Distilling essential oils? (seriously)

[southern45]

Has anyone here distilled essential oils before?

What type of still and/or setup do I need to do this? I've got plenty of raw materials, but is it even worthwhile?

Wife was asking me about it....... :wtf:

[bluc]

Most essential oils are extracted by water. Pot still is used(does not need to be glass). You need a botanical basket between your boiler and condenser. Water is steam through botanicals and out through condenser.
In your collection vessel the oil will float on top. You can get special collection vessel that will draw fluid of bottom but is just as easy to draw off the top with a syringe.
The water left after oil is removed is hydrosyl and has some value also..I am no expert and this is just a basic guide..

[db1979]

There's a number of different ways of doing it, I'm no expert, only time I've done it was in an undergrad lab we steam distilled oil of cloves. The cloves went into the boiler with the water, no need for a basket. You'll need lots of raw material to distil to get a decent amount of anything. If you're really really serious (really really serious) then you could look into getting ato approval for a still to distil essential oils. With good marketing and the right approach it's possible you could make money out of it.

[southern45]

Thanks for the input. So using a 30L electric boiler and 2" copper pot I could ...

- Chuck LOTS of raw ingredients directly into the boiler
- Cover with water
- Distill and collect into one of those fancy looking conical glass things
- Drain off the water (hydrosol) which may have some use
- Collect the remaining tiny bit of oil

Sound about right?

:geek:

[bluc]

Pretty much yes :handgestures-thumbupleft: