Essential oils are volatile oils that contain volatile aroma compounds from all aspects of a plant or tree. These oils are found in various degrees of concentration in parts of a plant or tree – leaves, flowers, barks, stems, roots, seeds or fruits.
These oils are hydrophobic in physical property – thus are water repellant – does not dissolve in water and prefers to dissolve in solvents of its nature - lipophilic.
Hydrophobic physical properties are seen everyday in nature – dew drops or rain drops on leaves.
Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils or aetherolea oils or just oil – olive oil, clove oil.
The classification of an oil as ‘essential’ is when the oil carries the distinctive essence or scent of the plant or tree. The oils are ‘essential’ particularly when they are unadulterated by any other compound or diluted with a base oil. An essential oil is the pure excretion or distillation of the plant and its parts. Most of us have at some point in our lives come in direct contact with these oils particularly when handling plants, it leaves or flowers. The lingering scent in the air exuded from exposure to heat or on the hand is essential the oils that is left behind to indicate contact with the particular plant. Essential oils are the signature of a plant or tree, the spirit of the flora.
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