You must have heard the term “Essential Oils” being thrown about by companies that try to convince potential customers of their products’ authenticity and usefulness. But have you ever wondered what that term actually means, and what this seemingly all-encompassing panacea actually does for you? If you haven’t, then don’t be ashamed. You belong in the same category of people where the vast majority of non-eggheads find themselves. Before embarking on the journey to write this book, I too found myself in that exact same group. But now, after delving into scientific journals, articles, papers, and generally complex books, I am in a position to not only reveal to you the wonderful mysteries of essential oils but also recommend to you 15 of these wondrous substances that can significantly contribute to your holistic wellbeing. I mean not just your physical health and immune system, but also your mental health and outward looks.

But before we delve into the miasmic world of essential oils and their literal cornucopia of potential benefits for you, let’s spend some time understanding the how, the why, and the what of the whole matter. I believe that gaining a basic understanding of the botanical and biochemical trickery that essential oils get up to while reacting with our bodies will put you in a better position to understand how each botanical essential oil discussed later in the book can potentially make your life better by holistically affecting it.

Now, while I have used the terms essential and botanical oils interchangeably in this chapter, from a technical perspective there is a slight difference between the two. While both are extracted from botanical sources (hence the functional interchangeability in this chapter), they differ from each other based on the process of their extraction, their applicability to your body, and their refinement processes. To put it simply, the distillation of essential oils happens through steam, and it is extracted from the parts of the plants with the highest concentration of the desired biochemicals—like leaves, stems, barks, flowers, and roots.

Botanical oils, on the other hand, are extracted through cold-pressing, or through the direct application of heat. They are generally extracted from the “fatty” parts of the plant like seeds, fruits, nuts, and vegetables. The choice of plant parts in the extraction process also ends up affecting the applicability of essential and botanical oils. Containing a higher concentration of fatty ingredients, botanical oils can be applied directly to your skin, as the “fat” contained in such oils counterbalances the active biochemicals that can otherwise cause irritation or rashes. Similarly, due to a much higher concentration of active biochemicals in essential oils, it is best to not apply them directly to your skin and is optimally used combined with a “carrier oil” (Elliott, 2020).