Distilling Essential Oils

Essential oils are aromatic, hydrophobic liquids produced in all plants. When extracted, they can be used in all kinds of industry. They are also used in aromatherapy to relax patients. As a part of the 'scent' and 'health benefits' portions of my research, I am distilling my own essential oil from a spearmint plant. Luckily, I took organic chemistry earlier this year as an elective and have experience in distillation, so I talked to my chemistry teacher, Dr. Pete, and he is letting me use the lab. However, I've done some research into distilling essential oils, and it requires much larger glassware than we have in the lab, since the yield of oil per gram of biomass is so low. But I'm still going to try my best to distill the oil using our micro scale glassware.