Sustainable essential oils are made from plants that are harvested in an ethical or responsible way. Essential oils have been between us for a long time but only got recognition among millennials in the past few years. The demand for these natural fragments has gone up significantly and is increasing even more day by day. But the issue is that these oils can’t always keep with the growing human demands. Due to the regular distillation of plants’ parts, some aromatic species are now endangered. And that has happened because of many other factors too like harvesting for their wood or to make perfumes. Some others are threatened due to the changing climate or damaged by the corporate world that is looking forward to using the land for their business purpose.
Whatever the reason might be, the aromatherapists aim to preserve Mother Nature and don’t want to strip her of her resources just for their own gain. Everyone wants to ensure that plants they love thrive so they’ll be around for the future generation as well and continue playing vital roles in the ecosystems where they flourish. That’s the reason why buying sustainable essential oils is important.
SUSTAINABLE ESSENTIAL OIL PRACTISES
Sustainable Cultivation
There are two ways to produce these essences, and one of them is cultivation. Some farmers grow their plants with care on farms, plantations, and orchards. And sometimes, they also distil the essential oils themselves. Many other times, there are some farmers who sell their harvest to small distilleries for final production.
The process of sustainable farming and harvesting is intended to take as much material as the plants can give. At last, the farmers or harvesters leave a portion of the crop to repopulate the growing area. Or they have a regular routine of planting and harvesting.
Sustainable Wildcrafting
While on the other hand, there are some essential oil producers who practice Wildcrafting. This means they don’t actually cultivate anything but explore the forests and other wild places where these plants grow naturally. Again, they take as much as the plants can give. They even leave a portion of the plants untouched, so they can repopulate naturally.
One of the most common and popular examples of wildcrafting is St. John’s wort. It is a flowering plant in the family of Hypericaceae. It is very easy to cultivate and even easier to grow wild in abundance. Many aromatherapists believe if the essential oil producers harvest these bright yellow blossoms and make sure they leave plenty of the plants behind, they can enable repopulation of the species for the next year harvest.
Sustainable wildcrafting means carefully extracting material from a single plant to avoid killing the organism. This is important to keep in mind when extracting the oil from the roots of a plant. For instance, spikenard oil is extracted and distilled from the roots of plants in Nepal and India. In Nepal, the plants have been counted as an endangered species due to overharvesting and selling of the roots in the black market. Though this unethical and harmful practice is being curtailed by those who are concerned about Mother Nature, it is still distilled under certain conditions.
After some time, the government got involved in careful planning and rotating where the roots are picked each year and resumed the harvesting and distilling of spikenard. In fact, many very conscientious wildcrafters in Nepal have developed more careful ways to take a portion of the plant’s root while making sure enough that roots remain, so the entire plant survives. For that, they need to be extremely careful and educated. Only upon understanding the plant’s needs and treating them with respect at every step of the process they can ensure sustainable essential oil production.
Not to mention how good the sustainable practices are for the earth as well as the plants. So, the next time you buy them, try Young Living essential oils that are produced by ensuring the delicate parts of the plants are left untouched.
