Distillation
Distillation separates aromatic materials using evaporation and condensation. Learn how steam and water methods produce essential oils and aromatic waters.
Updated
Distillation separates components through evaporation and condensation. For many perfume materials, water or steam carries volatile compounds from a botanical into a condenser; the resulting liquid is collected and the essential oil is separated from the aromatic water.
The method is used for many herbs, woods, roots and flowers. It captures a selected part of the source material rather than every substance in the plant, so a distilled oil need not smell exactly like the fresh botanical.
There are several forms of distillation, including later refining steps applied to an existing oil. Heat, pressure and collection choices affect the result; the word distilled does not describe one fixed recipe.
- Steam distillation
- Steam passes through the botanical and carries volatile material to a condenser.
- Hydrodistillation
- The botanical is in contact with boiling water during distillation.
- Condenser
- The cooled part of the apparatus where vapor becomes liquid.
- Essential oil
- The aromatic oil separated from the collected distillate. Whether it lies above or below the water depends on its density.
- Hydrosol
- The aromatic water obtained from distillation, which contains water-soluble volatile components.
- Fractionation
- Separating a material into fractions with differing compositions. Distillation is one way to do this.
- Vacuum distillation
- Distillation under reduced pressure, allowing evaporation at lower temperatures than under ordinary atmospheric pressure.
- Distillation vs. solvent extraction
- Both separate aromatic material from a source, but use different processes and can produce different scent profiles.