Traditional Methods of Essential Oil Harvesting

Date Created:24 Dec 2021

Essential Oils the phenolic, or phytochemical compounds which are being extracted or harvested from plants. These phytochemicals have nutritional, and therapeutic values. You can find various types of the Botanical Species which are listed on SCIENCE ARENA. This article is focused on the cultivation of essential oils.

Hydrodistillation

In order to isolate essential oils by hydro-distillation, the aromatic plant material is packed in a still and a sufficient quantity of water is added and brought to a boil; alternatively, live steam is injected into the plant charge. Due to the influence of hot water and steam, the essential oil is freed from the oil glands in the plant tissue. The vapor mixture of water and oil is condensed by indirect cooling with water. From the condenser, distillate flows into a separator, where oil separates automatically from the distillate water.

Three Types of Hydro-distillation

Three are three types of hydro-distillation for isolating essential oils from plant materials:

1. Water distillation

2. Water and steam distillation

3. Direct steam distillation

Water Distillation

In this method, the material is completely immersed in water, which is boiled by applying

heat by direct fire, steam jacket, closed steam jacket, closed steam coil or open steam coil. The main characteristic of this process is that there is direct contact between boiling water and plant material.

When the still is heated by direct fire, adequate precautions are necessary to prevent the

charge from overheating. When a steam jacket or closed steam coil is used, there is less danger of overheating; with open steam coils this danger is avoided. But with open steam, care must be taken to prevent accumulation of condensed water within the still. Therefore, the still should be well insulated. The plant material in the still must be agitated as the water boils, otherwise agglomerations of dense material will settle on the bottom and become thermally degraded. Certain plant materials like cinnamon bark, which are rich in mucilage, must be powdered so that the charge can readily disperse in the water; as the temperature of the water increases, the mucilage will be leached from the ground cinnamon. This greatly increases the viscosity of the water-charge mixture, thereby allowing it to char. Consequently, before any field distillation is done, a small-scale water distillation in glassware should be performed to observe whether any changes take place during the distillation process. From this laboratory trial, the yield of oil from a known weight of the plant material can be determined. The laboratory apparatus recommended for trial distillations is the Clevenger system.

During water distillation, all parts of the plant charge must be kept in motion by boiling

water; this is possible when the distillation material is charged loosely and remains loose in the boiling water. For this reason only, water distillation possesses one distinct advantage, i.e. that it permits processing of finely powdered material or plant parts that, by contact with live steam, would otherwise form lumps through which the steam cannot penetrate. Other practical advantages of water distillation are that the stills are inexpensive, easy to construct and suitable for field operation. These are still widely used with portable equipment in many countries.

The main disadvantage of water distillation is that complete extraction is not possible. Besides, certain esters are partly hydrolyzed and sensitive substances like aldehydes tend to polymerize. Water distillation requires a greater number of stills, more space and more fuel. It demands considerable experience and familiarity with the method. The high-boiling and somewhat water-soluble oil constituents cannot be completely vaporized or they require large quantities of steam. Thus, the process becomes uneconomical. For these reasons, water distillation is used only in cases in which the plant material by its very nature cannot be processed by water and steam distillation or by direct steam distillation.

Traditional Method of Producing Attar Using Hydro-distillation

Floral attars are defined as the distillates obtained by hydro-distillation of flowers (such as saffron, marigold, rose, jasmine, pandanus) in sandal wood oil or other base materials like paraffin. Attar manufacturing takes place in remote places because the flowers must be processed quickly after collection. The apparatus and equipment used to manufacture attar are light, flexible, easy to repair, and have a fair degree of efficiency. Keeping in view these facts, the traditional “deg and bhapka” process has been used for centuries and is used even now with the following traditional equipment.

• Deg (still)

• Bhapka (receiver)

• Chonga (bamboo condenser)

• Traditional bhatti (furnace)

• Gachchi (cooling water tank)

• Kuppi (leather bottle)

Water and Steam Distillation

In water and steam distillation, the steam can be generated either in a satellite boiler or within the still, although separated from the plant material. Like water distillation, water and steam distillation is widely used in rural areas. Moreover, it does not require a great deal more capital expenditure than water distillation. Also, the equipment used is generally similar to that used in water distillation, but the plant material is supported above the boiling water on a perforated grid. In fact, it is common that persons performing water distillation eventually progress to water and steam distillation.

It follows that once rural distillers have produced a few batches of oil by water distillation, they realize that the quality of oil is not very good because of its still notes (subdued aroma). As a result, some modifications are made. Using the same still, a perforated grid or plate is fashioned so that the plant material is raised above the water. This reduces the capacity of the still but affords a better quality of oil. If the amount of water is not sufficient to allow the completion of distillation, a cohobation tube is attached and condensate water is added back to the still manually, thereby ensuring that the water, which is being used as the steam source, will never run out. It is also believed that this will, to some extent, control the loss of dissolved oxygenated constituents in the condensate water because the re-used condensate water will allow it to become saturated with dissolved constituents, after which more oil will dissolve in it.