Extraction
Methods
To
extract essential oils in the most effective manner, while preserving
their therapeutic benefits, they are either distilled or expressed.
The two methods are briefly explained below.
Distillation
Pure essential oils are most commonly extracted from plants through
the process of steam distillation. In this process, steam is introduced
into a distillation chamber which contains the plant material. The
steam breaks down the plant tissue, causing it to release its essential
oil in a vaporized form. The vaporized essences, along with the
steam and other substances, pass into a pipe through cooling tanks.
The vapors return to liquid form and are separated from the water
and captured as pure essential plant oil.
Expression
Expression, also known as cold pressing, is done exclusively with
citrus oils. In this method, the oil-containing outer layer of the
fruit is pressed and filtered to yield pure essential oil. It takes
50 pounds of eucalyptus, 150 pounds of lavender, 500 pounds of rosemary,
1,000 pounds of jasmine and over 2,000 pounds of rose to make a
single pound of essential oil! The price of each essential oil is
directly related to the amount of plant material needed for distillation.
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