128 ESSENTIAL OILS
from a different species when wild crafting through difficulty to separate similar looking plant material; poor housekeeping / manufacturing practice leading to contamination with other oils or other materials due to dirty distillation columns; use of fresh or dry botanical at the point of processing to produce oils with differing results in characteristic and composition; allowing oxidisation to take place through poor storage which can change the material composition.
These examples do not detract from the fact that while accidental actions are a possibility and are not acceptable, it is the intentional actions that raise concerns within the industry.
Intentional actions of adulteration Intentional adulteration is an unethical practice and fraudulent so why is it a process for some producers and suppliers? One would think that supplier motivation for adulteration can only be for commercial gain, for financial reasons to increase profitability. However, should the market conditions also share some responsibility? While essential oils as a product group and as raw materials for personal care formulations can be classified and considered as ‘high value’, as we have noted their demand is increasing so is intentional adulteration considered a response to this market characteristic? Or, is there a strong argument that the practice is the result of the customer motive, the customer driven by wanting lower pricing. Whatever the reasons, validated or not, there is opportunity for each stage in the supply chain to take unethical action; the grower, the distiller, the distributor or indeed the contract manufacturer. Deliberate action can be the addition, substitution or dilution of components. Using natural oils from other parts of the same plant material, clove leaf oil having a greater production yield and being added to clove bud oil, both similar in composition. Using natural oils from related species of the same plant material, cananga being less expensive than ylang, compositionally different but similar in odour profile. Using natural oils from differing origins, the blending of Chinese and Australian tea tree oil. Using natural aroma chemicals, using nature identical / synthetic aroma chemicals, using one natural oil and marketing as another, cornmint oil Mentha arvensis as peppermint oil Mentha piperita. Using a compounded fragrance intended to mimic the composition of an essential oil, replacing a more expensive origin with a cheaper origin when origin is not declared. Is this commercial awareness? Collecting material from different species when wild crafting as a deliberate act to increase yield. Irrespective of actions being intentional or unintentional, the resultant material is altered, unnaturally rather than as a natural
PERSONAL CARE EUROPE
composition (e.g. filtration, decantation, centrifugation).
These definitions and standards that do
variation. Never has there been a more important time to ensure there is increased vigilance with continuity in both quality and supply.
Quality control: the role of standards Awareness and understanding in ensuring material compliance to a quality is achieved through an agreed and approved material specification. The problem however is that every supplier creates a specification, their own specification for the oils they supply and they may be different from another supplier. There is little standardisation, no real consistency from supplier to supplier, origins offered may differ and material composition will differ between origins. There is no official datum line to identify what a typical essential oil may look like. Standard works like Guenther’s The Essential Oils are nearly 100 years old and we are aware that the composition of essential oils vary with each crop. There is no agreement on a standard method of distillation or any other method of production, each producer tries to get as much out of the crop as they can and in effect whatever is produced is the oil being supplied. That said, international standards do exist so how can they be applied and specified?
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9235:2013 Further to the definition in the opening line of this article, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9235:2013 offers further clarity in its explanation: Essential oil: Product obtained from a natural raw material of plant origin, by steam distillation, by mechanical processes from the epicarp of citrus fruits, or by dry distillation, after separation of the aqueous phase—if any—by physical process. Note 1 to entry: The essential oil can
undergo physical treatments which do not result in any significant change in its
exist provide a framework which categorically determine the term “essential oil” and there should be no deviation from this. There should be no opportunity or indeed no reason for any unethical physical change to the material or “adulteration.” Furthermore, ISO has also published standards for individual essential oils by common name, specifying certain characteristics of the oil; physical, chemical and chromatographic profile, intended to facilitate the assessment of its quality. However, there is limitation in that essential oils are extracted from a seasonal crop and there is no way of knowing what the resultant oil will be like until it is harvested, processed and analysed. So while we have an ISO definition for essential oils as a product category which is understandable and applied at the point of process, we also have ISO standards for individual oils but if the naturally produced oil does not comply with that standard, then what?
Specification
Quality is being fit for purpose and subject to a specification that defines fitness in its context of purpose. ISO 9000:2015, Quality management systems describes the fundamental concepts and principles required, defining quality as the “degree to which a set of inherent characteristics of an object fulfils requirements.” Simply stated, quality is meeting customer requirements. The formulator will therefore decide if the essential oil presented to them is suitable for their purpose, largely irrespective of the composition. While ISO standards exist for specific essential oils, specifying that the raw material meets the respective ISO standard is unheard of. Ironically, standardization of an essential oil will inevitably follow a given formulation and may well then become a compounded fragrance through the blending of the essential oil with aroma chemicals, natural and / or nature identical. While there is a place for such fragrance compounds, where correctly presented and marketed, they are not essential oils and where the project brief is organic or natural for example, raw material compliance to ISO 9235:2013 becomes very important. As a standard, unaware of its existence possibly as a formulator, fundamental in the quality management system of an ethical supplier, forgotten in the raw material stock and supply of an unscrupulous supplier. Having an approved source, the raw material specification becomes the standard with quality control standards and quality control methods being measures in ensuring the continuity of supply of an approved material fit for purpose. Control of the essential oil on a batch for batch basis against a previous batch rather than a specific ISO
April 2019
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188
