Home Herbalism Series – Class 7
Heart Health
How Does Distillation Work?
While there are many methods for extracting essential oils such as percolation and enfleurage, the method we will be using is called low-pressure steam distillation. Low-pressure steam distillation works through the creation of steam, which, once hot enough, causes sacs within the plant material to burst and release their essential oils. Within the still, these oils travel with the steam through a cooling coil, which causes the steam to turn back into a liquid. This liquid pours out as a hydrosol with the oil separating out on top within an “essencier,” a container that traps and separates out the oil from the hydrosol.
Some questions that we would love to answer through our distillation trials include whether wet or dry plant material and a fast or slow run produce the best oil result, along with what would happen if we combined multiple different plant types within the colander to extract a mixture of oils all at once.