Essential Oil 101 (10): Producing Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils
The timing of the harvest is one of the most important factors in the production of therapeutic-grade oiils. If the plants are harvested at the wrong time of the season or even at the incorrect time of day, they may distill into a substandard essential oil. In some instances, changing harvest time, by even a few hours, can make a huge difference. Other factors that should be taken into consideration during the harvest include the amount of dew on the leaves, the percentage of plant in bloom, and weather conditions during the two weeks prior to harvest. For example：German Chamomile harvested in the morning will produce oil with far more azulene (a powerful anti-inflammatory compound) than if it is harvested in the late afternoon.
Why Seed-to-Seal is so important?
Seed:
Herbs are selected for the proper genus, species, and chemotype, to verify plant, cultivation and extraction quality to ensure absolute integrity of the essential oil.
Cultivation:
Harvested by indigenous peoples, who have untold years of experience with the plants and their growing conditions, and where growing practices are adhered to with great care and exactness.
Organic Herb Farming:
Plants should be grown on virgin land uncontaminated by chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, or herbicides. they should also be grown away from nuclear plants, factories, interstates, highways, and heavily populated cities, if possible.
Because robust. healthy plants produce higher quality essential oils, the soil should be nourished with enzymes, minerals, and organic mulch. the mineral content of the soil is crucial to the proper development of the plant, and soils that lack minerals result in plants that produce inferior oils.
Land and crops should be watered with deep-well, reservoir, or water-shed water. Mountain stream water is best because of its purity and high mineral content. Municipally treated water or secondary run-off water from residential and commercial areas can introduce undesirable chemical residues into the plant and the essential oil.
Absolutely no pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or agricultural chemicals of any kind should be used in the cultivation of herbs earmarked for distillation. These chemicals --- even in minute quantities --- can react with the essential oil and degrade its purity and quality and render it therapeutically less effective. During distillation, pesticide residue leaches out of the plant material with the extracted essential oil.
Harvesting:
The timing of the harvest is one of the most important factors in the production of therapeutic-grade oiils. If the plants are harvested at the wrong time of the season or even at the incorrect time of day, they may distill into a substandard essential oil. In some instances, changing harvest time, by even a few hours, can make a huge difference. Other factors that should be taken into consideration during the harvest include the amount of dew on the leaves, the percentage of plant in bloom, and weather conditions during the two weeks prior to harvest.
For example：German Chamomile harvested in the morning will produce oil with far more azulene (a powerful anti-inflammatory compound) than if it is harvested in the late afternoon.
Distillation:
To prevent herbs from drying out prior to being distilled, distillation facilities should be located as close to the field as possible. Transporting herbs to distillation facilities hundreds or thousands of miles away heightens the risk of exposure to pollutants, dust, mold, and petrochemical residues.
The key to preserve as many as possible of these delicate aromatic constituents is to steam-distill plant material in small batches using low pressure and low heat. This is the traditional method of distillation that has been used for centuries in Europe but is being abandoned in favor of high-volume pressure cookers designed to operate at over 400F and use over 50 pounds of pressure. More importantly, the cooking chamber where the plants are distilled should be constructed of a nonreactive metal, preferably stainless steel, to reduce the possibility of the essential oil being chemically altered by more reactive metals such as aluminum or copper.
No solvents or synthetic chemicals should be used or added to the water used to generate steam because they might jeopardize the integrity of the essential oil. Even the addition of chemicals to water used in a closed-loop, heat exchange system of the condenser can be risky, since there is no guarantee that they will be completely isolated from the essential oil.
How commercial producers increase their Production?
Some lavender produced commercially is often distilled for only 15 to 20 minutes at 155 pounds of pressure with a steam temperature approaching 350 F. Although this high temperature, high-pressure oil costs less to produce and is easily marketed, it is of poor quality. It retains few, if any, of the therapeutic properties of high-grade lavender distilled at zero pounds of pressure for a minimum of 1 hour and 15 minutes.
In many large commercial operations, distillers introduce chemicals into the steam-distillation process to increase the volume of oil produced. Chemical trucks may even pump solvents directly into the boiler water. This expands oil production by as much as 18 percent. These chemicals inevitably leach into the distilling water and mix with the essential oil, fracturing the molecular structure of the oil and altering both its fragrance and therapeutic value. these chemicals remain in the oil after it is sold because it is impossible to completely separate them from the oil.
Another way that essential oil producers increase the quantity of the oil extracted is through redistillation. this refers to the repeated distillation of the plant material to maximise the volume of oil by using second, third and fourth stages of steam distillation. Each successive distillation generates a weaker and less potent essential oil. Such essential oils are also degraded due to prolonged exposure to water and heat used in the redistillation process. Hydrolysis and/or oxidation of the essential oil occur(s) due to the water and/or heat, and the constituents responsible for its aroma and therapeutic properties begin to chemically break down.
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Source：
Life Science Products and Publishing Essential Oils Desk References (8th Edition) LifeScience Products and Publishing
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