Sourcing: A Potent Purpose

Pure is not enough.  Your essential oil must also work.  It must be potent.  That is, it must deliver a therapeutic benefit.

Although some may use essential oils for flavoring or fragrance, most people use essential oils to experience a specific therapeutic result.  Therefore, if your essential oils is potent, you will get that benefit.  If it is not potent, you will not enjoy the benefit—regardless of how pure it is.

BACKGROUND

The same plant can yield many different levels of potency.

For example, Lavender grown in France or Bulgaria has a higher therapeutic value than Lavender grown in your backyard.  Both may be pure.  Both come from the same plant, but one works so much better than the other at delivering a therapeutic result.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

The difference between these two essential oil samples has to do with what is happening on a molecular level.

Each oil is made up of tens or hundreds of essential oil constituents or molecules.  The ratios or levels of these molecules determines the quality of the therapeutic benefit.  The closer the molecular ratio is to the ideal essential oil, the greater the therapeutic benefit will come from the essential oil.

This ratio will change depending on many factors.
Many factors affect the therapeutic value of an essential oil.  Here are a few:

• Plant species
• Part of the plant
• Soil condition
• Fertilizer
• Geographic region
• Climate
• Altitude
• Harvest season and method
• Time of day harvested
• Distillation process
• and more…

These factors that determine the ratio and quality of chemical constituents in an essential oil are mainly based on the growing conditions and harvest and extraction practices.

Interestingly, plants that grow in native conditions more often than not (but not always) have a higher therapeutic value.

Also, it has been observed that plants that grow in harsh conditions produce more therapeutic essential oils – this is likely because the plant itself needs more therapeutic benefit.  Examples of this are Hawaiian Sandalwood grown in a harsh and stormy climate, and Frankincense grown in barren soil in a hot and dry climate sometimes in cliffs and surrounded by snakes (not sure what snakes has to do with it).

An example of harvest practices affecting the therapeutic value of an essential oils is Thyme.  The level of one of the key active constituents varies greatly depending on the time of year the plant is harvested.

POTENCY and  QUALITY

The quality of an essential oil can be detected by testing.  Based on past data, these test can also determine if the essential oil will be therapeutic.  Hence there are two reasons to test:

1. Purity and
2. Potency

One such test that scientists commonly use is the Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS), which measures the levels of these key compounds.  If there are too many or too little of certain compounds, the essential oil sample may be more or less likely to deliver the target therapeutic benefit.

Even if the essential oil sample is pure, a quality essential oil company will reject it because it is not of value to the therapeutic-use community.

PURPOSE AND POTENCY

This all comes down to why we use an essential oil.
We use essential oils because we want them to provide some therapeutic benefit.  Thus,..

• Pure means it will do no harm
• Potent means it will do good

You need both.

If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter whether it is pure.

If purity can be obtained through proper growing, harvesting, and extracting methods, how can we get therapeutically potent essential oils?

OBTAINING POTENCY

There are different philosophies on how to produce essential oils: either…

• do the growing, harvesting, and extracting yourself
• obtain tried and tested essential oils
• source essential oils from anywhere on the planet with a great therapeutic value

Grow it yourself: Ensure purity and quality by planting, growing, and harvesting your own essential oils.

• PROS
  •   Ability to control purity
  •   Observe entire process
• CONS
  •   Wrong climate or region
  •   Therapeutic secondary
  •   Lack of indigenous skill

Use only established oils: Stick with historically used essential oils that have been tested by many who have come before.

• PROS
  •   Past scientific knowledge
  •   Established data
• CONS
  •   Ignores therapeutic value
  •   Rejected oils more therapeutic?
  •   Unnecessarily limited

Source for therapeutic value: Look for and produce only therapeutic essential oils regardless of where grown or who grows it or whether it has ever been used before.

• PROS
  •   Most THERAPEUTIC
  •   Purity ensured-relationships and testing
• CONS
  •   Unique oil offering
  •   New sources and new data
  •   Sourced from anywhere on EARTH

HIGHEST THERAPEUTIC VALUE

It is my opinion that sourcing essential oils solely for their therapeutic value regardless of where they are grown or who you work with will provide the highest therapeutic value.
But this also means…

• transporting essential oils from many countries, and
• working with growers, artisans, and natives to also ensure purity

This is no easy task.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SOURCING

Following this practice, essential oils are sourced from the best locations on the planet for growing them.  This map just shows some of these locations.

Because Therapeutic value is affected by the climate, soil, practices, and so many other factors, the only way to get the best therapeutic value is to align those factors.
The right region.
The right soil.
The right know-how from skilled artisans (and this means building relationships of trust).

Sometime it means cooperating with others to put together the right tools and know-how.

PRODUCING WITH THE POOR

Many locations that produce the best therapeutic grade of essential oils are found in developing areas of the planet.  Some of these areas lack infrastructure, equipment, and economic structure to grow the desired therapeutic essential oil.  This infrastructure needs to be set up.  This means building relationships directly with growers, creating new jobs, forming cooperatives to make available equipment, and developing communities.

Why go to all this expense and trouble?

Because potent therapeutic essential oils work!

• They work well
• They work every time (they are consistent)
• They are superior
• You are healthier and happier because of it

To sum up the topics of both Potency and Sourcing.
Your essential oils need to be both pure and potent.  If either one fails, you have a substandard product.  There are so many ways to get this wrong, but only one way to get it right:
Source the essential oil from therapeutic source, and
Test the essential oil to ensure everything is pure, potent, and perfect.
That is how you produce the best essential oil that money can buy.

In my opinion, there is only one company in the world who is doing this.  And the results show.  It is now the biggest essential oil company in the world.

Is your essential oil certified?

CHOOSING AND ESSENTIAL OIL

The nature of the essential oil market today makes it difficult to decipher whether you are getting quality, pure, essential oils.

There is no widely accepted standardization or regulation.  This means that as long as it can be argued that the stuff in the bottle could be considered an essential oil in any way, it can be labeled and sold as an essential oil.

The problem with this is that you then have so very many different grades: stuff that is near poisonous to stuff that is amazing.

WEAK GOVERNMENT STANDARDS

There are some governing bodies in this space, but they don’t address this dilemma:

The International Organization for Standardization does have a set of standards for each type of essential oil, but these are not mandatory nor enforced by any law-makers.  Hence there is no benefit to use or refer to them unless they are known or accepted.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers essential oils a cosmetic, so manufacturers are not required to prove their effectiveness, purity or potency.  So, you can buy cheap stuff that won’t work and may actually harm you.  This is a characteristic of freedom.  It is similar to the freedom to choose broccoli or doughnuts—or maybe water or energy drink—or smoking vs aromatherapy.  Go figure, but it won’t regulate the industry by preventing it from producing lesser quality essential oils.  We just need to be more educated.

PRIVATE STANDARDS

The only standards being touted are the internal standards set by the producers.

Here is a brand that I trust: doTERRA.  doTERRA’s internal standard is called Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade (CPTG).

Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade essential oils are sourced and produced for purity and therapeutic value.  So not only do they smell good, but they actually produce the desired beneficial effect in our body.

The company was founded and is run by an amazing executive team with year and years of combined experience.

What makes dōTERRA unique?
dōTERRA…
• is a debt free company with no outside funding
• has 65% retention rate, 3 X the industry average – good indication the products work
• is the world’s largest essential oil company
• was recently founded in 2008
• is now a billion-dollar company
• is privately owned – which means ambition not profit drive the company’s mission
has CPTG! – this is where you want to get your essential oil

In my opinion, this is the best combination possible for an essential oil company.  I trust the product, I trust the company, I trust the executives, whom I have all personally met.  They are… people.  Good people, who live simple lives full with passion and purpose.

GRADES ON THE MARKET TODAY

Look at this chart.
​​

The majority of essential oils on the market are synthetic, made in a lab using harsh and sometimes dangerous chemicals.  These are mainly used in fragrances.

The next highest grade is the food grade.  These essential oils are produced for flavor or and are often combined with fillers or are heavily processed removing any therapeutic value.

The therapeutic grade of essential oils is unregulated and may many times contain fillers, pesticides, solvents or additives to dilute or alter what nature has provided.

CPTG goes to the highest level of not only ensuring that what you get is pure from the plant, but came from the right plant, grown under the right condition and harvested and extracted in the best way to bring optimum benefits.

QUALITY CONTROL

dōTERRA essential oils go through a strict quality control process.

​​

• First, the distilled essential oil is sent to 3rd party scientists (independent from dōTERRA) to test for its purity and potency. They use the very latest sophisticated methods for these tests.  If and when it passes these tests, the oils are sent to dōTERRA.
• Second, at dōTERRA, the dōTERRA scientists test the oils further a liter at a time, before and during bottling for purity and to make sure there are no contaminants during the bottling process.
• Third, after the oils are bottled and labeled, dōTERRA keeps a sample of each batch for further testing to make sure that the essential oils remain stable and microbial free.

SOURCING​​

These essential oils are sourced globally for their therapeutic value.  Partnerships and cooperations are formed to produce essential oils for potency rather than profit.

doTERRA’s mission is to produce the best quality essential oil, which means sourcing for purity and potency not convenience or maximized profit.

Because location, climate, and therapeutic potential determine where CPTG essential oils are produced, doTERRA finds itself in random corners of the world.  Sometime this means great essential oils need to be produced in locations where living conditions are very poor.

doTERRA embodies corporate responsibility, sustainability and philanthropic impact.

doTERRA works with the many developing communities where essential oils are produced to not only produce great essential oils through their co-impact sourcing initiatives, but also to lift and improve the lives of people who really need it, which is done through their healing hands foundation.
doTERRA’s Healing Hands Foundation raises money to carry out projects such as

• bringing drinking water to a mountain community,
• re-building homes, schools, and hospitals in disaster areas, and
• bringing hygiene kits, safe homes, and other practices to many in need.

doTERRA’s Co-Impact projects help create jobs by building in and supporting communities that produce essential oils, they do this by
creating cooperatives, improving growing and harvesting practices, and organizing infrastructure, and people to create jobs, sustainability, and long-term partners and friends, and
dōTERRA also partners with other humanitarian projects to do much good both in developed and developing nations.
The single, number one, thing that sets doTERRA apart, however, it it’s CPTG standard.

So, why is CPTG so important?

It’s unique.  Others may do pure, but they don’t test as rigorously as doTERRA.  Others may produce therapeutic oils, but NONE source for the best essential oils the way doTERRA does.

Because doTERRA sources in such a unique way, 84% of their essential oils are exclusive to doTERRA.

This combination is the heart of CPTG — and this means you get the best essential oil money can buy.

Oh, but best is just a matter of opinion.  Who says it’s the best?

Over 3 million people do.  doTERRA is the largest essential oil company in the world and they achieved that in under eight years.  This is circumstantial evidence that the products work.

People can’t help but share them.  It is a multi level market business, so that may explain some of the exuberance, but in my experience most people share because of an emotional connection to the product.

The statistics demonstrate this.  doTERRA has the highest retention rate of any direct sales company.  This is partly because it is first and foremost a product company rather than a marketing opportunity company.  The industry average is 10%.  doTERRA chooses multilevel marketing and direct sales because it is the best possible way to market a great product like this, and it has absolutely worked.
From a single smell to lifetime use, customers are hugely satisfied with the essential oils produced by doTERRA.