Essential Oil Yields

[Guest guest]

Hi Jay,

 

> I am trying to find out the ratio of raw material to its yield of

essential oils.

 

Depends on the aromatic .. they are quite different.

 

> I am getting very contradictory information, such as one site mentions

> 10,000 pounds of rose petals yields one pound of essetial oil, while

> in another site it is mention 100 kilos yield half a litre.

 

On the Rose .. any information contrary to what I will tell you below is

Hawg Warsh! ;-)

 

Damask Rose (Rosa damascena) .. roughly 4 metric tons (4,000 kilos or 8,818

pounds) of blossoms produce 1 kilogram (2.2046 pounds) of Rose Otto. This

can vary but a teeny tiny bit because only fresh picked blossoms are hydro

steam distilled .. they must be fresh because they begin to ferment even

within an hour of being harvested.

 

So .. the references of 10,000 pounds of blossoms per pound of oil is not

correct .. and the 100 kilos per half liter is not correct. In fact, 100

kilos will produce around 25 ml .. not the 500 ml (1/2 liter) referenced on

whatever site you found that on.

 

I challenge any of the owners of those sites to contradict my figures and

support their disagreement.

 

> I would be v. grateful if i can get information on lavender, rose, t.tree

> eucalyptus and geranium.

 

Lavender (Lavandula stoechas) is 18-20 pounds per metric ton.

Rosemary, Cineole (Rosmarinus officinalis) is 19-21 pounds per metric ton.

Sage (Salvia fruticosa) is 21-23 pounds per metric ton.

Origanums .. since there are many I'll give ballpark .. 22-25 pounds per

metric ton.

 

Different varieties of similar aromatics can be somewhat different. Still

design and size .. coupled with skill of the master distiller will also have

some impact on these figures .. but not much. Some aromatic materials are

ALWAYS distilled fresh .. and some ALWAYS dried .. though there might be

other exceptions the only one I can think of that goes both ways is Ginger.

 

Remember this .. value of the oil is not necessarily based on the yield ..

for cultivated aromatics its labor/cost to grow and harvest .. for wild

grown its labor cost to harvest .. for both we must include transportation

costs from field to still.

 

I have no personal experience with the others but a Tea Tree distiller told

me he expects a yield of 17-19 pounds of oil per metric ton of aromatic.

 

> thanks a lot

> Jay

 

Welcome you are .. y'all have a good one .. and keep smiling. :-)

 

Butch ... http://www.AV-AT.com

 

PS: More information on distillation of Rose Otto can be found here ..

http://www.av-at.com/distillation/rosadamascena1.html .. and ..

http://www.aromamedical.com/articles/rosedistillation.html