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PRODUCTION OF ESSENTIAL OILS FROM PLANT LEAVES

The production of essential oils from plant leaves involves three main stages namely;

pretreatment stage, extraction stage and the purification stage.

1. PRETREATMENT STAGEThe pretreatment stage involves six sub stages and this stage starts with the harvesting of the

plant leaves to the size reduction of the leaves.

1.1. HarvestingThis stage involves the collection of the plant leaves from the flied. The plant whose

leaves are identified to be containing essential oils is identified in the flied and its leaves

collected. The amount of leaves collected depends on the quantity of oil in the leaves

and the quantity of oil needed to be got after the purification stage.

1.2. StorageAfter the leaves have been harvested, they are then taken into the store for storage

before taking for inspection. This stage helps for the preparation before the leaves are

taken for inspection.

1.3. InspectionIn this stage, all the unwanted materials are removed from the leaves. E.g. other plant

leaves that are not need, dirt, insects.

1.4. WashingAt the stage the inspected plant leaves are washed in order to remove the dirt that

wasnt removed during inspection and also to remove the dust. This stage leads to clean

plant leaves. Both the inspection and the washing stage are recommended to be done

on a conveyer belt.

1.5. DryingHere the leaves are put into an oven and dried at a controlled low temperature for a

given period of time. The temperature must be enough to easy the leaves crushing and

it should not be very high to evaporate the essential oils.

1.6. Size reductionIn this stage the plant leaves are reduced in size in order to increase the surface area

and also to expose the inner cells of the plant that may contain the most essential oils.The increased surface area helps to speed up the proceeding processes.

From this size reduction stage, the plant material is then taken to the next stage which is

the extraction stage.

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2. EXTRACTION STAGEIn this stage, steam distillation process is to be used to extract the essential oil. This

process gives crude essential oil which needs to be purified.

Steam distillation process involves heating water to give off steam, the steam is then

channeled into a container containing soaked powered plant materials. The steam thenextracts the oil and its then condensed in the condenser. The condensate got contains

both water and oil. Since water is denser than oil, the oil settles on top of the water. The

oil is then separated from the water. The oil got contains little content of water which

also needs to be removed and this leads to the purification process.

3. PURIFICATION STAGEIn this stage, the water and other impurities that found there way into the oil are

removed. This stage leads to the production of pure essential oil. Many methods around

the world are used in the purification stage depending on the conditions. For this matter

we are to use simple laboratory distillation. During distillation, separation is due to the

difference in boiling point of the components to be separated. Since oil and water have

different boiling points, then is an appropriate method to be used. From this stage, a

pure essential oil is got and its ready for use.