Essential Oil
- By:Juliet Cohen
Essential oils are also known as ethereal or volatile oil, or simply as “oil of “the plant which one derived from aromatic herbs or aromatic plant. The word essential indicates the oil get from distinctive scent (essence) of the plant not a basic substance. Distillation is the process by which essential oil extracted. Other are as solvent extraction and expression. We make the use of essential oil in different places as in cosmetics and in perfumes, household cleaning products and for giving flavor to food & drink. They do not have any chemical substance. We can get these oils by using some natural process.
Essential oils have a variety of use. Various essential oils are using for curing different type of disease related to skin and remedies for cancer. These also help to relieve anxiety, tension and stress. Essential oils can also helps to get rid of colds and coughs in children’s. Most of people show interest in essential oil, with the popularity of aromatherapy. Aromatherapy is a fastest growing field for medically treatment. Aromatherapy is used to treatment a diseases by using essential oils. It is also a kind of herbs medicine which one extracted from plant.
Main process through which essential oil derived from plant:
Expression
Citrus oil (type of essential oil) generally gets from cold-pressed method. Oil present in the citrus peel is in large quantities and the comparatively low cost to grow and harvest raw materials. So cost of citrus is not so much than some of essential oil. Orange and lemon oils are also cheaper in citrus industry.
Distillation
Most of essential oils are distilled in a single process. In that process water is heated up and generated steam from the heated water passes through the plant (raw) material such as leaves, woods, seeds roots of plant and peel which are already put in distillation apparatus and vaporizing the volatile compounds. Vapors converted back to liquid, which is then get in a container. The herbal distillation is mainly use in cosmetics, fragrance industry because of hydrosol (lemon balm, rose water), essential oil product have pleasant smells.
Solvent Extraction
Supercritical and Hexane both are the solvent that used to extract oil. Hexane is a combination of waxes, essential oil, resins and other plant material. We have to use another distillation for removing alcohol, leaving after the completion.
For extract supercritical fluid from a solvent we use Supercritical Carbon Dioxide. It is too good to avoid petrochemicals in the products. Supercritical carbon dioxide is well to extract both the waxes and the essential oil. Pressure is reduced to ambient after the extraction process complete. And carbon dioxide changes back to a gas.About the author:
Juliet Cohen writes articles for makeup tips and skin care tips. She also writes articles on beauty tips.