How Essential oils are made

Essential oils are basically the life essence of plants. It is in fact the product that comes out of a plant’s aromatic essence. Every plant has its own way of making these essences. To define it in a very simple way we will say that it’s a material derived from plants and it carries the smell of that plant. These substances are generally liquids. They are found in various plants. There is glandular structure present in plants out of which Essential oils are made. Let us discuss the various methods of essential oil making. The three basic methods for making essential oil are

(i) Steam Distillation

(ii) Expression

(iii) Extraction.

Out of these methods Steam Distillation is cheap and very common.

Let us discuss each method of essential oil production or making process in detail.

  1. Steam Distillation: This is one of the most common way of producing essential oils. In this method, heat is the main component through which plant materials are exposed to heat, and then heat evaporates the essential oil. Steam will be passed through a big steamer basket like hopper which contains raw material of plants, which releases the aroma of plants that evaporates and rises above the chamber of steam. To explain it in clear words, when hot vapors cool down, it causes condensation of both water vapor and oil. As a given fact that there is no mixture of oil and water they can be separated at this stage itself. By steam distillation, many other essential oils are produced of various parts of plants.
  2. Expression: Cold-pressing is another name of expression which is a temperature controlling process. Cold Pressing is a temperature-controlled process. This is another means of getting an essential oil out of plants. The peels containing the oils are pricked first all over, to puncture the cells. Hereafter the cells are soaked in warm water, and then they are mechanically pressed. This output and pulp are then are separated into citrus juice and essential oil. This was the labor-intensive and very expensive method.
  3. Extraction: Extraction basically functions according to the principle of differential solubility. A plant contains lots of water, in which oils are found that are sparingly soluble, so if during the process the plant gets exposed to highly soluble organic solvent, the oil will be drawn from the plant. The solvent will then be evaporated, and the aromatic product remains. It’s a very expensive technique, so this is not very commonly used to make essential oils.
  4. Enfleurage: This is a very old technique which was used by people long ago in which the essence of a few flowers are captured and combined with fat of animals and pressed between glasses. After some days the fresh flowers were put in that place and old flowers were removed.The process is then repeated for days till the time we get the desired result. As animal fat is involved in the process, people do not really like this method to be used for the oils that will be used by them. This method has really gone obsolete and is not much used now.

Thus this was the main way by which we produce and extract essential oils. There have been a lot of health benefits of essential oils that’s been discussed now and then. It’s really powerful and need to be used with a lot of caution, though there is still a lot of research required on its healing potential. Making essential oils through the above-mentioned methods varies from simple to complex and can take anywhere from a few hours to weeks depending on the method you choose. Improper use of essential oil may cause irritation and allergies. It should also be kept away from the reach of children.