Traditional method

1. Steam Distilled: This is the most commonly used method for extracting aromatic plant essential oils. More than 95% of aromatic plant essential oils are extracted by distillation. The distillation method can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia. It mainly uses water vapor to release and separate plant essential oils and then uses the water-insoluble properties of essential oils to separate essential oils and flower water through cooling.
2. Steam Diffused method: (Steam Diffused): This method is similar to the distillation method, except that the water vapor is introduced from the top of the distillation tank, and the liquid taking tank is below, which is just the opposite of the distillation method. This method has better extraction effect on wood, rhizomes, and bark, and the yield is higher.
3. Cold Pressed: Most citrus essential oils, such as orange , grapefruit , lemon, etc., are extracted by cold pressing because the high temperature of traditional distillation will destroy many natural components of these essential oils.
4. Enfleurage: This is an ancient extraction method from France that can obtain the most essential oils without destroying the aromatic components of plants. However, the production process of this method is time-consuming and laborious, and the cost is too high. Now it is no longer used except for the model workshops left in France for visits.
5. Solvent Extracted: This method uses volatile chemical solvents to extract and separate essential oils. It will not damage some fragile components of aromatic plants due to heating and can retain the natural aroma of plants almost as they are. However, because there will be a small amount of chemical solvents remaining in it, which may cause skin irritation, it is called Absolute, not essential oil, and is usually used in the perfume industry.

New technology method

1. Supercritical CO2 Extracted: This is the latest high-tech extraction method, which uses temperature and pressure changes to obtain carbon dioxide in gas and liquid forms to extract and separate plant essential oils. This method can also retain the natural ingredients of plants to the maximum extent, but the expensive equipment leads to high manufacturing costs, so the prices of essential oils produced are also higher.
2. Environment-friendly refrigerant extraction method (Phytonic): This method is jointly developed by Peter Wilde, PhD in microbiology in the United Kingdom, and ICI. It uses a new type of food-grade chemical solvent R134a to extract. This method extracts essential oil-like substances even more than traditional chemical solvent extraction The original essence extracted by the method is more.
3. Low Temperature & Low-Pressure Steam Distilled: This method is derived from the traditional steam distillation method, but uses a sealed stainless steel distillation equipment, and reduces the internal pressure to reduce the water vapor temperature and make the plant oil storage The dual purpose of making cells more ruptured. In this way, more essential oils can be obtained while avoiding high temperature damage to essential oil components, and the slight pollution of essential oils that may be caused by traditional copper, aluminum and other equipment is avoided. It is the main extraction method for therapeutic grade organic essential oils . Due to the high manufacturing cost, the price is higher than that of essential oils extracted by traditional distillation. In France’s Thelxinoe Dixiang essential oil extraction, the pure copper cold pressing method is used. Although the output is low, the quality of the essential oil is guaranteed.