YL TESTING
Why We Love Young Living!
”While we trust, we still test”
Young Living is the leader in not only the farming and distilling practices, but we are way ahead in the science department as well. The Lab in our new Global Headquarters is unlike any other in the world, and certainly no other essential oil company can even come close. Young Living is committed to purity and quality. They have always put product ahead of marketing and selling. We have specialized equipment including specialized GC Which Gary specially made for us because he didn't just want to see dozens of constituents, he wanted to see HUNDREDS of constituents!!!! And most constituents that we can see because of our special testing equipment don't even have names... and this is why YL has THE MOST extensive library for essential oil constituents!!!
Ok, I went a little crazy there, but guys this is SO important. The world of testing can be SOOO convoluted and misrepresented. Testing natural products is unlike testing synthetic and MOST scientists are taught and trained solely on synthetic. Then, they get hired by companies who say they have natural products, an yet they are using profiles that were not resourced from 100% natural products.
Lets just talk about one specific area, we have an HPLC machine that tests liquids which is especially important for testing Frankincense... this is SUPER important. Boswellic acids are heavier compounds that GC doesn't pick up. So that's how we proved that our Boswellia Carteri and Boswellia Sacra DO have Boswellic Acids back in the day when another company was saying that we added Boswellic acids to our Frankincense.
AND because we also do optical rotation tests with our optical rotation testing equipment, Young Living proved that Boswellia Carteri and Boswellia Sacra were IN FACT two different species when the entire Botanical world even over in the Middle East where the various Boswellia species grow thought they were synonymous.
Yep!! Gary found a difference that no one else did, and no one believed him for a long time! YL publishes a paper on this... it's on PubMed.gov. The BC and BS molecules look identical. HOWEVER, one rotates left and the other rotates right.
It was YOUNG LIVING who discovered these things. OUR mission and vision is so focused on our EOs. That is who we are! The WORLD LEADER in Essential Oils!
So, here is the list, and a short description of our testing.
No, I didn’t compile this list, I keep it on hand so that I can send it out when people ask. There are SOOOO many tests done and the equipment is absolutely incredible
Viscometry- shows how viscous a liquid is (think vetiver versus lavender)
Densitometry- picks up water from distillation
Refractometry- measures how much light is bent Polarimetry- sends a beam of polarized light thru oil to see the rotation
ICP- MS( Inductively Coupled Plasma mass spectrometry)- measures metal in oils
ICP- OES (Inductively couples plasma atomic optical emission spectrometry)- also measures metal
Gas Chromatograph- pulls apart into all compounds present and uses high heat
HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatograph- similar to GC but uses a high pressure liquid
FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy)- Measures chemical bonds between compounds
Automated Micro-enumeration- Counts bacteria in a sample
Disintegration Testing- measures how quickly a tablet disintegrates
PH- measures how acidic/basic a product is
Flashpoint-point at which it ignites
Microscopy- looking at compound thru the microscope to identify
Combustibility-measures how easily a substance will set on fire, through fire or combustion
According to Mike Buch, these are all the normal tests that YL runs on all oils and products. The new test they are starting to add is Chiral Chromatography. This test separates optical isomers and determines organic compounds from inorganic compounds. The other new test they are starting is the IRMS (Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry). We have 2 of these machines and it takes 2 years of intense training to be able to use them. This test measures all oils to make sure they have the same ration as the atmosphere.
Mike Buch also has talked about the amount of training any of his scientists need to go through even before they are allowed to start working with the equipment. It is YEARS before they are really trusted to “read” the results. Dr Michael Buch has said often that the problem with so many other companies, is that the amount of experience of the people who READ the test results have is to little. It takes EXPERIENCE (remember yesterday’s post about 25+ years??) to read the nuances of these reports.
OK, I know this has been a LOT!! And not nearly as fun as some of the other posts, but guys, I can’t even begin to express how important this topic is.
This is a really old video, but I think you can hear in Gary’s voice how important testing is to the Seed to Seal process!
https://youtu.be/j80j-6bnIQw
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