Why Shouldn't Essential Oils Be Ingested?
It is not our intention to offend anyone and our views are just our views.
However, in our experience interacting with so many people daily, we find that majority of users of Essential Oils are subject to an overwhelming amount of hearsay and anecdotal information, and worse still for many erroneous sharing of information (unfortunately too easily accessible through the internet) often taken as gospel truth - because someone or a website says so...as opposed to professional views and advice backed by reliable data, experience and knowledge.
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So we have gathered the concise and salient information from the experts and the professionals here - and we strongly advocate our readers and customers to exercise caution on the subject of ingestion.
T he International Federation of Aromatherapists Code of Ethics:
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No aromatherapist shall use essential oils for internal ingestion or internal application nor shall any aromatherapist advocate or promote such use of essential oils unless the practicing aromatherapist has medical, naturopathic, herbalist, or similar qualifications and holds an insurance policy which specifically covers the internal application of essential oils.
(IFA code of ethics. Simply Essential, No. 11 December 1993).
Extract from Salvatore Battaglia in The Complete Guide to Aromatherapy:
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Oral administration does have a number of disadvantages:
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possibility of nausea and vomiting
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irritation of the gastrointestinal tract
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much of the essential oil will be metabolized by the liver
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destruction of the essential oil constituents by stomach acidity or enzymes in the intestines.
Essential Oils are relatively simple to use, but not that easy to understand - for various reasons.
First and foremost, there is simply insufficient scientific research about Essential Oils, and even more specifically about each and every one of the few hundred different types of Essential Oils that are so easily available today.
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Secondly, Essential Oils are extremely potent - as we have mentioned elsewhere on our site, we have seen a couple of drops of Essential Oil melt a plastic bag. It is not too hard to imagine what those few drops may do to the insides of a human perhaps then. In fact, according to Robert Tisserand, "The essential oil in a bottle is 50-100 times more concentrated than in the plant...".
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Here is a great answer from the Robert Tisserand website under "Can I ingest your Essential Oils?"
And read this blog article by Plant Therapy on Can You Ingest Essential Oils.
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