Essential Oils

What You Need To Know About Essential Oil Distilling Equipment

If you want to be sure of the purity o your aromatherapy essential oils or maybe you just want to teach aromatherapy. Or perhaps you're just curious as to how anyone can get the essential oil out of a bucketful of flower petals. Then you need some essential oil distilling equipment. Essential oil distilling equipment can be complicated and expensive, depending on how much oil you need. It takes quite a lot of the organic material to make even one ounce of pure essential oil. Also, keep in mind that not all essential oils are made by distillation. Some are made by solvent extraction (like jasmine) and others by expression (like lemon or lime). Look in aromatherapy books or websites to see if your favorite oil can be made with essential oil distilling equipment.

Water or Steam

There are two kinds of essential oil distilling equipment - for water distillation and for steam distillation. Steam is faster, but a more intense process requiring larger amounts of resources like electricity. Some organic materials like cinnamon are just too delicate to handle steam distillation and need the slower water distillation to get any kind of therapeutic grade essential oil.

In water distillation, the material you want the oil from and water are heated in a container (you can use a chemistry beaker) making a vapor. When the vapor cools, it drips into another clean empty container that collects the essential oil.

In steam distillation, the material is placed in a vacuum-sealed container and heated. The steam inside the container causes a massive pressure that separates the oil from the flowers, leaves, twigs, resin or even sawdust. Stem distillers work the same way that pressure cookers do. The essential oil distilling equipment is usually more complex and dangerous for the novice than for water distillation.

The newest kind of distillation is dry steam distillation, which still needs supervision but is less dangerous than steam distillation. However, this process can only make very small amounts of essential oil.

Purchasing Essential Oil Distilling Equipment

Say you've decided on purchasing essential oil distilling equipment. There are websites of companies that can sell you home stills. The cost for these units can range from a couple hundred dollars to thousands of dollars, depending on what they are made out of and how much oil you need. Copper is considered one of the best materials for essential oil distillation equipment, but there are also those made from glass.

There are several main parts to any essential oil distilling equipment. There is a beaker or container filled with water that is heated to make steam. That's called the boiler. Attached to that is a tube that goes to another container filled with the material you want the oil from. That in turn is connected by tubing to the collecting container, usually made of glass. The oil is usually strained to remove any water or other impurities, then bottled in small dark tight jars. All of this needs constant supervision.

With your own essential oil distillation equipment, you can make your own essential oil and can be assured of its purity. You can also make your own custom recipes of essential oil by mixing different plants and flowers. Making your own essential oils can be educational and rewarding.