essential oil usage for over thirty years. Here is what she had to say:
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"Aromatherapy Grade" or "Therapeutic Grade" may be considered by some to be marketing hype but, in fact, it is not. We use the terms "therapeutic grade" or "aromatherapy grade" (same thing) to differentiate our essential oils from other essential oil "stuff". We use the terms to mean that we consider our essential oils to be of excellent quality and suitable for therapeutic applications. There is no official grading system other than perhaps the use of the term food grade or pharmaceutical grade, which often denote oils inferior to those sought by aromatherapists. You could say that all essential oils are alike. You could also say that all wines are alike. I think there is often quite a lot of difference between one wine and another and one essential oil and another.
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Some oils for sale on the market are adulterated and some have had certain components removed or come from the second or third distillation of the plant material. We consider such oils to be inferior and definitely not therapeutic grade. All our oils are pure, unadulterated, complete and from first run distillations (unless otherwise plainly stated).
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We hope that is helpful information to you.
As to the question of whether one company and one company only carries therapeutic essential oils, the answer is easy: No.