Glossary of Terms

Adulteration – The dishonest practice of intentionally increasing the quantity of an essential oil by adding synthetic chemicals, cheaper substitute oils, or fractions of other distilled products. Adulteration causes dilution of the original pure oil with a corresponding decrease in its quality or, worse, the addition of potentially toxic components. Inferior therapeutic benefit and/or fragrance results. The oil is rejected for production use since it does not meet industry standards for quality criteria.

Aromatherapy – A discipline of applied alternative health practices based on the beneficial characteristics of essential oils used under the guidance of a certified aromatherapist.

Biomass – The raw vegetative material harvested for distilling essential oils. May consist of leaves, flowers, stems, twigs, bark, roots, seeds, or peel. After exhausting essential oil via steam distillation, the spent biomass may be used for mulching, composting, sterile medium for growing edible mushrooms, or feeding to livestock.

Chemical Solvents – Hydrocarbons, liquids at room temperature that do not mix with water such as benzene, hexane and petroleum ether used for extracting essential oils from aromatic plant material in the flavor and fragrance industry.

Essential Oil – The combined fragrant and volatile (aromatic) components of a botanical species responsible for its characteristic essence or flavoring capability. Produced by the growing plant and present in glandular cells within the tissue structure of the leaf, flower, stem, bark, root, seed, or peel. When a peppermint leaf is rubbed or torn between one’s fingers and held up to one’s nose, it smells minty due to a small amount of peppermint essential oil being released and evaporated from glands in the leaf. Essential oils are comprised of dozens of individual organic compounds. Menthol is just one example of the many compounds present in peppermint essential oil.

Hydrosol – The aqueous portion of the distillate, separated from the distilled essential oil after the steam and oil vapors are condensed. Also called Floral Water. Contains minute amounts of soluble essential oil and the corresponding beneficial attributes of the oil itself, only more dilute. Highly valued for its
fragrance and healing properties by aromatherapists and also makers of bath products where hydrosol can be substituted for water in a recipe or formula to give the product a premium quality.

Steam Distillation – An ancient process in which pure steam is directed through a container filled with botanical material. Volatile essential oils present in the biomass are vaporized by the steam and carried to a cooling vessel (condenser) where the vapors are sufficiently chilled to return to liquid form as a mixture of oil and water. This process has been the preferred method for producing all-natural flavors and fragrances for centuries. Products of steam distillation include pure aromatic essential oil, pure hydrosol (floral water), sterile spent biomass, and in some cases a residual “tea” mixture of water and non-volatile botanical components (i.e. breakdown products of chlorophyll, cellulose, etc.). All four products have worth and utility for lifestyle enhancement, value-adding, or mulch/composting.

Synthetic Fragrance Chemicals – Organic compounds manufactured from industrial building-block chemicals such as phenol, toluene and benzoic acid, mostly of petroleum-based origin. Large volumes of artificial fragrance compounds are produced annually by a segment of the chemical manufacturing industry for use in the making of countless commercial household products such as fabric softener, bar soap, cleaning fluids and shampoo.

Traceable/Traceability – A term used to define an aspect of the quality of a processed raw material or manufactured product, specifically that certain variables can be verified by a chain of retrievable documentation generated at the time and place during which the material was handled or produced. Some examples of traceable variables include dates, locations, growing conditions, process conditions, lot numbers, measurements, etc. Traceability is a quality system that ultimately establishes a pedigree or record of authenticity for processed goods.

Value-Adding – The method of using small amounts of inexpensive ingredient to produce large numbers of identical items which are considered more valuable due to the presence of the added ingredient. Example: A buyer’s perceived value of an emollient lip balm made of bees wax will be greater if the product is shown to contain lavender essential oil. Such an item can be priced higher than the cost of the fraction of lavender oil actually used (drops, depending on balm batch size). Profits from sales will be greater since the perception is one of premium quality or benefit and the market is often willing to pay extra for this premium.

Wildcrafted – A term used to describe the manner in which a botanical material is collected from its natural setting in the wild. Grown without cultivation, herbicides or fertilizers and harvested in an ecologically sustainable manner by taking efforts to minimize the disruptive impact on local growing conditions and ensuring the continued vitality of the plot for reproduction.