Please explain me if we created a vacuum and lowered the boiling temperature would we still get in extracting the essential oils successfully??? Please guide me, thank you so much.
1 Answer
In principle, you are correct: lowering the pressure would assist in the collection of volatile oils.
Explanation:
As you know, the boiling point of any liquid is defined as the temperature at which the vapour pressure of the liquid is equal to that of the ambient pressure, and bubbles of vapour form directly in the liquid. The normal boiling point is specified when the ambient pressure is equal to 1 atmosphere. At pressures lower than 1 atmosphere, the distillation temperature should be reduced.
Of course, there is much literature and tradecraft in the collection of essential oils. It might be that elevating the temperature causes a chemical reaction with your oils. The only advice I can give you is to (safely!) experiment. Good luck.
PS You can often find tables that predict a boiling point at reduced pressure given the normal boiling point (and how now would you describe the normal boiling point?). There is a bad such ready reckoner on the back of the Aldrich catalogue. Chemists' Companion should have a more sophisticated one.
