Minerals, Essential Oils and Plants.
Today's topic is centered around the makeup of essential oils. I want to present this in a way that the average person can get their head around. So here goes.
As some of you may know, I have been doing a series related to minerals and essential oils. I know many people do not know that EO's have minerals in them. Many people lampoon the very idea. So what gives. Here goes, All EO's contains minerals. How is that? What people have trouble getting their heads around is that the minerals are the very base of all life forms. Carbon is at the center of all of them.
Many people will DEMAND the GC/MS of the oils and use that as proof of quality. That is OK, but if they leave it at that point, I just roll my eyes and marginalize them. Why? Because that is only a partial aspect of the whole. It indicates that they don't understand what they are asking for. As I have said time and time again, the GC/MS is only a snapshot of that particular sample, of where the numbers came in based on what individual components were assessed for that given sample. The numbers that people will look at is the leading numbers. What the facts are is this, it is the minor/micro numbers that make all the difference. You must get your head around that concept. The minor numbers are the components that will make up the difference between oils. Next is the ratios of all of the numbers. Then lastly the major/macro numbers. I will explain.
The chemical makes up, or at this point, we correctly should say that the mineral formulas that make up the components of the EO are all just mineral formulations. For example; Oregano Essential OIl. The main component in that oil is usually Carvacrol. The formula for that one is as follows. C10 H14 O., In my opinion, a good Oregano will contain a reasonable amount of Thymol. Do you know what the mineral/chemical formula for that one is? C10 H14 O. What? No, it isn't a typo, The very same formulation. The difference is that a component in the Thymol is P-Cymene, well actually what makes the difference between the Carvacrol and Thymol is the Thymol is derived from P-Cymene, another component found elsewhere in other oils. So to understand Thymol in both Thyme and Oregano one must look to the levels of or the presence of P-Mycerne. That one element will make all the difference in the world. Marjoram is also an oil that hangs around in this neighborhood. But we will cover that some other time.
Another one that is interesting is this one, Orange oil. Generally, most common Orange oils will contain, mostly almost all of the makeup of the oil, is Limonene. The formula for that one is C10 H16. But it also contains B-Myrcene in a very small amount. Which carries the formula of C10 H16. Wait a minute, they are the same. Well in a way they are, but it is how they are bonded within the formation of the formula. There are some elements in the Orange oil that makes these base formulas different, which never shows up on the GC/MS.
Next, we have Camphor and Terpenes. The Camphor formula is C10 H16 O. Terpenes is C10 H16. One molecule of Oxygen is all the difference there is, but there is a huge difference in the outcome. Then we have Onion and Garlic essential oils. One would think they would be almost the same. Wrong! Vastly different. One component in Garlic is C6 H10 S3, another one is C4H8 S. In Onion we see one major component being C6H14 O. and another one C2H6. What is interesting is this, the Carbon is usually very low, Hydrogen is moderate and in Garlic we see Sulfur showing and in Onion we see Oxygen show up. Whereas in many or most of the other oils we see Carbon being much higher, and Hydrogen being a lot higher when compared to Garlic and Onion. So what is the big difference between Garlic and Onions? The amount of the Sulfur and the number of the Oxygen ratios. But when you look at the macro/major components listed on a GC/MS, you would have no idea that they are even on the same planet.
Another factor that I have introduced, all be it briefly, is the Carbon pathway that the plants follow. There are 3 known at the present time, One is Cam, which is an abbreviation for a long, as in a long word, and then C3 and C4. This makes a huge difference in how the components are arranged in a plant, which makes a vast difference in how and what components are expressed and in what ratios. As a side note, in order for a human to utilize a mineral it must first pass through a plant and pickup an attachment to carbon molecule n order to be utilized by the human. If it isn't attached to a Carbon via a plant source then it has to be ingested and the microbes in the gut then have to work on it to convert it to a useable form for the human/animal. This process is extremely inefficient and wasteful. Since all of these Essential Oils have already come through a plant, attached to a Carbon, they can be utilized directly without having to be run through the conversion process.
This is perhaps one of the main reasons why we don't need to "drink" essential oils, they are already processed. They have already been processed by the plant. Running them through the gut just is not needful, wasteful and can in some cases change the oil(s) being "reprocessed". The sometimes used essential oil by ingestion can be useful for specific issues, but for the most part, most issues are best addressed through other routes of administration than ingestion and be more efficiently used by the human/animal.
So when a person tells you that an Essential Oil does not contain minerals, about all you can do is give them the deer in the headlights look. While you are thinking to yourself, "if not then pray tell, what are they made up of"? Now if they contain enough minerals for your recommended daily allowance is another story. Likely not. But because of their nature with Carbon, they attach to the other sources and forms of minerals and then they do a fancy little waltz into the cells to be utilized.
I have tried to keep this short, yet simple, so please overlook the folksy nature of an explanation of an extremely complicated discussion. Thank you for your time. Until next time, enjoy your essential oil journey.
