Aromatic Oils

Aromatic oils are used in Aromatherapy and there are of two kinds. 1) Pure essential oils that are obtained from plants in a varIET®y of ways, and 2) Infused oils. Some essences can be obtained more easily than others. For example certain resins can be tapped directly from the trunk or branch, or the oil can be pressed out of plants. However for most plants the process of extracting the oil is more somewhat complex. Distillation is the steaming of the plant and collecting the concentrated oil from the condensation. Enfleurage is the absorption of the plant oil by a fatty substance from which it is then separated. Infusion, the common practice for thousands of years before distillation was discovered, involved submerging the plant material into vegetable oil and then heating the mixture. Infused oils are not as concentrated than essential oils, which means that they are very greasy and do not evaporate. Essential oils are non-oily and evaporate quite easily.

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