Only nature can produce whole essential oils. Essential oils are tiny droplets contained in glands, glandular hairs, sacs, or veins of different plant parts, like leaves, bark, flowers, stem, roots and fruits. They are the “essence” of the particular plant that giving the plants its unique scent.

There are three principal methods of extracting essential oils from aromatic plants. These are: distillation process; expression process; extraction using volatile solvents; and enfleurage process.

Distillation Process
Distillation process or steam distillation is the most common process method for obtaining essential oils from a plant. The process involve heating and the steam is force into a vat of plant material, where it breaks open and reptures these glands releasing the precious oils, vapor is formed, then cooling the vapor until it becomes liquid. This is when the essential oils are collected.

Distillation is an economical and popular method used in essential oils extraction. However , it still may take hundreds, or even thousands pound of plant parts to distill a single pound of the essential oils. That’s why, some essential oils will vary greatly in their cost.

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