Is there an easy way to distill essential oil from plant leaves, particularly patchouli?

Question

I'm looking for an easy way to draw the patchouli oils from the leaves of a patchouli plant, at home. Any ideas out there? And is there a difference in the stuff you buy vs. making your own?

Answer 1

Have you seen how doctors sometimes have small grinding bowls to palvize medicine? Perhaps a process like that would work.

Take a plastic pail and put the leaves in it. Take a large wooden stick with a rounded end and mash the leaves into a paste.

...I geuss the next step would be to compress that paste, so all the oil is squeezed out. This way reminds me of a simular process people use to make apple cyder. They squeeze the juice out of the apples with a giant compressor.

Idea #2. Take the leaves and make a Tea. Boil the leaves in Water for awhile. Let the whole thing boil down until the oil is only left.

Anyway, hope this gives you some ideas.

It is posible that store bought patchouli oil may contain chemicals. It is common for commerically grown plants to be spreyed with pesticide and artifical fertilers. Those chemicals would be greatly obsorbed into the plants/oil.

If you grow your own Patchouli Plants, you have the ability to choose what happens to them. Personally, I like nature fertilizers and companion planting. If you grow naturally, your plants/oil won't contain chemicals. That's the difference.

Answer 2

Check out these links for how to distill essential oils.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Essential-Oi...

http://www.heartmagic.com/EssentialDisti...

http://www.floragenics.com/products.htm

http://essentialoils.org/