Essential oil extraction from flowers spices
Essential oil extraction refers to the distillation and extraction of essential oils from aromatic plants by steam. This is a common clean method for essential oil extraction equipment. 95% of the essential oils of aromatic plants can be obtained by distillation. Aromatic plants are suitable for distillation and extraction of flowers, rhizomes, leaves, and sawdust.
The method of essential oil extraction equipment from flowers and spices:
Way 1:
Put the aromatic plant raw materials into the steamer first, and then add clean water or the pure dew distilled from the previous pot, the water height just over the material layer. Heating methods include direct steam heating, electric jacket heating, and direct fire heating by burning gas at the bottom of the pot (liquefied gas or coal gas can be used). During electric jacket heating and direct fire heating at the bottom of the pot, a sieve plate should be installed between the material in the distillation pot and the bottom of the pot to prevent direct contact between the raw materials and the heat source, causing scorching and affecting the quality of essential oils.
The raw materials distilled in water are always submerged in water, the water disperses well, the distillation is more uniform, and there is no steam short circuit caused by the compaction of the raw materials. Distillation in water is suitable for some larger flowers, such as roses; broken peels and easy-to-bond raw materials. However, the esters in essential oils distilled from water are easily hydrolyzed, so perfume plants with high esters cannot use this method.
Way 2:
The raw materials are placed on the sieve plate in the distillation pot, and a certain amount of water is placed under the sieve plate to meet the requirements of the distillation operation to generate sufficient saturated steam. The height of the water layer is based on the principle that the bottom layer of the raw materials does not splash when the water boils. Water distillation can also use direct fire heating at the bottom of the pot, indirect steam heating, and electric jacket heating.
At the beginning of distillation, the water layer at the bottom of the pot is heated until it boils. The low-pressure saturated steam generated passes through the sieve to heat the material layer from bottom to top. The saturated steam rises from the material layer to the top of the pot to form water-oil mixed steam. It is advisable to proceed slowly, usually about 20-30 minutes. The raw materials for water distillation only contact with steam, and the low-pressure saturated steam produced, due to the high moisture content, is beneficial to the evaporation of essential oils, and is also beneficial to shorten the distillation time, save fuel, and improve the oil yield and oil quality. Water distillation is widely used. The aromatic plants grown in a large area are peppermint, citronella, eucalyptus leaves, etc., all essential oils are extracted by water distillation; this method is also suitable for crushed dry raw materials including wood chips and certain shade-dried flowers and plants. The material needs to be soaked in water before distilling, so that the material can eat through.
Way 3:
The steam produced by a steam generator or a small boiler is passed into the boiler for direct distillation. Usually the steam is sprayed directly under the sieve plate and enters the raw material layer through the sieve holes to heat the raw material. The steam produced by the steam generator has a certain degree of micro-pressure steam, and the pressure of the steam fed into the small boiler is set within 0.5 kg. Saturated steam with higher temperature and lower moisture content can quickly heat the material layer. Therefore, when heating and distilling the dry material, the dry material must be soaked and soaked in advance before filling. Direct steam distillation has fast distillation speed and high temperature, which can shorten the distillation time, high boiling point components can be steamed out, and the oil yield is high. The direct steam distillation method is suitable for fresh materials or pre-wet processed dry materials, such as white orchid leaves, orange leaves, and cassia leaves with smaller volume diameters.
