All of us are well-aware about the essential oils, but still, there's something hidden, of course, most of us don't know. I am going to talk about how to make essential oils? and it's the right time to make sure you understand what essential oils are, and how they're effective to treat many health concerns.
Since ancient to modern times, natural essential oils are being used for different purposes, i.e. aromatherapy, medicinal, spiritual, food preparation, beauty care, and for therapeutic usage. It would be better to say that they're the root of modern pharmaceuticals. Aromatic extracts of plants are being used in different parts of the world equally, either China, India, Egypt, Gulf countries or elsewhere. Historical evidence reveals about the natural essential oil's usage in the period of 3000-2500 B.C.
Natural Essential oils are an integral part of Ayurveda Medicine, which is being practised for at least 5000 years back and still prevailing. It's interesting to know that it had mentioned over 700 different herbs and aromatics to deal with various health issues. Whenever we glance over the Ayurvedic literature from 2000 B.C., we find that doctors ("vaidya") were familiar with the usage of frankincense, cinnamon, cedarwood, and many more botanical herbs. Apart from the above evidence, essential oils are gaining its popularity in different industries, i.e. food and beverages, aromatherapy, cosmetics, health care, etc.
What are Natural Essential Oils
Essential oils are natural extracts (in the form of liquid) of plants or its parts, i.e. roots, flowers, leaves, shoots, bark etc. All these natural essential oils have their chemical compositions which produce a therapeutic effect or for the fragrance. Presence of monoterpene, sesquiterpenes, phenols, monoterpene alcohols, sesquiterpene alcohols, aldehydes, lactones and coumarins, esters, oxides, and other chemical compounds are the cause of anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, antispasmodic, antifungal, antimicrobial, antiseptic properties.
We're one of the foremost essential oils manufacturer and supplier in India. Our 100 percent pure and natural essential oils boom in the natural product market. We use traditional approaches to distil oil from the plants. We, not only extracts essential oils but also manufacture attars, absolute oils, carrier oils, organic essential oils.
We're listed with more than a hundred of essential oils including lavender, ginger, peppermint, bergamot, patchouli, ylang-ylang, black pepper, sandalwood, clary-sage etc.
How To Make Essential Oils - Various techniques
There are various techniques for preparing natural essential oils; few are listed below:-
- Steam Distillation
- Solvent Extraction
- CO2 Extraction
- Maceration
- Enfleurage
- Cold-Press Extraction
- Water Distillation
Here we're going to discuss a few of them meanwhile, we'll tell you how we maintain the quality and purity of essential oils / organic essential oils before the final delivery of the product.
Pure and Organic Essential Oils - High Quality / Adulteration-Free
Kshrey is profound for its high-quality organic essential oils manufacturing and wholesaling. Our certified organic essential oils are grown under the natural environment where the soil is free from fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, and pesticides. All products are highly demanded as well as appreciated by our potential clients. We strongly boycott the usage of kind of mixing, adulteration or chemicals. The product is safe and free of harmful additives. Our QA team check everything from the collection of raw materials to final delivery of the product.
Now let's focus on how to make essential oils?
Steam distillation of Essential Oil Manufacturer
Among the most popular essential oils distillation techniques, we're going to discuss the steam distillation. As we know, the plants accumulate their essentials within leaves, flowers, seeds, roots or in other parts. And to extract these essentials, we take advantage of water or steam. Where steam vaporizes the plant's volatile component that gets condensed and processed. Let's brief the process:-
Steam Distillation Process
- During steam distillation botanical material (Raw material) is placed in a still (stainless steel) container and steam are forced to pass over the material. The steam plays a vital role in extracting aromatic essence (molecules) from the raw material.
- Thereafter, these molecules evaporate into the steam, and the temperature is controlled carefully to ensure that plant material or molecules do not deform or destroy by overheating.
- After passing through the heating (vaporization) stage, the process goes to the condensation stage where the cooling mechanism condenses the steam. The two pipes allow and exit, cold water and hot water respectively resulting cooling of vapour into the liquid.
- Later on, aromatic liquid by-product drops from the Condenser and collects inside Separator.
As the density of oil is less than water, therefore it floats over the water and easy to separate.
Here steam is produced when applied pressure is more than atmospheric pressure and boils at above 100-degree celsius. And because of this extraction of essential oil speed-up at a faster rate, preventing the content from damage. A few essential oils are very sensitive to heat. Therefore we can use another method for this.
It's one of the traditional approaches for the distillation of essential oils, and Kshrey uses this technique for producing oils.
Solvent Extraction
The solvent extraction process uses liquids having relative solubilities, mostly the organic one such as hexane and ethanol to isolate essential oils. The process is used for plants having a low amount of essential oils, and also unable to withstand high pressure and temperature (mostly steam distillation). And it's good for producing the finest fragrance, therefore best for perfume industry or for aromatherapy purposes.
Hypercritical CO2 (Carbon Dioxide), maceration and enfleurage are the most popular way of the solvent extraction process.
Co2 Extraction
The supercritical CO2 extraction process is somehow similar to steam distillation process for extraction of essential oils. High-quality oil is extracted through this process, as the properties of oils do not alter by application of heat and pressure. Instead of using heat/pressure, Co2 is used as a solvent and temperature between 95 to 100 degrees. Co2 extracts are higher in concentration and produce more aroma as compared to natural essential oils.
Co2 Extraction Process
- On applying high-pressure carbon dioxide gets converted into the liquid form, which is pumped into a chamber filled with plant matter or natural product.
- Now, Co2 works as a solvent and help to pull out oils and other substances such as pigment and resin from the plant's matters. The liquid, i.e. essential oil dissolves into liquid Co2.
- After this mixture is passed through the PRV, which reduces the pressure and allow Co2 back in gaseous form.
- Finally the residual, while what is left is the resulting oil that is collected inside the collection vessel.
Maceration
Maceration process is used to extract the complete essence of the plant, i.e. therapeutic properties from the plant material. The oil extracted through this process are referred to as infused oils. Maceration process has the capacity to capture larger plant molecules that is not possible during the distillation process.
Maceration Extraction Process
- Firstly plant material is finely cut or crushed into the form of powder and placed in a closed vessel.
- In the next step, finely chopped plant material is mixed with a solvent. The solvent is referred to as Menstruum.
- Now the mixture is allowed to stand for at least one week, and during this period it's shaken occasionally. And After this liquid is strained.
- Further pressure is applied over solid residue (Marc) to recover the rest of the liquid. Later on, both types of liquids, i.e. strained and expressed are mixed.
In the final stage filtration or subsidence, the process gets initiated where liquids are clarified.
After completion of the maceration process, the base oil may change the colour and pour into an airtight container. The place should be cool and dry, where the container is to be placed for 12 months.
Enfleurage
The enfleurage extraction process is not popular today, but it is one of the oldest techniques for essential oil extraction. Where animal fat or vegetable fat becomes infused with the plant's compound (mostly flower's fragrance compound). Two modes are used for enfleurage process viz. Hot and cold. Heated fat is the only difference between the two processes.
In this process, the flower petals or fresh whole flowers are placed over highly purified and odourless vegetable or animal fat and allowed to sit for a couple of weeks till their scent seeps into the fat. Later on, the depleted petals replaced, and the process is repeated until saturation achieved. Lastly, the end product enfleurage pomade: the fat and the fragrant oil is washed with alcohol to separate the plant's essence or botanical extracts from the fat. After evaporation of alcohol, we obtain pure extracts called "absolute".
Cold-Pressed Extraction
The cold-pressed extraction process also called expression, where no need for heat is used to extract the essential oils. Mostly it's used to extract citrus essential oils. Where high mechanical pressure is applied to the material, let's go step by step.
- The whole fruit is mechanically pierced and pressed to squeeze out the juice and oil. Still, the mixture contains solids from the fruits and go for the centrifugal process, where the peel and other unwanted material get separated. Now it turns to separate the juice from the oil.
Water Distillation
The water distillation process is the best to protect extracted oil from overheating, as the case may be in steam distillation. In this process, the botanical material is immersed in boiling water. The surrounding water protects the extract from overheating. During the condensation stage, the liquid cools down and separated from each other. The residual water absorbs the fragrance and referred to as floral water, herbal water, hydrosol, etc.
Organic Essential Oils Manufacturer / Supplier/ Wholesaler
79 years of journey and reach up to 70 countries ! is just enough to tell about us. We've established strong relationships among our clients by our commitment and high-quality products. We manufacture attars, absolute oils, carrier oils, wildcraft oil, organic essential oils, and other useful natural products. All our products are globally acclaimed, and also having govt — certification of purity and standard.
If you wish to buy 100 percent pure and natural essential oil, then you can opt us. Our competitive pricing makes every purchase cost-effective. Online and offline every mode is easily accessible for our customers, either Indian or overseas. Just have a call @ 9810 569 811
Note: - All this information is only for education purpose, and this information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease, and it should not be used by anyone who is pregnant or under the care of a medical practitioner. Before using any of the product, please consult with a registered medical practitioner/doctor. Please refer to our policies for further details, and our disclaimer below.