Saturday, November 25, 2006

Essential Oils & Dried Herbs


When herbs are grown for the purpose of creating supplements, they are not usually grown organically.  Then they are harvested and taken into warehouses where they are dried with big blowers. Then they're chopped, capped, bottled, and packaged, and weeks, months, or even years later, we buy them and take them.  And they STILL help us, but it usually takes awhile.

Have you ever dried a rose?  What did it smell like after you dried it?  Not much?  That's because the essential oil of rose is very delicate and vaporizes easily into the air.  Once it's dried, very little of the essential oil is still left. It's the same with herbs. Once an herb is dried, it only contains 3 - 5% of its essential oil, and it's the  ESSENTIAL OIL that gets us well! And in the process of drying the herb, many molecules found in the essential oil of the plant are lost altogether because they are volitile oils and evaporate. So yes, dried herbs are very helpful, because that's what we've used for centuries in healing.  But the truth is that essential oils are a QUANTUM LEAP from dried herbs, in my humble opinion. They're plant concentrates, and they're clean (of course the plants have to be grown organically), pure, and non-toxic (very few on the market are pure, organic & unadulterated).

A drop of peppermint oil is equivalent to about 28 cups of peppermint tea! A person simply could not drink that much tea to get the same results!

I have grown my own herbs for as long as I can remember, I've also purchased herbs for reputable organic sources, and I still use herbs today, I love them. However, depending upon the situation I would chose an essential oil over an herb. For example, as lovely as my herbs are I am going to chose my Young Living Frankincense or Sandlewood essential oils to lessen my wrinkles. Or if I'm coming down with a cold or flu, I'm reaching for my NingXia Red, Longevity capsules, and Thieves essential oil because they are far more potent choices.

If you were to walk into my kitchen right now, you would see I have over 100 different amber glass jars (all beautifully labeled with common and botanical names) filled with dried herbs. If you look in my essential oil case, you'll see I have over 100 different Young Living essential oils. Clearly I am BIG on healing plants, in dried and ditilled forms, for nearly everything in my life. I LOVE beneficial and healing plants.

Another interesting fact - It takes 5,000 pounds of rose petals to distill one pound of rose oil, making it one of the most expensive and precious essentail oils we have. If those rose petals were laden with chemicals and pesticides, the oil would actually be toxic, which will explain why, when you're at the mall, and you pass some stores claiming to have therapeutic aromatherapy, you get an instant headache. Your body knows.

So it's an honor for me to be a part of pioneering this exquisite modality with essential oils, and teaching people in such a way as to positively affect the health of future generations!

If you have questions please contact me through my website The Very Essence If you'd like to place an order online through my website click on "Create an Account."

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