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Easy Craft Ideas Guide to Essential Oil Production
Essential oils are extracted from plant material and flowers by several methods. Plants contain only a very small percentage of oil so more than a hundred pounds may be needed for each ounce of oil produced. Some methods are more time consuming, and therefore more expensive, but all use a great deal of plant material so oil produced is relatively expensive. However for most purposes only a few drops of the concentrated oil are required so a small bottle of essential oil will last a very long time. Many of our easy craft ideas use essential oils for their lovely scent. Steam Distillation The most common way to produce essential oils is by steam distillation. One method entails passing pressurised steam through fresh flowers or plants placed on a screen in a still. The steam absorbs the oils from the plant and is then cooled and condensed in a separate chamber. The oil is then separated from the water by skimming the oil layer which forms on the top of the water. The water remaining, called floral water or hydrosol is also useful for toners and facial mists. It is much less concentrated than essential oil and can be used for individuals who are sensitive to essential oils. Solvent Extraction This method is used for extracting oil from plants which are too delicate to use steam distillation. Flowers are placed on a mesh tray and a solvent (usually hexane) is used to wash over the flowers many times. The aromatic oils plus any extractable pigments and waxes pass into the solvent which is then filtered and low pressure distillation used to remove the solvent. The resulting material, producing a material called a concrete, is processed further to separate the essential oil from the other materials. The concrete itself, a waxy solid can be used as a perfume and the floral waxes can be used in candle making, creams and lotions. Enfleurage Some flowers, for example jasmine, have even smaller percentages of oils so a different method is used. This method, which is time consuming and expensive, involves placing the flowers on trays of vegetable oil. The vegetable oil absorbs the oil from the flowers over many days. The flowers are replaced with fresh flowers at regular intervals until the vegetable oil is completely saturated with the oil from the flowers. The essential oil is then extracted from the vegetable oil with alcohol which is then evaporated off to leave the pure essential oil from the flowers. Cold Pressing Citrus oils are usually extracted from the fruit by a cold pressing method. The fruit is rolled over troughs with sharp projections that pierce the peel to release the oils. The fruit is then squeezed to release the juices. The oil forms a layer on the top of the juice and is separated by the use of a centrifuge. Carbon Dioxide Extraction This method uses very high pressure carbon dioxide to extract the oil. Plant material is placed into a container, carbon dioxide is introduced until a high pressure is obtained. At this pressure the carbon dioxide liquefies and then extracts the oils as a solvent. The carbon dioxide is then returned to atmospheric pressure where it returns to the gaseous state leaving behind the extracted plant oils. This produces and extremely pure oil extract which has a fresher and cleaner aromas than the oils produced by steam distillation. It also uses lower temperatures than steam distillation so preventing any degradation of the oil and allowing the extraction of some essential oils that are degraded by steam distillation. Steam Diffusion Extraction Steam at atmospheric pressure is passed through plant material allowing it to evenly saturate the material. It is a gentler method than steam extraction which uses pressurised steam and the oil produced usually has an aroma closer to the original flowers. |
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This intel was contributed by janetra
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May, 2012
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