This brief article will touch on one of them~ Esters.
Essential oils such as Lavender, Geranium, Bergamot, Clary
Sage and Petitgrain have higher ester contents in their chemical composition.
The German chemist Leopold Gmelin was the first to give the
name Ester to molecules with the –COO functional group.
Glycerides,
which are fatty acid esters of glycerol, are important esters in biology, being
one of the main classes of lipids, and making up the bulk of animal fats and
vegetable oils. Esters with low molecular weight are commonly used as
fragrances and found in essential oils and pheromones. Phosphoesters form the
backbone of DNA molecules. Nitrate esters, such as nitroglycerin, are known for
their explosive properties, while polyesters are important plastics, with
monomers linked by ester moieties.
Esters are formed from alcohols and acids, and are named
after both their original molecules with the alcohols dropping the
"ol" and gaining an "yl" and the acids dropping the
"ic" and gaining an "ate".
The esters found in essential oils are normally very
fragrant and tend to be fruity and their therapeutic effects include being
sedative and antispasmodic. Some esters also have anti-fungal and
anti-microbial properties - like the anti-fungal properties in geranium oil.
The most well-known ester must be linalyl acetate, which is
found in lavender and clary sage.
Even though, a chemist may identify (most) of the chemical
components that nature combines to make up the oils, using gas chromatography
for instance, the best chemist CANNOT reproduce an identical oil, using the
exact same chemical proportions. This replicated oil will not have the same
therapeutic effect as the natural and pure essential oil. Science cannot
replicate the brilliant mystery of Mother Nature, using the best minds and
advanced technology available.
Lavender essential oil, for instance, can be used to
successfully treat burns, as was first re-discovered by René-Maurice
Gattefossé, a French chemist who used lavender essential oil when he suffered
severe burns in his lab in 1910.
Of this he wrote, “In my personal experience, after a
laboratory explosion covered me with burning substances which I extinguished by
rolling on a grassy lawn, both my hands were covered with a rapidly developing
gas gangrene. Just one rinse with lavender essence stopped the ‘gasification of
the tissue’. This treatment was followed by profuse sweating and healing began
the next day.” Gattefossé’s Aromatherapy, 1937.
But even if the best chemist using all the correct chemical
components, such as borneol, terpineol, lavandulol geraniol and linolol, they
would NOT have the secret formula that could successfully treat burns.
In fact, you cannot make up lavender essential oil in a
laboratory, you will not have an oil that can successfully treat burns, reduce
inflammation or calm you down, the way that true lavender oil can. You could
even cause harm.
According to Jeannie Rose, it is the Lavendula Angustifolia that is grown in
higher altitudes that has the best medicine that is distilled into the lovely
and fragrant essential oil that most Aromatherapist suggest for use.
These are further classified as terpenes, alcohols, esters,
aldehydes, ketones and phenols, oxides, etc.
Here we can take a closer look at esters, for instance:
http://chemguide.co.uk/organicprops/esters/background.html