People today are more familiar with the application and use of essential oils than they were several years ago. There is a barrage of information available on the subject which can be somewhat confusing. Education is still paramount when it comes to essential oil therapy and there is no one better to perform that education than Professional Aromatherapists that have studied and trained at the clinical level.
There has been a lot of hype when it comes to so-called essential oil grading. Terminologies such as “therapeutic grade”, “medical grade”, “aromatherapy grade” as well as others have been used to distinguish certain essential oils as being superior over others, or suitable for a specific application. While unscrupulous, these marketing terms have created a lot of confusion throughout the consumer marketplace. Currently, the FDA and the USDA do not grade any essential oils, so the use of these terms serves no purpose as to their overall quality. Unlike the European Union, there are no grading systems for essential oils in the US, and those that claim these terms are doing so on their own accord using their own style of grading system; this is unacceptable since FDA is the final determining factor in regards to any grading criteria of US manufactured products of this nature.
With aromatherapy being an unregulated industry, it is a business’s responsibility to maintain professional integrity and practice ethical standards as obligations to consumers. Some companies have even gone to the extreme of trademarking therapeutic grading terms in order to make their product more marketable to the general public.
Since there aren’t any government agencies overseeing the essential oil industry, consumers may want to do additional research on any company that uses these non-existent grading terms in order to make an educated purchase.
Purity claims for essential oil products can be checked using independent testing laboratories. There are several tests that can be conducted, including Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS), on the essential oil to check for its therapeutic chemical content, adulteration, organic or wild-crafted nature as well as many others. Organic certification is widely recognized and can be certified through USDA, assuring that the essential oil should be free of harmful pesticides and chemicals.