How are essential oils affected by an alkaline medium?

[peppertea]

Hello! I've been searching this on the internet but found no relevant results, so maybe one of you can help me.

How are essential oils and their properties affected by the very alkaline medium during soap-making? I suppose some of their components are lost, some remain, but in what proportion? And is the alkaline medium worse or better for keeping their properties then high temperatures (let's say 80 degrees Celsius)?

(wondering how much is lost when making cold process soap, versus making hot-process- speeding up saponification- and only after the mixture is completely saponified and the pH level is down again adding the essential oils)

Thank you, and I'd appreciate any help, since this is troubling me for a while now!

Happy holidays!

 

[jbsteele]

The alkaline medium used in soap-making can cause some of the components of essential oils to break down. This is why most soap makers will wait until saponification is complete before adding essential oils, which reduces the amount of breakdown that occurs. The high temperatures used in hot process soap-making can also cause some breakdown, but the alkaline nature of the soap mixture can cause some components to break down more quickly than they would at lower temperatures. Generally speaking, the higher the temperature, the more breakdown of essential oil components that can occur.