subject: The Distillation process of ESSENTIAL OIL- LEMON [print this page] The Distillation process of ESSENTIAL OIL- LEMON
Essential Oil Distillation- How to make Lemon Oil
by Anthony Zaca of Rainier Distillers.
Lemon oil can be used to flavor alcohol. It can be a tincture or hydrosol.
Get 14 lemons. This will flavor 1 1/4 of a gallon of alcohol or hydrosol using steamed distillation. For those distilling essential oils only, 14 lemons will produce about 3 to 4 grams of oil. It sounds like its not much but when you cut it with base oil, its incredibly potent.
Those that make lemon juice, like restaurant, they throw out and disregard the most important part of the lemon, which is the casing. If you can find that source, you can create all the lemon oil you need. You can even start a business creating lemon oil essence. There are so many missed opportunities out there.
This distilled lemon oil can be added to soaps, etc. You can cook with lemon oil like in Thai recipes. Also for teas and to flavor distilled water. Many recipe books use lemon oils in lemon pound cakes. You can add to seafood. Also home brewers add lemon oil extract to beers. Lemon oil is an excellent furniture polish. It is really a gold mine.
Japanese factories use lemon oil essences to uplift their employees in their cooling systems. In enhances mood and makes everyone perky. They get more production using lemon oil as well.
In Australia we have always been told: when you have a son born into a family, you plant a lemon tree. The culture is that the son and father will go to the tree and urinate. That is an old funny tradition in the Australian country. Many bathrooms use lemon spray to mask odors.
You take the 14 lemons and grate the skin off, to its white flesh. You should get one quart of a cup for 14 lemons. Then you place it in your distillation basket. You can use any distillation device that runs steamed water thru the material. This can be alcohol as well. Those oils will be carried into the finished product. You can have lemon flavored water or lemon flavored alcohol. The latter, is for those who own micro distilleries.
If you are distilling with water, you have to bring the temperature up to boiling point, 212 F. The vapors open up the pores of the raw materials. Then it will carry the oils to a condenser that cools it back down into a liquid. You collect this in a glass bowl, or jar. Then you place the liquids in the freezer. The oils do not freeze so they will sit on top of the ice, you can just tilt it and the oil will run off into a bottle. Oil does not freeze.
