WHAT ARE VOC’S?

Sep 9

Written By Robyn .

Volatile Organic Compounds — What are they?

“VOCs are industrial solvents, such as trichloroethylene; fuel oxygenates, such as methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) or by-products produced by chlorination in water treatment, such as chloroform. VOCs are often components of petroleum fuels, hydraulic fluids, paint thinners, and dry cleaning agents.

Volatile organic compounds are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids. VOCs include a variety of chemicals, some of which may have short- and long-term adverse health effects.”

You’re probably thinking “what does this have to do with essential oils or candles?”

Well let’s get right into it!

What are essential oils and how are they created?

“Essential oils are aromatic substances that are widely used in the perfume industries, pharmaceutical sector, food and human nutrition field. They are mixtures of more than 200 compounds,6 that can be grouped basically into two fractions: a volatile fraction that constitutes 90 to 95% of the whole oil, hydrocarbons and their oxygenated derivatives along with aliphatic aldehydes, alcohols and esters and the non-volatile residue that constitutes 5 to 10% of the whole oil, hydrocarbons, fatty acids, sterols and waxes.”

“Essential oils are mixtures of volatile organic compounds that were driven out of the raw plant material in distillation, condensed into an oil that is strongly aroma emitting, and collected in a vessel as the top layer (uncommonly bottom layer) of two phase separated liquids: oil and water. Essential oils commonly include components derived from two biosynthetic groups, being terpenes (monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and their derivatives) and phenylpropanoids (aromatic ring with a propene tail).”

“The main chemical groups found in EOs are benzenoids, phenylpropanoids, monoterpenoids, and sesquiterpenoids, from which terpenes are the largest chemical group. The number of compounds in the majority of EOs is in the range of 100–250 whereas in some cases like in lavender, geranium and rosemary can be up to 500. Some chemicals may be dominant and represent more than 90% of the EO composition such as A-caryophyllene or limonene. The most common compounds found in EOs are limonene, linalool, and pinene”

Now that we have a understanding of what Essential oils are, let’s look into how they created.

Essential oils are created through a few extraction processes such as:

STEAM DISTILLATION PROCESS
MACERATION
ENFLEURAGE
COLD-PRESS EXTRACTION
CO2 EXTRACTION
SOLVENT EXTRACTION

The ones most commonly used are: solvent extraction and steam distillation.

Solvent extraction uses high percentages of methanol and n-hexane to extract the oils from these beautiful plants. Creating good ol’ essential oils.

Essential oils are quite the hype right now and they are absolutely everywhere, especially in the natural health community.

No one bats an eye when you mention their relevance in every single thing we use. In fact they are commonly used along side ‘alternative’ medicine giving them an ‘all natural’ green washed approach.

Another popular alternative you’ve most likely seen is how they are used religiously to substitute artificial fragrance for a ‘non toxic’ ‘natural’ alternative.

But based on the information above are they not just as dangerous as artificial fragrance if 90% of the oils contain monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes?

“But google says” -yes I’m aware of the Google “benefits” of essential oils. Infact you will only find endless information and regurgitation on how they are simply ‘just plants’ ‘plant oils’ or ‘botanical extracts’ unless you dedicate hours upon hours digesting study after study going into great detail about the composition and extraction process.

It is no coincidence that no one wants to talk about the hundreds of documented studies showing the dangers of these oils, how they are extracted and the unknowns that come with long term use.

I think it is extremely important to do your own research and come to your own conclusions.

I understand essential oils are quite a touchy subject especially in the holistic health community, which I find very interesting.

All that said, lets take a deeper look on what is used when essential oils are created.

The standard 15ml bottle of essential oil, would of had to of used 10-100lbs of plant matter..

If you are familiar with plants.. that is not a typical ‘botanical extract’. Typically 1-2 oz of herb is used during a natural infusion process.

Billions of herbs are grown(very poorly) into this mega multi billion dollar industry and utilized for ‘health’ purposes. These oils are consistently greenwashed to be a natural alternative when there has been little to no testing done on them due to their ‘cosmetic’ label.

What’s also interesting is that when you first learn about herbalism, tinctures and tea infusions - you are told repeatedly that certain herbs cannot be infused in comparison to others due to their VOC content.

Herbs such as mint, lavender, chamomile, sage(basically any herb with a potent smell) carries a very high VOC content.

Infact many recent studies show that Lavender essential oils have been linked to hormone and endocrine disruption in pre pubescent boys. Their bodies are unnaturally growing breast tissue in response to the overdose of estrogen that these concentrated oils are producing.

We will never ever naturally encounter the 200+ chemicals that are found in one drop of essential oil. This is not ‘just a plant oil’ or a ‘botanical extract’.

Nature is not synonymous with harmless.

There are hundreds of natural plants that are very dangerous to animals and humans, it doesn’t make them ‘bad’ -it just shows us that extensive education and research around plants and herbs needs to take place before creating very potent concoctions and labeling them ‘natural’ or ‘non toxic’.

We are one of the first generations that are consistently using them daily, day in and day out, in EVERYTHING.

I think it’s also important to add that there is no “better quality” one. They are all extracted the the same way.

The argument that ‘diluting’ them into oils, waxes and water changes the concentration is also a very dangerous solution. As the oils are used in high quantities to contrast with what they are being mixed with, ultimately creating a even higher concentration. It does not ‘water down’ the dangers.

There are so many other ways to capture the beautiful aromatic properties from these plants to obtain their benefits without having to rely on chemical extractions and condensed concentrated versions.

As a mother of 3, I was sick and tired(literally) of constantly searching for clean alternatives for skin care, body care, hair care, home aromas, bum creams, soaps- you name it, I was looking.

It was truly exhausting to finally come across a ‘organic natural alternative’ only to read the fine print and realize that these ‘natural’ products are no better the Johnson and Johnson.

Everyone is trying to make a buck off of a greenwashed label. Believe it or not but it really doesn’t have to be that hard.

Honey + Harvest is what i was looking for. So I created it.

Simple, traditionally inspired, real, raw, non toxic alternatives for everyday essentials.

Completely transparent, nothing to hide.

Heck you can even make these products yourself! In your own home with clean, organic sourced ingredients!

Infact we encourage you to do so!

We proudly admit that we will never use essential oils. Based on our research we feel very confident to share this information with you and to continue to handcraft real, raw everyday essentials for those searching for something clean and simple.

This process is very important to us and we believe that consumers deserve true transparency and real natural alternatives.

Safe, pure products do not need to be hard nor does it have to be hard to come by.

Here at Honey + Harvest we make it easy.

H O N E Y + H A R V E S T

Disclaimer: this article is not intended to be used as medical advice.

Our blog is strictly for educational purposes only.

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2022/ra/d1ra06711g

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31611512/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35336671/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35270596/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11869-020-00941-4

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32607090/