What are You Proving When you Dissolve Styrofoam with Lemon Oil? 10 years ago

Basically you are proving that hydrocarbons like limonene (about 60-70% in lemon oil) are good organic solvents and like all good organic solvents they easily dissolve styrofoam. Gasoline, turpentine, kerosone, diesel fuel and nail polish remover will all do the same thing, so what? This demonstration proves NOTHING about the ability of lemon oil to "detox" your body of hydrocarbons, petrochemicals, etc. Sort of silly to say this when your actually ingesting hydrocarbons (i.e. the lemon oil) to eliminate hydrocarbons? Please don't be offended if you happen to be one of those who has used this demo yourself, I am posting this to help you not look foolish to people who might actually know something about essential oils and chemistry. Undoubtedly some will be offended and "un-like" my page because of this but before you go away with your feathers ruffled think about it like this: If you had toilet paper trailing from you after leaving a public restroom would you want your friend to tell you about it or just let you walk around and let everyone laugh at you? And do you get mad at your friend for pointing out the situation to save you further embarrassment or do you thank him? I hope you will be the type of person who will not shoot the messenger and be thankful for someone who cares enough about you to tell you the truth.

Lemon oil is almost entirely composed of monoterpenes which are hydrocarbons (the primary one being limonene) and as such the lemon oil, and citrus oils in general, are very good non-polar organic solvents. What this means is that they are excellent at dissolving other non-polar organic molecules (like dissolves like). Monoterpenes are not just good at dissolving petrochemicals, they dissolve MANY organic chemicals from many different sources. Citrus oils in general are just very good organic solvents. This is why things like lemon oil are used in furniture/wood cleaners and polishes, orange oils in mechanic shop cleaners (Fast Orange) and limonene in things like Goo Gone etc. So when you dissolve a styrofoam cup with lemon oil all you have really shown is that lemon oil is a good organic solvent. No surprise here, its not really something to promote, seriously. I mean, if you take gasoline and put in a styrofoam cup it will do the same thing, but you don't recommend taking gasoline internally, at least I hope you don't LOL. I am not saying it's going to kill you to put ONE DROP lemon in your water from time to time. What I am saying that using the dissolving styrofoam cup demo as the REASON to put a drop of lemon in your water is like saying that because cyanide kills cancer cells that you should use cyanide for anti-cancer treatments.

I am not even getting into the issue of whether or not lemon oil is or isn't detoxing. I am just commenting on the ridiculousness of the dissolving cup demo only, that's it. Anyone who understands anything about anatomy and chemistry knows how silly this demonstration is. To use the fact that lemon oil will dissolve a styrofoam cup to somehow demonstrate that lemon oil is good inside your body for "detoxing" is not really the best use of a demonstration, and in fact, I would argue that it could be interpreted negatively. I mean lets face it, these excellent organic solvents known as essential oils are not only good at dissolving petrochemicals they will also dissolve mucous membranes in the body, this is why you don't want to get the oils in your eyes for example. This is also why they have a drying effect on the skin, they dissolve body oils (which is one of many reasons why its better to use a carrier oil with EOs on the skin). To say that lemon oil just targets the petrochemicals in your body and doesn't dissolve anything else is just plain silliness.

So please, from one friend to another, take the toilet paper off your shoe and hopefully you don't get mad at me for bringing it to your attention.