Steam distillation - Lemon essential oil 🍋

#lemonessentialoil #steamdistillation

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In this video I perform a steam distillation and a liquid-liquid extraction using hexane. Hexane is the only hazard reagent used in this video. Be sure you wear gloves, goggles and work in properly ventilated conditions as it is very volatile.

Some usefull links here ;)
- Lemon peel composition:

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¡¡¡THANKS FOR WATCHING!!!

[easystarallstar]

This is fantastic. Really interesting see exactly how essential oil is made. As a typical lay customer of essential oils, it makes me really appreciate the number of steps involved in extracting just a few millilitres of oil. Nice work, my friend.

[youtubeaccountx]

thanks for not putting music, it makes it so much nicer to watch

[tammydoiel]

I imagine the Christmas presents from this person are pretty interesting.

[lovemesafearm]

Thank you for sharing without making a noise or music and not talking to much u get straight to the point

[tomguan-eyfx]

The experimental process was absolutely fantastic! The precision and accuracy were truly impressive.

[HeartandSoulApothecary]

I dont always make essential oils but when I do, I do it by the seaside lab.... just teasing - thanks for the tutorial. I have an essential oil distiller that works fine, but love how you showed just how much essential oils you actually receive after all that plant materials. Great video.

[HeartandSoulApothecary]

The collected water that condensed is Lemon Hydrosol which is used in many cosmetic products as well - dont throw that away, as it contains trace amounts of the lemon oil as well. (This is true of all hydrosols)

[ingmat]

It is such a great video! very detailed and with useful descriptions at each step, excellent job thank you! Just a comment: title says "Steam distillation" but, according to what I've found in literature this is a "water distillaion" as a "steam distillation" has to have 2 flasks: a first flask to contain the water that will produce steam, then steam will enter in a second flask to then pass through the condensator and so on...

[Pierrot]

I know this video is a few years old but I have a few comments on the extraction: You should use a smaller amount of water or a larger separatory funnel, the total volume of liquid is way too much for that size of container. It will also allow you to shake the separatory funnel much harder, giving you a better extraction result per run. Another thing is that you should use at least a quarter of the volume of the aqueuos phase per run. So you would add 100 mL of solvent (hexane) to 400 mL of aqueous phase. You're using way less than would be standard practice. Using a larger amount of solvent will also allow you to lose two or three drops w/o dropping your yield too much, so that your combined organic layers will contain much less water. You should also perform at least three rounds of extraction, this is due to Nernst's distribution law: Use little (not too little) amount of solvent per round and do more rounds; doing it three times with 50 mL will be better than doing it once with 150 mL.
If you can get your hands on it, try using DCM or ethyl acetate if the latter dissolves limonene sufficiently I'm not sure. DCM is much easier to get rid of than the hexane; ethyl acetate is way less harmful than both of those. I also would suggest using funnels to transfer liquids.


Secondly, since I'm only now watching the full video: You should use an oil bath to boil the water! Never place a flask directly onto the heating plate since this will cause a great deal of thermal stress in the glass because the heat distribution is very uneven. Thermal stress in glass means that it can break, as I'm sure you know. So you could use some mineral oil or vegetable oil (obv. easier to obtain) with a high smoke point and heat that up to about 120 °C so the inside of your vessel will reach 100 °C.


Source: Working on my Master's in Chemistry.

[barrybrum]

Great video. The ocean waves as your background sound is a very special and enjoyable addition. Thanks for taking the time to create and post this.

[skyland]

By 0:30 I've already paused this video to give it a thumbs-up because I'm impressed you're grating a lemon using the blind side of a box grater and haven't drawn blood.

[skyhawk]

this was a VERY well shot and edited video, the background white noise was very nice as well

[ladyturantulo]

your house must smell so good after doing this :D

[_exitzz]

You can also use some drying agents like CaSO4 to get rid of the water left behind.

[dakotastorms]

I enjoyed watching this video it was nice to see how the process is done and the white noise was a great addition.

[knuckle]

After 11 minutes I have little understanding of the events but man, I enjoyed it !

[piggyis]

You make science seem effortless .Great video and thank you .

[pobby]

When like gives you lemons, make essential oil.

[RaymondBrokke]

Thank you. It reminded me my analytical and organic chemistry classes, here in Costa Rica.

[fakiirification]

sure wish i could do this stuff. but i live in Texas, where chemistry is illegal and glassware requires permits and 60-90 days approval waiting and rejection, then submission to random police inspections for the durration of ownership of the glassware. but i can go buy a gun and 1000 rounds of ammo and be out the door after a 15 minute background check (i know this from experience, ive done it 6 times) #logic!