Essential Oils--Are They Safe to Ingest?

Disclaimer.  I am not a licensed health practitioner.  This is just another post on an item you might wish to have available if needed so that a physician can treat you and your family as best as possible.  No medication or essential oil, including those available over the counter, should be taken without consulting a physician.  Information shared here is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  It is not medical advice nor a substitute for licensed medical care.  A qualified, licensed physician or other medical provider should be consulted before beginning any herbal or conventional treatment.

Essential oils have been all the rage for several years now.  Any time you get a few preppers together and the talk turns to health and medicine, eventually essential oils are going to come up.  Go to a prepping expo, and there will be at least a few booths devoted to essential oils.  Because essential oils can heal most anything.

Or so they say.

There is a lot more to essential oils than meets the eye.  Especially when the eyes are half-closed.

Once a month, I get together with two very long-time friends and we discuss what we're learning about preparing for the future.  Each of us takes a turn leading the topic for discussion that day, demonstrating, preparing food for taste-testing, etc.  Last month's subject was essential oils.  Cyndi is a doTERRA distributor (primarily to get their discounts) who believes in their product, but doesn't necessarily think others are bad.  It's just what she uses.  She shared how she has used essential oils for her family, a lot of which we were already somewhat familiar with.  And then she moved on to the foods she had prepared.

The green smoothie with spinach (a full quart) and just one drop of doTERRA basil oil was surprisingly delicious, but I'm not really into spinach smoothies.  However, the lemon cake, with just one drop of doTERRA's lemon essential oil, was to die for.  I had to have the recipe and make it for my family that night. I used the exact same recipe.  The only difference was that I used a different brand of lemon essential oil.

It tasted like furniture polish.

So why the difference?  Are there really some essential oils that are safe to ingest, and some that must only be used topically or in aromatherapy?  If it's from a food, like lemons, shouldn't it be safe to eat?  Why would it not be safe to eat?  Yeah, I had a lot of questions.  Fortunately, the Internet always has the answers.  ;)

Food grade essential oils do exist.  Well, kinda.  The problem lies in the fact that there is actually no governing body that determines whether an essential oil is food grade or not.  Nobody can dispute whether an essential oil is food grade or therapeutic grade or aromatherapy grade, or grade A or B or C.  Because there is no governing body!  Got it?  The manufacturers and distributors are free to claim whatever they want in this regard.  One major essential oil company labels their products as "Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade."  But there is a little R in the circle next to it, meaning that phrase has been registered with the government.  That's a phrase that company trademarked.  No other company can use that phrase to label their product.  The Food and Drug Administration uses the acronym GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) to describe foods and drugs that are safe for human consumption, when used as intended.  Oh, and in case you were wondering, there's no exact definition of what therapeutic is, either.  One thing we do know is that because essential oils aren't approved for medical treatment, they can't be marketed to treat, cure, or prevent any disease. 

Young Living, doTERRA, and other manufacturers and distributors may have better oils than lesser known companies.  Or they may not.  Side by side comparisons of purity and chemical composition would be the only accurate way to judge quality.  That's probably not going to happen.

There are loads of essential oils we consume every day in toothpaste, candies, gum, mouthwash, etc.  But most of these are in minuscule amounts, and never on their own.  Believe it or not, not all, not even most essential oils that come from edible plants are safe for human consumption.  There are a few reasons for this:

• An essential oil may come from a plant regarded as food, like peppermint, but if the solvents used to extract the oil are not food grade, then the resulting essential oil is not necessarily safe to ingest. 
• There may be interactions with other supplements or medications a person is taking.  
• An essential oil may be toxic to the liver.  It's the primary reason new drugs fail drug trials.  Eating basil in your pesto is perfectly safe, but when the compounds in basil are highly concentrated into an essential oil, that oil might overload your liver.  Even if that oil is extracted with food grade solvents, it could stress the liver.  
• Some essential oils are not safe to ingest no matter how they are extracted.  NOW Foods, a manufacturer/distributor of essential oils and herbal supplements, lists the following oils as never safe to ingest:

• balsam fir 
• atlas cedarwood
• cedarwood
• cypress
• frankincense
• eucalyptus radiata
• pennyroyal
• pine needle
• wintergreen

If you consult MSDS data sheets (material safety data sheets) for the essential oils at the NOW website for balsam fir, which should never be ingested, you can identify the reason why--if the oil is aspirated, it may be fatal.  Or it might only cause serious lung damage.  Neither sounds like a great idea.

On the other hand, some essential oils are food grade.  However, to be sold as such in the United States, they must be labeled with the "Nutrition Facts"  or "Supplement Facts."  Many companies choose to avoid this by marketing only  for aromatherapy purposes.   (And though I haven't seen this anywhere, I would guess there's also a liability issue.)  The bottom line is that for a lot of these essential oils, very little research has been done, and little is likely to be done in the future.  It's expensive, and again, there is the liability issue. 

However, on their website NOW lists the following oils that could qualify as GRAS:

• basil
• chamomile, roman
• cinnamon bark
• cinnamon, cassia
• clary sage
• geranium
• ginger
• grapefruit
• hyssop
• juniper
• lemon
• lemongrass
• lime
• nutmeg
• orange
• oregano
• peppermint
• rosemary
• sage
• spearmint
• tangerine
• ylang ylang

However, even these oils should never be used undiluted or straight from the bottle.  They just aren't meant to be taken that way.  There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Now, let's move on to a company that manufactures and/or distributes food grade essential oils that are meant to be used as food, that are for internal consumption.  Even this company, which sells "food grade" essential oils, states that they are not to be used undiluted.  LorAnn Oils offers the following safe substitutions using "food grade" essential oils:

• 1/8 teaspoon citrus essential oil per tablespoon of grated citrus zest
• 1 drop of essential oil per teaspoon of dried herb

In general, the LorAnn website states that essential oils are 3-4 times stronger than extracts.  They recommend starting with 1/4 teaspoon of essential oil per teaspoon of extract.  (These substitutions all seem too high to me.  I'd start with a lot less.  It's easy to add more if you decide it's needed.)  LorAnn also states that most essential oils last for several years beyond the use-by date.  Citrus oils are the exception.  They degrade much more quickly; however, refrigeration helps them last longer.  If any essential oil becomes cloudy or discolored or develops an off odor, replace it.

Links to related posts:
Lavender
Oregano  

For further information:
https://www.lorannoils.com/using-food-grade-essential-oils
https://www.nowfoods.com/now/nowledge/food-grade-essential-oil-faqs
https://momprepares.com/food-grade-essential-oils/
https://www.nowfoods.com/now/nowledge/safety-data-sheets-essential-oils
https://www.superfoodly.com/safe-to-ingest-essential-oils-therapeutic-vs-food-grade/

 

 29 july 2019

21 june 2021