Essential oils chemistry كيمياء الزيوت العطرية

2. Essential Oils

3. The history of essential oils
 The benefits of essential oils have been recognised for
thousands of years.
 Egyptians, used essential oils in medicinal purposes,
religious rites, and embalming process.
 In India, it was taken up as an integral part of the Indian
Ayurvedic medicinal system.
 Greeks, The medicinal wisdom of the Egyptians were
taken over and absorbed by the ancient Greeks. They
included aromatherapy massage as a treatment.

4. The history of essential oils
 Romans, again took over the medicinal wisdom of the
Greeks and were great believers in hygiene to promote
health and also place great stock in aromatherapy and the
power of fragrances.
 Arabian empire, the Persian physician Avicenna (980 -
1,037 AD) that is being credited with perfecting the
distillation process of essential oils.

5. What are essential oils?
 Essential oils are natural aromatic compounds found in the
seeds, bark, stems, roots, flowers, and other parts of
plants.
 It give plants their distinctive smells, and provide plants
with protection against predators and disease and play a
role in plant pollination.
 Essential oils are non water-based phytochemicals made
up of volatile aromatic compounds.

6. What are essential oils?
 They contain the true essence of the plant it was derived
from.
 Essential oils are highly concentrated.
 It doesn’t contain artificial substances, unlike perfumes and
fragrance oils.
 Essential oils are steam distilled or expressed.

7. Essential oils – composition
 Essential oils are mixtures of organic compounds.
 Terpenes are the key components of all essential oils.
 The distinctive character of an essential oil can be
attributed to the functional group present in its key
molecule.
 Esters, ethers, aldehydes, lactones, ketones and alcohols
are all found in essential oils.

8. How Are Essential Oils Extracted?
 Essential oils can be extracted via two key
methods:
Distillation Expression

9. Essential oils distillation
 Water Distillation: this method is most often
employed with flowers (rose and orange blossoms)
 Water and Steam: it can be employed with herb and
leaf material.
 Steam Distillation: it is the most commonly used.

10. Steam distillation
 Steam distillation is one of the methods used to
extract essential oils from plants.
 Steam passes over the plant and extracts the
essential oil.
 The mixture evaporates and passes into the
condenser.
 The essential oil vapour is chilled and collected.

11. Steam distillation

12. Essential oils expression
 Expression, also referred to as cold pressing,
is a method of extraction specific to citrus
essential oils, such as tangerine, lemon,
bergamot, sweet orange, and lime.

13. Essential oils
today in our life.

14. Modern uses
Essential oils
Cosmetics Flavours
Perfumes Medical
Cleaning
Insect
repellents
Dentistry Adhesives

15. Essential oils – perfume
 Perfumes consist of three layers, or “notes”:
1. Top: most volatile, initial smell
2. Heart: main aroma of the perfume, some volatility, stays
for several hours
3. Base: least volatile, stays for most of the day
 Basic ingredients:
1. 80%-90%: ethyl alcohol
2. essential oils from plants
3. fruit flavors CH3
C
CH
CH2
CH2
C
CH
CH2
O
C
CH3
O
CH3
CH3
Linalyl acetate

16. Essential oils – perfume
1. Floral: smells like flowers
2. Fruity: smells like fruit, including
citrus
3. Green: fresh grass or leaves
4. Herbaceous: like any variety of
herbs
5. Woody: like different types of wood
6. Amber: like tree resin
7. Musk: like a substance made by the
musk deer
8. Oriental: amber and spice
The perfume world also classifies perfumes into scent families which
are:

17. Nowadays perfumes consist of 500-600 chemical substances.
Only 5% of today’s perfumes are derived from natural compounds.

18. Essential oils – cleaning
 The essential oil known as lemon oil contains the
terpene d-limonene.
 It is known for its ability to act as a natural solvent
and a cleanser.
CH2
CH2
C
CH
CH2
CH
C
CH2CH3
CH3
Limonene
(skin of citrus fruits)

19. Hospital cleaners
 Certain essential oils kill bacteria and fungi within 2
minutes of contact.
 Essential oils are blended into soaps and shampoos
used in hospitals to eradicate deadly ‘super bugs’.

20. Essential oils – toothpaste
 The essential oil thymol has antiseptic properties.
CH
CH
C
C
CH
C
CH3
OH
CH
CH3 CH3
Thymol

21. Essential oils – cosmetics
 The essential oil geraniol is added to some cosmetics
to balance and revitalise the skin.
CH3
C
CH
CH2
CH2
C
CH
CH2
OH
CH3CH3
Geraniol

22. Some medicinal uses of
essential oils

23. Peppermint
Stops spasms
Uses: upset stomach, cramping, gas, bloating,
heart palpitations bug and ant repellent.

24. Lemon
Anti infectious
Uses: colds, fevers, soar throat, ear infection,
infections

25. Lavender
calming, relaxing, wound healing
Uses: burns, cuts, wounds, anxiety, sleeplessness,
depression, bug repellent

26. Frankincense
Anti-tumoral, immune-stimulant, and antidepressant
Uses: Asthma, depression, ulcers, cancers,
hemorrhaging, herpes, warts (virus)

27. Basil
relaxant
Uses: Migraines, scanty menstrual periods,
Muscle relaxant, soothing to insect bits