How to Choose an Essential Oil
When choosing an oil for your CBD recipe, it is important to choose an essential oil rather than a fragrance oil to obtain the medicinal effect. The chemical or botanical properties are what make the oil effective, so we have listed a few things to look out for when acquiring your ingredients.
Ways to distinguish that you are buying the correct oils are:
1. Labels contain the common plant name and its Latin botanical name. Different plants have different chemical makeups. If you are looking for a specific one, the latin name is key to making the correct distinction.
2. The method of extraction. The only true essential oils are those obtained from distillation and expression. Expression will be used with citrus oils being extracted from a fruit peel. Steam distillation is going to be the most commonly used method for most other essential oils.
3. What parts of the plant are used. Leaves? Stems? Peel? Flowers? Quality and chemistry can differ between parts of the same plant.
4. The country of origin. There are natural variations in the chemical composition of essential oils that will occur depending on where the plant was harvested, at what altitude, in what soil and at what time of year.