In general, pure Essential Oil constituents can be subdivided into two distinct groups:
- The Hydrocarbons, in most cases exclusively made up of terpenes (monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes and diterpenes), and
- Oxygenated compounds: esters, aldehydes, ketonen, phenoles, alcohols and oxides.
Some individual oils may have anywhere from 200 to 800 different constituents. However, of the 800 different constituents, only about 200 of those have so far been identified. That’s why today we still are not able to create an artificial essential oil with exact the same therapeutic properties as the pure oil.