How is essential oil extracted?

The refining process of essential oil is a complex and delicate process. It needs to go through many steps, including collecting plant materials, distilling or cold pressing extraction, separation and so on. Let's see how this process works.

The extraction of essential oil begins with the collection of plant materials. Plant materials can be flowers, leaves, fruits, bark or roots. Different plants are suitable for different extraction methods. For example, flowers generally extract essential oil by distillation, while citrus fruits can obtain essential oil by cold pressing.

After collecting plant materials, the next step is the process of extracting essential oil. The most common method is distillation. In this method, plant materials are put into a container called a distiller and then heated. With the increase of temperature, the volatile components in plant raw materials began to be released and rose to the upper part of the distiller with water vapor.

Next, the water vapor and volatile components enter the condenser, where they are cooled back to the liquid state. Because the density of essential oil is lower than that of water, it will float on the water surface to form a liquid layer. This liquid layer is what we call essential oil.

However, you may ask, why can essential oil be separated from water? This is because when volatile components evaporate during heating, their molecular weight is small, and they can be converted into gas more quickly, and can be condensed again during cooling.

Besides distillation, there is also a common refining method called cold pressing. This method is mainly used for citrus fruits. The cold pressing method is to chop the skin of the fruit, squeeze it with mechanical force and squeeze out the liquid. This method is suitable for the peel part rich in essential oil.

Once essential oils are obtained, they usually need further treatment and purification. This may include steps such as filtering, decoloring or removing impurities. These treatment steps are helpful to improve the quality and purity of essential oil.

Refined essential oils are usually stored in hidden and sealed containers to maintain their freshness and effectiveness. It is recommended to have a skin test before use to ensure no allergic reaction.

To sum up, the extraction of essential oil is a complex and delicate process, which involves many steps such as the collection of plant materials, the selection of extraction methods, treatment and purification. Accurately mastering these steps can help us better understand the production process of essential oil and choose high-quality products to meet our needs. Remember, when using essential oil, you should pay attention to the correct use and follow the doctor's advice to ensure safety and effectiveness.