-
Distill your own hydrosol
hallo..
does anyone here distill your own hydrosol? what are the pros and cons of distilling your own hydrosol? how can it be compared to the commercial hydrosol? is it worth the work and hassle?
thank you..
-
6 Replies
-
I have done countless steam distillations and your question depends on many factors. If you ask the question - Is it worth it? - the answer is probably no.
I enjoy the process but it is time consuming and requires significant experience to get it to a point where it is efficient and worth your time. I remember one of my first distillations was with some kind of bark and I netted around 12g of Oil by solvent extracting the distillate. Who knows how much time I spent? The setup was probably 2 hours, the distillation maybe 3hours, the extracting and waiting for separation in the separatory funnel, drying the extract, then removing the solvent under vacuum distillation…. a lot of time spent.
Many years later, I had the chance to work at a much large scale (70X higher) and it took me less amount of time because I refined my technique and my yield was much higher.
So to answer your question, it is highly dependent on scale, the investment in equipment and the experience of the operator.
Hydrosol doesnt require final isolation but it is still time consuming.
As far as quality, there is no reason why it would be not be as good commercial quality provide you understand the parameters and your starting raw material. You would also have to adopt a preservation system.
-
thank you @Cafe33
I’m pondering the option of distilling hydrosol to be used in products for commercial sale eventually, if it is a viable option. certainly buying hydrosol from suppliers is much easier but the issue is contamination. most hydrosols don’t come preserved and I’ve had to throw away quite a bit of hydrosol because of that. I am worried that the hydrosols are already contaminated before they even show signs of it, from the shipping, handling and storage etc
my main objective to distill is for the hydrosol, not the essential oils. from this perspective, would you consider distilling your own hydrosol?
-
If you are going to try to use the ingredients in products for commercial sale, I would not recommend making your own raw materials. You have to be able to prove your products are safe. That means you have to do safety testing. Your hydrosols are not an ingredient that has already been reviewed for safety by the CIR, so you may have to do a number of tests that a raw material supplier will have already done.
Unless you’re in the business of selling hydrosols as raw materials, it doesn’t make sense to make your own.
-
my main objective to distill is for the hydrosol, not the essential oils. from this perspective, would you consider distilling your own hydrosol?
If it is something you would enjoy doing, than yes by all means. For an economic benefit, absolutely not. It would take you quite an investment in money and time before it could potentially be commercially viable.
-
Perry said:If you are going to try to use the ingredients in products for commercial sale, I would not recommend making your own raw materials. You have to be able to prove your products are safe. That means you have to do safety testing. Your hydrosols are not an ingredient that has already been reviewed for safety by the CIR, so you may have to do a number of tests that a raw material supplier will have already done.
Unless you’re in the business of selling hydrosols as raw materials, it doesn’t make sense to make your own.
thank you @Perry, that certainly tips the scale in my consideration..
btw, this site is a treasure, thank you
-
Cafe33 said:my main objective to distill is for the hydrosol, not the essential oils. from this perspective, would you consider distilling your own hydrosol?
If it is something you would enjoy doing, than yes by all means. For an economic benefit, absolutely not. It would take you quite an investment in money and time before it could potentially be commercially viable.
@Cafe33 oh absolutely not, I balked at having to do it lol. I’m glad I can put this consideration behind me and move on to sourcing for better hydrosols
thank you very much for your comments
Log in to reply.