How to Distill Passion Flower

Aromatherapy uses essential oils of many herbs and plants to treat physical conditions as well as to deal with mental and emotional problems. Passion flower is noted in herbal medicine to promote calming and relief of pain. Passion flower teas are used as a sedative and help slow the body to allow healing. Obtaining passion flower essential oil is done by distilling the oil from the plant in a steam distillation unit.

Things You'll Need

• Steam distillation unit
• Hot plate
• 5 lbs. of passion flowers
• Vial and cap
• Water

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Instructions

• 1

  Pick about 5 lbs. of passion flowers for the biomass vessel. The flowers are very fragile and utmost care must be taken. Load these blossoms into the biomass vessel and fill the vessel as full as possible. The more biomass, the more oil will be produced.

• 2

  Start the burner under the steam generator. The water in the generator will boil and generate steam that is directed into the biomass vessel. As the steam passes over the passion flowers it will heat the flowers to 100 degrees, which will evaporate the essential oil in the flowers.

• 3

  Make sure the cooling water is flowing in the condenser. As the essential oil vapor and steam rise out of the biomass vessel and reach the cooler surface of the condenser, the vapors condense and drip down into the collection vessel.

• 4

  Disconnect the collection vessel from the distiller at the completion of the extraction process and use the stopcock in the collection vessel to separate the oil from the water.

• 5

  Pour the oil into a vial and cap tightly. This is the hydrosol or essential oil of the passion flower.