Читать книгу Aromatherapy Workbook - Shirley Price - Страница 48

Lactones are easy to remember because they occur mostly in expressed oils, being too large to come over in distillation. Jasmine absolute has been found to contain a lactone, but as you will remember, this oil is not an essential oil, as it is not obtained by distillation and therefore larger molecules can pass into the solvent used for the extraction process.

As the percentage of lactones present in any oil is extremely low, they may generally be regarded as non-toxic. They have been found to be more effective than ketones for lowering temperatures and relieving catarrh, and are the components responsible for skin photosensitization.

Lactones are widely distributed in nature; the most important members of this class (or chemical family) occurring in essential oils are the coumarins and coumarin derivatives.