RE: Distillation Processes ** Pressure for Agarwood

[Guest guest]

Here are some pages that may help you.

 

http://www.cropwatch.org/agarwood.htm

 

Here are some of my notes from a class in 1994 (focusing on Bhutan

Agarwood-with a good description of the distillation process):

 

Agar oil is distilled from the resinous portions of the wood of Aquilaria

agallocha. This resinous wood is traded under the names " agar, " " aloe wood "

or " eagle wood. " The tree occurs in patches in Bhutan's southern hills, in

Assam in India, and in parts of West Bengal. Very little is known regarding

why irregular portions of dark wood, highly charged with oleo-resin, appear

in some trees but not in others, especially in and around old wounds and

hollows. It is known that resinous infiltration occurs because of fungal

attack, but the specific fungus responsible for the formation of agar wood

has not yet been identified. Attempts to impregnate trees by driving pegs

from trees already containing agar wood into trees not yet infected have not

been successful.

 

Only mature trees, 50 to 60-years-old and infected with fungus, are

exploited. The average resin yield is 3-4 kg per tree. Agar wood is

classified as either real agar or " chum " agar. The former is hard and brown,

while the latter is soft and varies in color from light yellow to almost

white. True agar is largely used as such, while agar oil is almost entirely

distilled from chum agar, which has no value as wood.

 

Distillation: The distillation process for agar oil consists of soaking agar

wood in water for 60-70 hours. The wood is then disintegrated into powder in

a chopper. The powdered wood, suspended in water to which 5 percent by

weight of common salt has been added, is placed in a retort and heated over

a furnace. The retort has a swan neck with a device for replenishing the

water, without removing the lid, during distillation. A Florentine flask

made of glass or copper constitutes the receiver for the distillate.

Distillation takes 30-32 hours. Because distillation takes place at

atmospheric pressure, the process of total exhaustion of the wood is

lengthy. The oil boils at high temperatures and the distillation waters are

cohobated (i.e., returned to the still and re-distilled) to produce a

reasonable yield. The oil yield ranges from 0.75-2.5 percent of the wood.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Be well,

Marcia Elston

Samara Botane/Nature Intelligence, est. 1988

http://www.wingedseed.com Online 3/95

http://www.aromaconnection.org Group Blog 2/07

" Historically, the most terrible things - war, genocide and slavery - have

resulted from obedience, not disobedience. "

Howard Zinn