Steam distillation - Lavender essential oil 🌿 

Yeah, it happens to me too. Essential oils are always mixtures of lots of compunds. Even with lavender oils: the method of extraction, the species of plant you use all kind of things will influence the final composition and that makes really difficult to a pair of different lavender oils have the same composition. Particulary I was amazed with the main component of the oil, linalyl butyrate. I have synthetized butyric acid, wich smells terrible (like vomit, I promise you, real vomit :D). In the oil it is in the form of an esther with linalyl alcohol but if you smell lavender oil , somehow, you can notice the presence of that smell. Thanks for commenting¡¡¡

@@Glattuh what is the name of the beginning track???

Normal Distillation of Lavender does not include adding other chemical compounds this is call adulteration which is bad to do! This video is a bad example of distillation of Lavender! If you have to add chemicals then you are not getting real Lavender Essential Oil. This person does this to everything they make!

Thanks!!! Im sure I will do in the future !!!

I'm loving these sciency vids. I've tried making a few experiments in my kitchen with lemongrass, cinnamon and cardamon. I used a pressure cooker set up. I definitely need to upgrade my equipment and skills. 😳

Thank you so much!!! Welcome to my channel :D

Thank you very much!!

Thank you for watching!

Thank you!!! It seems like steam distillations are becoming my favourite lab technique ;)

People usually gets mad when I call this steam distillation too haha. Thanks for the comment

how much?

Thank you!! New videos incoming soon ;D

Thank you for watching!

I dont really know anything about EO and its effects on the body (my biochemistry knowledge is poor D:), but I've always heard it is recommended to do that when you have a cold and so. Search something like effects of lavender essential oils in the organism, or somehting like that, im sure you will find something ;D Thanks for commenting¡

Hi ,thanks a lottt!! Well, in my opinion it is better to freeze them if you are not able to inmediatly extract the oil. I think cold wull not damage the compounds in it no ;D

هو بيحط اي

Gracias!

I have a few videos involving turmeric extraction coming up yeah. But at this moment I am struggling with PC sofwtare and editing issues. You will have a to wait a bit more :D

you can extract curcuminoids from turmeric with pure (undenatured) alcohol at room temperature for a couple of days. Try it in milk!

No. Dont confuse it. There are glass stir rod, wich are used to stir things manually, and magnetic stirring rod. This are magnets that are covered normally with PTFE (and is the white thing you see in the video) and are used to stir things automatically with a stirrer, wich normally has the advantage of having a hot plate. Glass stir rods are pretty cheap, while magnets are normally more expensive. I think chemistry would not be chemistry if stirrers were not invented :P Check out this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3aq8iJUpW5w.html at 2:55. There you can see a stir rod working properly :D

Hi! Thanks for watching me! If you see my latest video you will find a link to my sponsor web for the distillation apparatus I used. It is some serious quality stuff, I am proud to work with them! Feel free to check the video description there. If you need something in particular just tell me, i can talk to my sponsor for whatever you are interested in!

@@Glattuh Ah I see, I did go to their website. I am actually looking for a setup for the steam distillation setup components for the lavender extraction video, I can browse through to find the individual components for sure, but it would be nice if you could also ask what would be the cost like for the setup as a whole package?

Sry I thought that conversation was closed. You mean that the organic kit of my sponsor contain things that you will not be using for distillation? If so, I can talk to them to launch a small steam distillation apparatus, with the less things needed in order to do it. If you are interested just tell me ;D

Its better to use distilled water because tap water contains active chlorine and other salts that may affect the extraction process

Abdelheq KEHALI some EO is remaining in water

@@emilioalbar.7624 Wouldn't that affect the purity and quality of the oil?

what about removing the water under a vacuum instead.

​@@abdelhak4671you do either a steam distillation or a solvent extraction.

@@taattataattataattata you'd loose much rather the oils

Hi! Well, that is something I could definetely try one day yes. It is much more expensive and time consuming though. Steam distillation is always the best choice in my opinion, in terms of simplicity. Thanks for commenting

No es necesario usar ningun disolvente pero algunas alternativas son el dietil eter y el acetato de etilo. Pasate por mi ultimo video, ahi verás que no he utilizado ningun disolvente, lo cual es perfecto cuando se trabaja con mayores cantidades. Aqui lo he usado por que tenia a mano hexano y por arrastrar todo el aceite esencial posible.

Hi thanks! I babe been asked this a lot. Maybe I should post a FAQ comment or something haha. I used solvents because i just wanted to get all of the oil that could remain stuck to the glassware. I had solvents at that moment so it was easy for me to do that ;) Thanks for watching

This is adulteration of the oil. Having patience and wait for the oil to drip off the glass is key. Then visibly separate from the water. No need for adding chemicals.

@@Glattuh is using solvents reduce the oil quality??? is there any side effects???

I would not buy any oil that was extracted with methylene chloride. I realize it slightly improves the yield.

Hi¡¡ That is just a normal chemistry distillation apparatus. It is meant to be used in the lab but it works with essential oils too¡¡¡ You can find them and more specific essential oil distiller on ebay for example ;D I got mine at labbox.com

Some of the more volatile compounds in the EO will evaporate too, but that is minor. I do not think it will affect the final product, at least for what a human nose sensitivity concerns

For the steam distillation I just apply high heat. The temperature will never rise much more than 100ºC so you dont have to care a lot. For the hexane very little as it is already really volatile.

@@Glattuh Thanks mate, cheers from Brasil.

Yes! In fact I did it in another video, with lemon essential oil. In any case rapid heaing may degrade the essential oil, and it can also loss a bit of mass in the process even if the boiling points are high, as the compounds are volatile.

@@Glattuh true, I watched the video. Just missing a couple flasks and then I will be all ready to go. Thanks again for sharing the knowledge. Would be great to see some more natural product extractions in your channel

Yeah¡ There may be a very poor ammount dissolved in the aqueous phase but you can separate them and use it afterwards¡¡¡ Depending on the oil you can get more compounds in you aqueous solution. For example with cinnamon or cloves ;D

No joking, literally tree bark. Easiest example, cinammon is literally powdered tree bark :D

@@Glattuh 😂 that’s so cool! Video pls when you get the chance :)

The whole kit cost about 150€ including many things. For example I made the stand bymyself so... it is a very aprox cost. And yes, you absolutely can grow lavender by yourself. It is very used in parks and gardens :) And when talking about essential oils there is an endless list of things to extract (lemon, orange, roses, ginger, woods, resins...)

It depends on how much volume yopu have and also temperature and even airflow. So I do not really have an answer for you... I must say that ideally no solvent should be used as lavender EO separates easily from water and decantation is pretty straightforward :D I have a video where I show that no solvent is needed here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NlgZACkf3Q4.html&ab_channel=NationOfOurHobbies

@@Glattuh what is the best temperature to extract the lavender EO? Thank you

You can use other solvents but not water. Soxhlet does not use steam distillation, just normal distribution of chemical compounds in 2 different phases (solid (the matrix) and liquid/the solvent))

You dont really need them if you dont use solvents. Try to extract a larger ammount of lavender so that separation of oil phase from water is easier and hexane and/or DCM are not needed. In this case you can use the EO for making soap for example :D

Ebay and Amazon, search for "essential oil steam-distillation kit.

Well, as I used hexane... It is not meant for beeing used not. But even if I dont im not very sure you can directly use it on the skin. It is quite irritant for both skin and eye.

In theory copper does not affect the result but as a chemist myself... I prefer glass. Much more inert. This is a very simple set up though, I can guarantee that a copper one will be much more difficult to get, to clean and also more expensive ;D

Where? Don understand :D

Nation Of Our Hobbies It was a stupid joke. The flowers weren't quite as purple as one might expect, so it looks like a drug. Don't do drugs, I was just making a joke XD

:D

Hi. No it is not needed. I used it because I wanted to recorver ALL of the oil I extracted. If you just decant the layers some of the oil will remain in the glass ware. There are a few alternatives, much less toxic than DCM and Hexane. If you want you can use ethylacetate or heptane ;D Thanks fo commenting

Thanks for your help!

You don't need either of those. They just help separate the organic phase and aqueous phase, but you can literally just wait for all the oils to float to the top of your collection funnel. Let it sit there for like a day, and then drain the aqueous phase out leaving you with the oil.

1:35 It just help to give the liquid a small stir. With that much vegetal material it is not necessary if you dont have one. Bubbles will came out of the raw material, without causing splashes

+Marcela Gutierrez Hi!!! Well you can of course. At this moment im not sure if hexane is the best choice to extract mint oil because I dont know what it contains. As far as I can remember one of the major compounds in mint is menthol wich is an alcohol and im not sure it can be dissolved in hexane. Apart from that, whatever solvent you use, the soxhlet method will extract more things, depending on the solvent, such carotenes, xanthophyls and chlorophyll and many other vegetal stuff I cant imagine now. So yes you will have your extract, very coloured with those components with the smell of mint. I remember trying to extract oil from mint one time and its yield was very poor. I think the best method is to steam distill it in a large flask. On the other hand you can first extract it with the Soxhlet and then steam distill the extract. Im sure it will give you only your esssential oil, separated from the rest of the extract. Un saludo :D

Thanks for answering! So I can use the method shown on your walnut oil extraction video and extract the oil from the mint? Maybe trying a different solvent. Also, is it necesary to add any kind of oil before the Soxhlet extraction? Because I saw a video were the students left the mint leaves on a glass bottle with oil for a couple of days first

Yes of course but remember that you will have many other things in your extract, not only mint essential oil, and that will probably add a vegetable aroma to your desired minty smelling liquid. Adding oil is another way to extract essential compounds. You put the material in oil for some time, the compounds difuses into the oil (and by oil I mean triglycerides, not essential "oil") and then you steam distill the EO from the oil somehow. Im not very familiarised with this method, I would have to investigate a bit more but I really think the best way is to directly steam distill your mint. If you want to use the Soxhlet extractor remember you will have tiny ammount of good aroma compunds compared to the ammount of other things such what I said earlier, carotenes, chlorophyills and many other stuff. Imagine how vast the diversity is in terms of molecules present in a plant! ¿How many of them will be extracted in the Soxhlet apparatus? I only can imagine that you will have your flask full of really strong green liquid, good smelling but also like vegetable soup, and decolorised leaves of mint in the extractor hahaha Thanks for commenting ;D

Can using hexane

could u distill the green nasty soxhlet gunk under vacuum hahaha :D

Blunted &co. Some EO is remaining in water

Ideally distilled water should be used yeah, as tap water contains sources of chlorine that can degrade the organic compounds. But I guess the concentration is too low to make a huge effect. It will also react with other materials apart from the EO, like the peels and so on... as said, i wont say it has too much of an impact at a household level

To some extent, yes. Depending on the type of essential oil the evaporation may be slower or faster but yes, little scent can be lost. It still smells like lavender so it was not a problem for me.

there is no need for adding any chemical the oil and water separates just fine. This guy is creating adulterated Essential oils.

Hello nad thank for asking. This is another type of extraction. In the Soxhlet extraction the solvent comes in contact with the material to be extracted so it can disolve the compound or compounds you want to extract. In steam distillation water does not dissolve the essential oil. It forms and azeotrope with it in the gas form and then as it is condensed back to liquid, EO separates from it forming a different phase, usually seen as a layer above the water (as EO tends to be less dense than water)

@@Glattuh Thank you very much for your prompt reply...which of both ways are safer for consumption(if the extracted material is to be ingested ) and which way is more efficient in extracting and should give a higher yeild please.

@@goonygoogoo2 Steam distillation is better when the product is going to be used by humans. Soxhlet has more yield but you will also extract lots of different things, so do not recomment that for EO extractions, as the steam distillation is much easier and cheap. Soxhlet is more for other purposes like in analysis.

@@Glattuh so I can extract capsaicin using soxhlet apparatus but instead of alcohol I put water ?

I doubt you can do it with water as capsaicin is not soluble in it! For caipsicinoids things like alcohols or ether, which will extract other things too, so you will need purification after that, if you want pure capsaicin. If not you will get what is called an extract. Not so easy extraction if you want 100% pure capsaicins ;)

Hi! Please watch my latest video about lemons and read the FAQ in the description box, the answer is there alrdy :D

Agreed

Maybe fruit juices can be water distilled to get some EO, but i have never tried that. Maybe in a future video I can give it a try :D

Nation Of Our Hobbies do you know any place I can get natural mango extact ?

Hi! It was just ambient temperature water. It is not dangerous because the water below is already boiling

Nation Of Our Hobbies can mixing waters of different temperatures lead to cracking of glass flask

If it's normal glass yeah. If it's borosilicate, then no. Probably not.

@@anitachaudhary5827YES in fact it will!. arrg!

@@pluronic123 LOL I have seen Crack and exploding face occur with people who do this. Yikes!

Well that depends hardly on the essential oil used. It is known that menthol crystals came out of solution after cooling mint essential oil, but that does not happen very often and many times the product is not pure and requiers further purification :D

Hi¡¡ Absolutely¡ In fact is a better choice cause its trazes are not as harmful as hexane. I used ehexane because I could not find heptane in my area. Thanks for commenting :D

In Canada, there is Bestine (rubber dissolver) I used it for colored pencil. It is 100% heptane.

it could be used but its boiling point is higher 98,42 degr C instead of 69 C in case of distilling it; but if that is not a disadvantage then why not ?

Totally agree! The only disavantage is that it requieres more heat but as you say.... Other people could say it may degrade the oil but using steam distillation is basically boiling water which is close to 100C so.....

Totally agree! Some people may say the compounds could degrade but we are applying temperatures that are close to 100C so I dont think this could happen...

Kind of yeah. If flower get dry more essential oil content but I reming you essential oil evaporates too so... Not so easy answer for that !

That is a thing that never happened to me but it may be overheating yes. Did you observed the apparatus in the whole process? If not, maybe vigorous bubbling may occured there, so it passes through the whole apparatus

Nation Of Our Hobbies yes thats posible i think, thanks a lot

Nation Of Our Hobbies is there an specific moment during the year when is better get the plant? Because i distilled 2 ballons of 2 litters each and i couldn’t get a droop

But you can save yourself money and time and buy lab equipment and distill over and over again. Plus if you have a significant other, bonding over chemistry is always a nice way to improve the chemistry between the two of you (no pun(s) intended)

Hi! It is always cheaper to buy instead of making it. Not only for essential oils. But it is fun to perform and also you get your own. Watch my latest video, maybe with that quantity you change your mind ;D

Nation Of Our Hobbies I think you are right, unless I had a extremely large harvest of rosemary or lavender, etc, it is much cheaper to buy the essential oil bottle than making it to fill a few drops in a tiny bottle. Still, it's very interesting video! I enjoyed it very much!

Because it is much more time consuming and difficult, but yes, I am planning for giving my own voice in future videos. I am from Spain so not an english native speaker ;D