Chemistry
⚗️ Chemistry

Purity & Quality

Why most essential oils on the market fall short — and how doTERRA's CPTG standard addresses it.

Purity vs Quality

Purity and quality are often spoken about together, but they are not the same.

A high-quality plant can produce high-quality oil — but due to modern sourcing processes, it may become adulterated, making it impure. Likewise, an oil can be technically pure but come from low-quality plant material, limiting its effectiveness.

True integrity lies in the consistent meeting of both: oils that are unaltered and sourced from healthy, carefully grown plants.

The Problem with the Industry

In much of the essential oil industry, oils pass through multiple intermediaries before reaching the end user. With each step there is pressure to increase profit — and this is often where dilution or substitution occurs. An oil may be extended with a carrier oil, have cheaper similar-smelling compounds added, or be labelled as a species it is not. The essential oil market is largely unregulated.

What CPTG Means

CPTG stands for Certified Pure Tested Grade — doTERRA's internal quality standard. Every batch is independently tested for purity and potency by third-party labs before it can be sold. No synthetic fillers. No adulterants. What is on the label is what is in the bottle.

Testing includes:

  • Gas chromatography / mass spectrometry (GC/MS) — identifies and quantifies every compound
  • Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) — verifies molecular structure
  • High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) — detects non-volatile compounds
  • Microbial testing — ensures no harmful microbes
  • Heavy metal testing — confirms no heavy metal contamination
  • Organoleptic testing — sensory evaluation by trained experts
  • Isotopic analysis — can detect synthetic additives
  • Chirality testing — distinguishes natural from synthetic forms of compounds

Third-Party Testing

doTERRA works with multiple independent third-party laboratories to test each batch — not just their own internal lab. Results are published at sourcetoyou.com, where any oil can be traced by lot number from farm to bottle.