dōTERRA Breathe® Essential Oil

dōTERRA Breathe® Oil 

Respiratory Blend (15mL)

CPTG® Quality Testing

Essential Oil Purity: CPTG® Quality Testing
Are doTERRA Oils Pure?

The purity of essential oil is its most important characteristic. When an essential oil is adulterated or contaminated, it becomes less effective and can even be dangerous. Above all else, purity is doTERRA’s first priority when producing essential oils. 

How Does doTERRA Make Sure Their Essential Oils Are Pure?

From the beginning, we’ve made it our mission to share pure, quality essential oils with the world. However, without a definitive standard for essential oil purity, doTERRA decided to set the standard for purity in the essential oil industry. 

Not all essential oil companies choose to enforce high testing standards for their oils. In fact, many companies skip important steps in the testing process in order to save money or time. Unfortunately, when proper testing measures are not taken, it’s impossible to ensure that essential oil is truly “pure.”

To ensure that each bottle of essential oil is pure and free from contaminants or synthetic fillers, doTERRA created the CPTG Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade^®protocol. The CPTG process includes a rigorous examination of every batch of oil, along with third-party testing to guarantee transparency. 

Some people ask, “Does essential oil purity really matter?” Or, “What happens if I use essential oils that aren’t pure?” 

The answer is yes—essential oil purity matters. If you use an oil that has been adulterated, contaminated, or loaded with synthetic fillers, you will not receive the full natural benefit of the plant. And in some cases, low-quality oils can even be dangerous and pose serious threats to your health. 

How to Know If Your Essential Oils Are Pure

How can you tell if your essential oils are pure? Before you buy essential oils, do a little research to find out how essential oil companies source, produce and test their oils. 

Here are a few questions to ask during your research: 

• Plant quality: Does the company use high-quality plants to produce its essential oils? Are chemicals and pesticides used in plant care?
• Production practices: Does the company have safety procedures in place to guard against contamination during the production process? Are oils adulterated or are synthetic fillers added to cut costs?
• Testing methods: Does the company test each batch of essential oil? Is impartial, third-party testing used? Are test results available to the public? 
• Storage and handling: Are the oils carefully processed, packaged, and stored to avoid chemical alterations caused by exposure to heat or light? (Amber bottles are typically the best option for essential oil storage.)

Ensuring Essential Oil Purity: The CPTG Process

doTERRA begins the CPTG testing process shortly after distillation when each oil is reviewed for its chemical composition. The doTERRA production facility carries out the second round of testing to ensure that the oils distilled and tested during the first round are the same ones that arrived at our facility. A third review of the chemistry of the oils is conducted as the oils are packaged into the bottles before they’re shipped out to consumers. 

Each test confirms that our essential oils are free of contaminants and that no unexpected alterations occurred during production.

8 Ways to Know That doTERRA Essential Oils Are Pure

The CPTG quality testing process includes eight main steps to guarantee that every batch of doTERRA essential oil is pure, unadulterated, and safe for use.

Here are the tests doTERRA uses to ensure essential oil purity:

1. Organoleptic testing
2. Microbial testing
3. Gas chromatography
4. Mass spectrometry
5. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)
6. Chirality testing
7. Isotopic analysis
8. Heavy metal testing

Organoleptic testing involves the use of our human senses, specifically sight, smell, taste, and touch. To expert distillers, the senses are used as the first line of quality testing to provide immediate clues as to the acceptability of a product. An oil that has an unusual smell, uneven consistency, or strange color instantly tells the distiller that something is wrong. Often times, this testing is used as a preliminary quality control step before any other tests are conducted.