booboorivers
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Making essentials oils and tinctures
I spend a small fortune on these items.Bought a vacuum distiller and fractional distiller on amazon,don't have a clue on how to do this,did I buy the
correct equipment..Any great teaching and learning sites out there on this.HELP NEEDED,this is my retirement hobby.
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Amos
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By far this is not the first time this kind of question has been asked. I'll be the first person to recommend that you use the search engine, or
better yet, use a google search with the topics you're interested in and include the word sciencemadness ("essential oil extraction sciencemadness"
for example). The equipment you have is useful but I would also highly recommend a Soxhlet extractor with a matching condenser. There's a huge wealth
of information out there on this stuff as it's a common enough hobby, both on sciencemadness and YouTube, but you have to look!
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booboorivers
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Thanks,have ordered it.Watched youtube instruction,seems easy enough.
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Amos
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As opposed to most things in home chemistry, steam distillations actually are pretty easy once you've done a few. I salute you for choosing such a
cool hobby to take up.
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aga
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Welcome !
Yesterday i also received my first ever steam distillation rig.
So far it seems fairly straightforwards.
The Objective is to get Steam to pass through the plant material, and then Condense those vapours by cooling them in a condenser.
The fiddly glass receiving arrangement is designed to let the Water go, and the Oil remain, as it floats on top of the water.
Tips:-
1. Make sure that all ground-glass joints have a very thin smear of vaseline/petroleum jelly on them before fixing them all together tight. This makes
it less likely that they will stick together. If they do, it is very hard to separate them without breaking something.
2. Before you start, fill the receiving tube with distilled, de-ionised water so that the water is just above the side-tube at the bottom. If you
don't, the First bits of oil you collect will get flushed out of that tube.
3. A condenser should fill up from the Bottom, not the top. When done correctly, you can't see the water in the condenser move, as it is always Full.
SM member CHRIS25 is pretty hot on steam distillations, as i recall.
Enjoy !
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chemrox
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Steam distillation is a good and traditional starting point. Eventually you will want to dabble in solvent extraction. There are some very good
manuals on herbal meds preparation. The problem with all or nearly all of them is they emphasize traditional techniques that are often wasteful. For
example you often see things like 'place the plant material in a bucket and cover with alcohol for 2 weeks.' The 19th-20th century version would
utilize a sohxlet extractor and solvents appropriate to the expected extracts. Keep checking back and tell us what you're up to! ;^)
"When you let the dumbasses vote you end up with populism followed by autocracy and getting back is a bitch." Plato (sort of)
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