Understanding Quality Grades of Essential Oils
No FDA Approval
To begin with, you must understand that there is no FDA regulation over any natural supplements, herbs, essential oils or even cosmetics. The most the FDA will do is approve a natural substance as GRAS (generally recognized as safe). The FDA for the most part does not dabble with natural “remedies”. No nutritional supplement or essential oil, therefore, is ever FDA approved.
Claims to Grades
Because the FDA is not involved, there is no overarching rule-of-the-land establishing quality grades for essential oils or supplements. This has left quality standards primarily in the hands of the private sector.
Words like “pure” and even “therapeutic grade” can be flung around with zero accountability – and they are.
The only real way to know whether a company is worthy of their claims as “pure” or “therapeutic grade” is to know the brand and find out their quality assurance or standardization processes.
Any standardized lab-testing for therapeutic grade oil can verify the potency of a particular essential oil.
However, therapeutic grade does not ensure purity.
In other words, an oil might be therapeutic grade, and might even be free of fillers or toxic additives…
…but even that cannot ensure, from one batch to the next…that the the oil is totally clear of pesticides or fertilizers from the fields, or other contaminants during transport or storage, or various other possible factors that come into play from field to bottle to your home.
I am not demonizing any company or brand. I am only saying that without a purity certification or standardized testing, there simply is no way to know.
Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade (CPTG)
I once purchased Tea Tree from what seemed to be a decent brand but at much lower cost than the one I now use.
It was for blemishes and the occasional acne breakout, and it did nothing to help.
So, I gave up on using Tea Tree altogether.
Some months later, I purchased Tea Tree from what is now my favorite brand (doTERRA) and used it for the same purpose, and the effects have been powerful and wonderful! I can’t say it enough: Quality. Really. Does. Matter.
The brand I absolutely love and trust has a CPTG trademark on every bottle. That is because every single batch of every oil is third party tested three times for both purity and potency.
I do not know of any other brand going to such lengths to ensure highest quality, pure and therapeutic grade so that every drop contributes to our health and wellness according to the oil’s original, molecular design without waste or any adulteration.
When you get a hold of an essential oil of this quality, and when that quality is guaranteed consistent from one bottle to the next, you may not have the skill to smell or taste it, but your body, your liver, your skin, blood and bones will feel the difference.