• Provide opportunity for participants to gain hands-on experience with steam distillation equipment and essential oils. As so many products can be isolated in this way, this technique is regularly performed in teaching labs. The most common use of steam distillation is the extraction of natural products from plant materials. • Enhance participant understanding of high- value uses for biomass. An extraction and GC analysis of the essential oil in bay leaves is shown in Figure 5.57. Missed the LibreFest? Lisa Nichols (Butte Community College). Essential Oils from Steam Distillation . The composition of essential oils extracted by the steam distillation unit were compared to oils from the same plant materials extracted by hydro-distillations. Unless otherwise noted, LibreTexts content is licensed by CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. occurs in our body. The most common use of steam distillation is the extraction of natural products from plant materials. Organic Chemistry Laboratory Techniques is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. essential oils responsible for the aroma and flavour of these spices are trans-anethole [1-methoxy-4-(1-propenyl)benzene] from star anise and trans-cinnamaldehyde [(2E)-3-phenylprop-2-enal] from cinnamon bark. Essential oils are a great benefit to help protect our bodies and homes from this onslaught of pathogens. Steam distillation is a technique used to distill immiscible liquids, for which steam provides one of the immiscible phases.1 The two Have questions or comments? An apparatus using a steam line is shown in Figure 5.59. Oils derived from steam distillation vary in their qualities depending on the temperatures, pressures, and length of time applied for the process. The spice should soak for at least 15 minutes as you set up your distillation apparatus. As so many products can be isolated in this way, this technique is regularly performed in teaching labs. This extractive technique is based on the volatile physical properties of essential oils, which means that oil is easily vaporized and carried away by the water vapor. Steam Distillation Procedure. Steam distillation is the preferred method used to isolate essential oils. [ "article:topic", "Steam distillation", "authorname:nicholsl", "showtoc:no", "license:ccbyncnd" ]. distillation and solvent extraction were employed, respectively, and that was an indication that the highest yield of essential oil was given by steam distillation among the methods considered. 2) Pour the ground spice into a 250 mL roundbottom, add about 80 mL of water and a boiling stone. Watch the recordings here on Youtube! Essential oils were ana-lyzed with a Varian 3700 Gas Chro-matograph, equipped with a FID and a Varian … Legal. The LibreTexts libraries are Powered by MindTouch® and are supported by the Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot Project, the UC Davis Office of the Provost, the UC Davis Library, the California State University Affordable Learning Solutions Program, and Merlot.