{"id":9633,"date":"2016-09-12T23:46:21","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T04:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.essentialoilsage.com\/?p=9633"},"modified":"2016-09-13T16:03:53","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T21:03:53","slug":"chemistry-of-wintergreen-essential-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/essentialoilsage.com\/?p=9633","title":{"rendered":"Faking Wintergreen Essential Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chemistry

Search the internet and you will find that the chemical representation above is falsely identified as wintergreen. The symbol actually represents methyl salicylate. The vast majority of so-called wintergreen oil on the market is nothing more than methyl salicylate. Yet nature actually provides hundreds of compounds in true oil distilled from the wintergreen plant.<\/p><\/div>\n

Young Living\u2019s natural Wintergreen essential oil is one of the few examples of true wintergreen essential oil on the market.<\/p>\n

Most retail, direct marketing, and internet sales of \u201cwintergreen\u201d are actually \u201cfake wintergreen\u201d or \u201csynthetic wintergreen\u201d. Natural Wintergreen is composed of mostly one component, methyl salicylate.<\/p>\n

In natural Wintergreen methyl salicylate makes up 97-98% of the essential oil. In \u201csynthetic or fake wintergreen\u201d methyl salicylate makes up 99.0-99.8%. Synthetic wintergreen is made in a chemical factory with chemicals derived from petroleum crude oil.<\/p>\n

\"Wintergreen

GC-MS of Young Living Wintergreen essential oil. This meets the specifications of the ISO method.<\/p><\/div>\n

Let\u2019s look at Young Living natural Wintergreen first. The peak representing methyl salicylate is at about 20 minutes in the chromatogram. The natural component to the right at about 22 minutes is ethyl salicylate \u2013 both are esters that have a nice, pleasing aroma.<\/p>\n

Natural Wintergreen also contains four other minor components: alpha-pinene (11 minutes), beta-pinene (13 minutes), 1,8-cineole (14 minutes), and linalool (16 minutes). The six components are listed in the international standard for natural wintergreen (ISO Method 21390). Young Living Wintergreen is natural wintergreen that conforms to these minimum standards.<\/p>\n

At Young Living we can easily detect \u201cfake wintergreen\u201d with GCMS. Fake or synthetic wintergreen does not contain all 6 of the molecules mentioned in ISO Method 21390.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve tested wintergreen oil from numerous companies. I nearly always find they are \u201csynthetic\u201d and not natural. Fake wintergreen usually contains synthetic by-products of the chemical reaction. These synthetic by-products are easily detected by GCMS (we purchased synthetic methyl salicylate to determine these synthetic by-products).<\/p>\n

I even found a company who \u201cfaked\u201d their synthetic wintergreen oil by adding a small amount of peppermint essential oil to make it look natural. These \u201cperfumed\u201d oils are disguised by saying \u201cbeautiful aroma\u201d or \u201cnatural\u201d when they really are not.<\/p>\n

I found a \u201cfake wintergreen\u201d that contained synthetic by-products of chlorinated salicylate and methyl paraben? Some companies go to elaborate \u201cdisguises\u201d to create better smelling oils. Unfortunately, their wintergreen oils are not natural\u2014they just market them as being \u201cnatural\u201d.<\/p>\n

Natural wintergreen essential oil grows wild in North America and Greater China regions. It is my experience that nearly 100% of the natural wintergreen is grown and distilled in China and Tibet.<\/p>\n

Each batch of Young Living natural Wintergreen essential oil is tested by GCMS, GC, polarimetry, FT-IR, densitometry, color, and aroma at our Quality Labs to ensure that you have \u201cnatural wintergreen\u201d instead of the \u201cfake wintergreen\u201d that is sold by the others.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the Seed-to-Seal difference.<\/p>\n

Source: Dr Cole Wooley PhD, May 22, 2015<\/a><\/p>\n

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