How are Essential Oils produced?

Essential oils come from diverse parts of aromatic plants:

• Roots & rhizomes as in the case of vetiver and ginger.
  
• Fruits as in the case of juniper
  
• Buds as in the case of Cloves
  
• Leaves as in the case of Rosemary and Thyme
  
• Petals such as Rose and Neroli
  
• Flowing heads such as Roman Chamomile & German ˇChamomile etc.
  
• Rind of citrus fruits such as Bergamot and Lemon
  
• Resin from trunks of plants like Myrrh and Frankincense

Enfleurage
This is a method of non-volatile or fixed solvent extraction at normal temperatures based on absorption of a flower fragrance by purified and odorless solid fat. This fat, in ancient times, used to be a closely guarded secret by the distiller.

Expression
Expressed extraction, the most common extraction method, is used to extract the citrus oils from the peels of Lemon, Orange, Bergamot, Grapefruit, Mandarin, Lime & other citrus fruits.

The process of Distillation
This is simple distillation of plants and liquids at atmospheric pressure. The plant material and/or liquids to be distilled are placed in a distillation vessel. This vessel is fitted with a tube at or near its upper section to enable the vapor to fall into a downward slope or in a vertical water-cooled condenser. To enable this to happen the liquid has to be heated over boiling. This vapor from boiling then passes into the cooling condenser where it condenses into a liquid. The condensed liquid is then collected in a receiver flask. The remaining distillation water, once it is separated from an essential oil, nearly always carries the fragrance of the oil, giving us evidence, to some extent, that some essential oil molecules are water soluble.