Greetings, 

In this article I will demonstrate how essential oils are distilled from plants.  

Distillation involves heating a liquid, condensing the steam back into liquid form and collecting the distillate in a vessel.    

Types of Stills

Copper Alembic Still   

Copper stills are by far the most beautiful and expensive stills available. This photo is of my first still which was handmade in France. 

This particular model’s capacity is 1.5 liters (0.7 gallons) which makes it impractical for distilling large quantities of essential oil. These pups run for around 150 steem dollars.    

Steam Injection 

(image source)

This is a common laboratory distillation setup. 

The flask on the bottom is filled with water and heated which injects steam through the chopped plant material in the upper flask.  The steam, which is now carrying the water soluble components and volatile oils, condenses as it passes through the water cooled condenser coil. 

A glass essencier attachment separates the oil from the hydrosol (water solution).   

Labware is easy to customize and replacing broken parts is simple. It is also transparent. The only downside is that most labware setups have somewhat small chambers so are not useful for distilling large quantities of herbs.   

Modified Pressure Cooker   

To extract larger batches of herbs, I simply attached a tube to the top of a pressure cooker and attached the tube to my copper condenser coil. 

With a little ingenuity and some basic supplies, a still can easily be made at home. 

Here is a simple design I’ve drawn up which should give you the general idea of what’s required:   

Moonshine Still   

I spent long hours searching the perfect still and decided on this one from Brewhaus. It is useful for both distilling essential oils and making alcohol. 

Finely crafted from high grade stainless steel, this still has an 8-gallon capacity and includes everything needed to start distilling. The quality of craftsmanship and simplicity of design is well worth the 17 ounces of silver paid. 

Distillation of Helichrysum                

Helichrysum (helichrysum italicum) also known as "Imortelle" is a highly aromatic herb that is used in perfumery, skin care products and as a medicine. It has a high essential oil content, as with other aromatic herbs. 

I harvested the flowering plant this morning, a time when the essential oil content is the highest. Throughout the day, the essential oils in plants dissipate and are replenished overnight.

The herb is chopped, placed in the pot of the still and covered with water. Chopping the herb opens up the cell walls and makes extracting the oil more efficient.

All the tubes are connected, the heat is on and distillation commences. 

The condenser on this model consists of a pipe that the distillate travels through, surrounded by another pipe filled with cold water. Water is cycled through the two clear plastic tubes and the distillate travels down the opaque tube into a collection vessel.

The distillate is collected in a separatory funnel which is a glass vessel with a valve at the bottom. The essential oil rises to the surface of the hydrosol. The hydrosol is drained every so often and the essential oil is left behind.

After a few hours of distilling, the process is complete. The hyrdosol is completely drained, then the oil is drained into a glass dropper bottle.

The yield from this plant was very good. This summer I've distilled nettles, mint, male cannabis plants and cedar leaf which all had considerable yields.  

Other ways of separating the oil from the hydrosol include:

• Freezing. The hyrdosol freezes and the oil is left in liquid form then poured or siphoned off the top.
• Essencier. With this attachment, the oil and hyrdol are automatically separated throughout the distillation process.
• Siphoning. The oil is siphoned from the top of the hydrosol.

The Laboratory

My laboratory is inside of a trailer that has been converted into a commercial kitchen. It is a clean, dedicated space for doing herbal extractions.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article and learning about essential oils. In due time I will share how to make your own "rubbing alcohol".