Tag: Old Time

How Essential Oils are Made

Essential oils are actually extracts from certain plants, trees, and fruits using a technique called distillation. Since plants contain such a small amount of extract, several pounds of plants are needed to provide a small bottle to consumers. The essential oils are then refined and distilled and packaged in containers that help maintain the scent and fragrance for a good amount of time. The following is a list of treatments and extract procedures that produce the essential oils for our use in aromatherapy or creams.

Steam Distillation

Steam distillation is the most popular and the oldest distillation process available. Old time, traditional aromatherapy professionals believe this method is the best way to produce the most quality extracts. This system takes dried or fresh plants and places them into a steam chamber. The steam is put under pressure and then circulated in and out of the plant material. The heat from the pressurized steam causes the plants cellular structure to open and the essential oils pour into a holding container. This is a delicate method since the heat must be well balanced to open the plant but not too hot causing destruction of the delicate oil.

After the steam and oil are distilled into a container, the steam returns to a liquid while the oil creates a film at the top of the solution. Both the liquid and the oil are both therapeutic by-products of the process. The oils can be packaged as pure essential oil extract. The water still holds a lot of the oil properties, so it is used by cosmetic companies in toners or skin creams.

Cold Pressing

Extracts from fruits such as bergamot, grapefruit, lemon or limes use different forms of processing. The essential oils are mainly in the fruits peel, so they need to be penetrated. The fruits peel is rolled over a large array of sharp objects that cause the peel to burst and the oils extracted. Then the fruit is squeezed and the juice contained. Like steam distillation, the essential oils rise to the top of the juices as a film. They are separated by centrifugations into containers that are packaged to consumers.

Enfleurage

This method of extraction is used for flowers or plants that are very delicate. Some plants are too delicate to withstand the heat from steam distillation. Enfleurage uses animal fat to absorb the essential oils from the delicate flowers. As the petals are depleted from their oils, more are placed on the animal fats until it is completely saturated with the extract. After the fat is saturated, the fat is treated with alcohol which solvates the essential oils. Once the mixture is contained, the alcohol will evaporate leaving behind the essential oil product.

Solvent Extraction

Solvent extraction is the most efficient and affordable way to separate the extract from the plant. In this method, a solvent is used to saturate the plant and absorb the oils. After saturation, it is then treated with alcohol. Like enfleurage, the alcohol eventually evaporates and it leaves only the essential oils for packaging. This method is especially useful for more expensive extracts where each plant needs to be squeezed for its extract as much as possible. Although this method is the most cost efficient, it can leave solvent in the product which can cause side effects.

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THE CHAIR MASSAGE

Massages in chairs or simply in sitting positions have always had their place among most ancient and traditional massage techniques around the world but the contemporary Chair massage as we know it today and as we occasionally refer to as the On-Site or Seated massage is a trend that began as recently as 1982. The Chair massage was the brainchild of David Palmer, the director of the Amma Institute of Traditional Japanese Massage at that time who is considered to be the father of Chair massage. Mr. Palmer came to realize that, whether due to the high cost or the sensual intimacy of conventional table massages, or maybe the lack of sophistication on the part of the public or perhaps due to the combination of the three in one proportion or another, there were too few people who sought such bodyworks services and, therefore, there was not enough work for all the graduates of his institute. Mr. Palmers entrepreneurial intuition and insightfulness led him to adopt a few existing old-time techniques and to renovate others to develop a modern massage technique which could be performed anywhere as it required only brief periods of time, no need for the removal of clothing and quite reasonably priced. Consequently, his Chair massages became convenient, affordable and non-threatening.

The first clients to enjoy the newly developed Chair massage were the employees and customers of the Apple Computers outlets where David Palmer and his graduates set up their makeshift workstations in 1984. That venture lasted only about twelve months and the demand at the time was not huge, but they did give up to 350 Chair massages each week and it proved to be a step in the right direction and a very good beginning. By 1986 a specially designed and structured chair to better accommodate Chair massages went into production and today, there are well over 100,000 such chairs in use within the United States as well as in many other nations around the world.

David Palmer realized that Chair massage will be truly successful only with further development of this particular niche and he opened continuing education seminars for training graduates of other massage schools. During the twelve months of 1986, he taught 24 Chair massage seminars at 24 different locations in the United States as well as in Sweden and Norway. The concept of the Chair massage was embraced with open arms when presented to the American Massage Therapy Association and as a consequence, by 1990 just about every massage school in the nation was teaching it.

The Chair massage is not officially categorized as a therapy or a treatment but rather as a minimal relaxation technique. Whether that was a deliberate marketing ploy and clever salesmanship or not, it worked to attract people who would otherwise shy away from other kinds of massage therapies and treatments. For the most part, those who took the first step and braved the process of the Chair massage, would have become more open minded about progressing and graduating into the true massage therapies.

Nowadays, chair massages are readily available in shopping malls, airport terminals, independent shops, franchises, hotel lounges, hospitals, gyms, spas, bus depots, train stations, supermarkets, community centers, eateries (particularly the new-age cafs), convention centers, beauty salons, barber shops, medical and dental offices, university campuses, corporate workplaces and even at street corners, public parks and city square throughout the United States, Europe and the United Kingdom. The Chair massage is estimated to be the fastest growing and most popular form of skilled touch, as professional massages are performed on the otherwise touch-deprived masses. It is David Palmers greatest dream to see young children performing shoulder rubs among family members and friends as part of their regular daily routine; and expressed in his own words, When we reach that point I will know that we have arrived at our goal of a world where touch is recognized as essential to the development and maintenance of healthy human beings.

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