Distilling Essential Oils
Who doesn’t love essential oils?! More than a fad, or things that smell nice, these are incredible super condensed plant medicine! Oftentimes 30 lb of plant material is used to produce only a small bottle of essential oil. As the name states, essential oils contain the essence of the plant and these oils are often referred to as the “life force” of the plant. Therapeutically, these little bottles are best used to promote physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
What are essential oils?
Essential oils are pure plant extracts of volatile lipophilic (fat-loving) compounds that occur naturally in plants. What happens to the remainder hydrophilic (water-loving) compounds? The accumulations of water-soluble compounds create hydrosols (floral, herbal, or medicinal waters). Both are commonly used in cosmetics and topical therapeutics.
One bottle of essential oil can contain up to 200 compounds. These compounds contribute to the overall aroma, flavor, and therapeutic attributes. Each plant contains a unique fingerprint of compounds depending on environmental variations (season, location, temperature, harvesting techniques, etc.).
What is the difference between essential oils and hydrosols?
Essential oils typically call the plants’ fingerprint of terpenes. Essential oils are so potent, that they should not be applied directly to the skin (a carrier oil is always required). They have a shelf-life of up to 5 years.
Hydrosols typically carry the plants’ fingerprint of alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, phenols, acids, and other heavier compounds. Since they are water-based, hydrosols can be applied directly to the skin. They typically have a shelf-life of up to one year.
How do you make essential oils and hydrosols?
Distilling essential oils involve each of the elements, water, earth, air, and fire for extraction.
Using a traditional copper alembic still, pure water is added to the earth (fresh plant) material, and heated with fire. The steam is carried through the air until it travels through a condenser where it is cooled and returned into liquid again.
How do you extract essential oils and hydrosols?
Using a copper alembic still to extract plant material allows for all-natural therapeutic essential oils and hydrosols that local plant compounds. Other extraction methods include solvent extraction, CO2 extraction, maceration, enfleurage, cold press extraction, you can learn more here.
Most of the clinical research on the therapeutic use of essential oils (mostly during the last 10 years), but the oldest alembic still discovered was is almost 4,000 years old!
A note from us
Distilling is an art form using all five senses with careful consideration into meticulous attention to operating within a sterile environment and thoroughness in controlling and documenting weight, temperature, pH, and time, throughout the process. At Tahoe Petrichor, we use an 80L traditional copper alembic still. Taking careful consideration into preserving the environment and local biome, abundant medicinal plants used in the distillation process are naturally organic and forest-grown. Distilling essential oils in this manner allows for great respect for the environment, medicine, and your well-being.