Are terpenes essential oils?
What are terpenes?
At first glance, terpenes and essential oils can seem like the same thing; they both can come from plants, they’re both aromatic, they’re both used for many of the same things. These many similarities have led to a wide misconception that they are the same thing, but this isn’t necessarily the case. Terpenes are organic compounds that provide botanicals with their flavour and aroma.
The most common source of natural terpenes are plants but even some insects can produce terpenes on their own. Though you may not know it, you encounter terpenes every day. One common place you will come across terpenes is the kitchen. For example, the terpene gives your standard lemon juice and lime juice its distinct, citrusy scent. Isolated terpenes are used in cosmetics, perfumes, bath products, and much more.
What are Essential Oils?
To understand the difference between terpenes and essential oils, we must also know what essential oils (EOs) are. Essential oils are hydrophobic, volatile compounds acquired by processing plants. This is done using multiple methods but the most common ones are distillation and cold pressing. Essential oils are typically named after the plant they are derived from (ex. tea tree EO comes from tea tree leaves) and are called “essential oils” because they are considered to contain the “essence” of a plant. In recent years, essential oils have gained popularity for their declared health benefits. Many people use EOs in a diffuser in their homes to create a comfortable, nice smelling atmosphere.
So what's the Difference Between Terpenes and Essential Oils?
Even after reading what terpenes and essential oils are, you may still be confused. For starters, the primary difference between terpenes and essential oils are that essential oils contain terpenes a variety of other compounds as well. Because EOs are using an entire plant’s extracts, it will contain terpenes and other hydrocarbons. Meanwhile, isolated terpenes are comprised of just themselves. Isolated terpenes are selectively removed from a plant so while pine oil may contain alpha-pinene, gamma-terpinene, beta-pienene (along with other non-terpene compounds), your alpha-pinene isolate is going to be almost entirely made up of the alpha-pinene terpene. Another difference is that essential oils require a lot of raw materials. According to Earth Science Journal, in order to produce 1 pound of lavender essential oil, a total of 250 pounds of raw lavender is required. Terpenes do not need nearly this much raw material to be extracted. In summary, while all essential oils contain terpenes they also contain many other compounds while terpenes consist only of themselves. We hope this post helped clarify the difference between these two easily confused substances!
Terpenes are what give essential oils their therapeutic value. For instance the terpene linalool, which is commonly found in lavender is responsible for the relaxing effects that lavender provide to the body. Limonene another terpene is responsible for the revitalising and refreshing feelings that various citrus fruits provide. Limonene also has powerful mood boosting properties. Ever taken a walk in the forest amongst the pines and felt a deep sense of focus and clarity? One of the reasons you may feel this are because of the terpenes alpha pinene and beta caryophyllene, which are both commonly found in pine trees and many other plants.
Sangita Kumari, Sachin Pundhir, Piyush Priya, Ganga Jeena, Ankita Punetha, Konika Chawla, Zohra Firdos Jafaree, Subhasish Mondal, Gitanjali Yadav. “EssOilDB: a database of essential oils reflecting terpene composition and variability in the plant kingdom.” Database, vol. 14, pp. 1-12. 2014. DOI: 10.1093/database/bau120
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