Organic Essential Oils

Within this article, I loosely refer to all the volatile organic aromatic oils including essential oils and CO2s collectively as " organic essential oils."

Generally speaking, certified organic essential oils are usually superior to conventional essential oils. (Conventional means non-organic.)

There are two families of thought on this topic. Certified organic essential oils are steam distilled or cold pressed from plants that are grown without pesticides. Since it takes a great deal of plant material to create even a small amount of essential oil, it certainly makes sense that essential oils distilled or cold pressed from conventional botanicals may have pesticides in them.

Some say that pesticides do not appear in steam distilled essential oils but that pesticides are present in cold pressed conventional citrus peel oils. Frankly, I am not a chemist, and I haven't come upon scientific research that gives me enough information to make a solid conclusion one way or the other.

What I have personally noticed, however, is that the overall quality, therapeutic benefit and aroma of organic essential oils seem superior to oils that I have sourced from companies that only sell conventional oils.

What may be occurring is this: Vendors that sell certified organic essential oils may be sourcing their oils more carefully for not only oils that are grown in compliance with organic farming principles but may also be more carefully sourcing their oils for therapeutic quality and aroma.

So the choice is yours. Do expect to pay more for certified organic essential oils since it does cost a lot more to grow crops via organic means and to obtain/maintain organic certification.