Essential oils are very important because they have so many uses.
They have a pleasant fragrance that is great for candles.
They can even be used for medical purposes.
Making oils is gathering the it from various parts of plants.
Making one ounce of it might take a hundred pounds of a plant.
Each plant does not have a lot of oil, but it is heavily concentrated.
Making oils has several methods.
There are specific methods for specific types of plants.
Generally the harder it is to extract the oil, the more expensive it is going to be.
Steam distillation uses high-pressure steam over the plant to extract the oil, which travels into a chamber, and then settles out into a container.
The oil is then skimmed of the top while the water left over can be used for fragrances or toners.
Steam distillation is the most commonly used method for making oils.
Solvent or steam diffusion extraction are the best methods for fragile flowers or plants.
The difference between steam diffusion and steam distillation is that diffusion uses atmospheric pressure.
Solvent extraction gets the oil from the plant using a solvent that is then removed with low-pressure distillation.
The oil is in a waxy solid, which includes the plant's wax and pigments.
They are all separated out and used.
Natural oils can be very limited on some plants or flowers.
Enfleurage is used in this situation and uses an odorless vegetable to extract it.
Vegetable is removed with alcohol and then the alcohol is removed with evaporation over time, leaving it behind.
The fruit of some plants make the citrus essential oil.
Cold pressing extracts it by squeezing the juice out.
Using centrifuge then separates the juice and oil.
Carbon dioxide method releases this gas into a container with the plant until the gas turns into a liquid and extracts the oil.
Once the liquid is passed into another chamber, the gas evaporates.
All that is left is the essential oil with no residues.