One of the things I love about Young Living is that I can trust the oils are truely pure and therapeutic-grade. Did you know that many oils that are labeled “certified pure therapeutic-grade” do not meet Young Living’s quality standards? I have listened to Gary Young as he explained different ways oils can be altered to appear to be therapeutic-grade. It takes someone with years of training and experience to discern whether an oil has the chemical compounds and purity that determine whether an oil is truely therapeutic-grade. Gary Young has 27 years of experience distilling essential oils and has studied the art with several masters.
I trust the quality because I have personally visited Young Living’s farms in Utah and Idaho and have seen the care that is put into the organic farming process. The plants are carefully cultivated and harvested at the optimum time for peak quality. The distillation process is carefully monitored to get the best oil out of each specific type of plant. Even the way the oils are bottled preserves the therapeutic value.
The following excerpt from An Introduction to Young Living Essential Oils highlights one aspect of the integrity used in the distillation process:
Young Living takes extraordinary pains to preserve all of the fragile chemical constituents in our essential oils. Plants are steam distilled in small batches for extended periods using a special low-pressure, low-heat vertical steam technology developed by D. Gary Young. No solvents or synthetic chemicals of any kind are used or added. Moreover, the cookers are constructed from costly stainless steel alloys to minimize the possibility of the essential oil being chemically altered by more reactive metals, such as steel or copper. The results are masterpieces with subtle fragrances, distinctive textures, and unique therapeutic properties.
Essential oils are rich tapestries of numerous chemical components, some of which – even in small quantities – contribute important therapeutic benefits. Cypress, for example, requires 24 hours of distillation at 245*F and 5 pounds of pressure to extract all of its active ingredients. If distillation is shortened by only two hours, 18 to 20 of its chemical constituents will be missing. To cut costs, some processors increase pressure and heat and cut distillation times dramatically. Even though the oil is considered pure, it may only contain a fraction of its possible complex chemistry – and therapeutic value.
