Concentrated hydrophobic liquid consisting volatile aroma compounds from plants are known as essential oil. Some of the synonyms for essential oils are volatile oils, ethereal oils or aetherolea. Distillation process is used to extract out essential oils. Distillation, cold processing are the non-toxic method to derive essential oils. Expression, solvent extraction etc are additional processes. A good therapeutic grade essential oil is produced using non-toxic procedures that preserve the life giving vital essence of the plant. Essential oils are used in cosmetics, perfumes, soaps, to flavor food and drink, in preparing of incense and household cleaning products. Essential oils are also used in medical application to prepare and sell medicinal oils for various treatment for skin, cancer etc. Essential oils are also used in popular therapy called aromatherapy. Aroma Therapy is the alternate branch of medicine. Essential oils have many features and effects to cure various diseases. These essential oils are volatilized or diluted in a carrier oil and used in massage, diffused in the air by a nebulizer, heated over a candle flame or burned as incense. Thus essential oils are complex mixtures of natural compounds existing in plants of fragrant flowers, leaves, wood, bark, roots or seeds.
Essential oils are used in Aromatherapy to get benefits to the body, mind and spirit. Essential oils have been used therapeutically for hundreds of years. one can enjoy the benefits of essential oils at home with just reading the reference text book available in the market. Fragrance oils and perfume oils are chemical mixtures that mimic natural plant aromas. They may smell just like the real natural smell but are not proper for aromatherapy. Fragrance oils are also referred as essential fragrance oils or natural identical oils in the market so one need to be careful which purchasing any essential oils that if it is lableled as essential fragrance oils. Few drops of essential oil in warm water is good for bath. Essential oils is also used in body massage with vegetable oil like sweet almond or grape seed oil. Addition of essential oil in steam water can spread good fragrance. Thus there are so many applications where one can use essential oils along with aromatherapy.