May1, 2017
by David Stewart, PhD
Helichrysum is a universal oil with numerous applications. It is also expensive to produce. Useful oils that are expensive to produce create a temptation on the part of oil suppliers to cheat in various ways. They can take a real oil and dilute it with a colorless, odorless substance. They can extract the oil from a similar plant species that is inexpensive to grow and distill, and then manipulate it into what may appear as a more exotic oil by deleting certain compounds or adding synthetic compounds to imitate the fragrance or taste of the expensive oil they wish to imitate. They may also cut costs in the distillation by doing so at high temperatures and high pressures that significantly reduces the distillation time and, thus, saves labor and fuel. They may also extract some oils by petrochemical solvents which leave toxic traces in the finished oil. All of these shortcuts and deceptions result in oils that may fulfill flavor or fragrance standards, even the AFNOR standard, but that lack the full suite of compounds necessary for the oil to have healing properties.
