What is an Essential Oil?

I'm a third-grade teacher and I love when we study life-science topics such as photosynthesis. It's such an amazing process. Plants contain chlorophyll, a chemical, that absorbs sunlight. Plants use this sunlight, along with water and carbon dioxide in the air to create their own food. What if besides chlorophyll, plants contained other chemicals? And what if these chemicals had healing properties for our physical bodies?

Essential oils can be found in everyday products you use, like perfumes and shampoos. They flavor candy and toothpaste. They’re hidden in the zest of lemons, the needles of pine trees, and the petals of roses. Essential oils are the essence of a plant, distilled into a usable oil.

Scientifically, essential oils are mixtures of natural chemicals that give plants their scents. Those chemical molecules are called volatile aromatic compounds. Volatile compounds are small organic molecules with distinct smells that easily change from their solid or liquid state to a gas at room temperature. 

Another quality of volatile aromatic compounds is that they’re lipid-soluble—or lipophilic. This means they dissolve in fats as opposed to water. Oil is a lipid, for example, and you know oil and water don’t mix no matter how hard you try, but oil will easily dissolve in other oils.

Each essential oil is made up of various chemical constituents that give it a unique aroma and beneficial properties. The chemical makeup of an essential oil is why it can affect your body so powerfully.