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Lavender Fragrance extraction.

Several people have asked me for more info on herb fragrance
extraction, and while I am by no means an expert, I thought I could save
a bit of typing by copying the information here. Sorry if it's a bit off
topic but others may want to know...

> Wow, sounds great!  And how do I do that, the dryin and the oil
> extraction?  They are sooooo beautiful!  When do I harvest and after
> harvest, what do I do next?
>
> How do I use the oil?

        I pick large branches of it, so that the branch structure will keep it
spread out, and hang them in the house till dry. It is very important
tomake sure they are very dry since water will cloud the oil. Then I
grind the lavender in a meat grinder and soak it in warmed oil for a
day. I use any light vegetable oil. Then I set it all in the fridge,
taking out smaller quantities to use after the sludge has settled.
Sometimes I have filtered it but a really good filter takes so long that
I only do that when I am making Gifts.
        I use the oil as a lubricant for acupressure treatments and
small massages. On beach days I might rub it in my hair first.

> How do you do oil extration?  Someone told me to suspend it in a jar
> and keep in the sun but all I got was condensation, no oil.
>
        The oil extraction I was talking about was extracting the
fragrance with oil. By grinding the fully dried herb and soaking in
warmed oil.
        But I have done some extraction of essential oil. It takes lots
of herb! The method you mentioned might work with some adaptations. What
I did was dry, grind, heat, then pressed several pounds of peppermint to
get a few drops of oil. I bet you could use the jar method with dried
herbs so as to defeat the condensation problem.
        I know that when extracting fragrances in oil any little
moisture left in the herb will ruin the batch, so you would have to get
it really dry. But you have to dry it at cool temps so as not to
evaporate the fragrance oils. Then suspending it in a jar in the sun may
work. I think I would put it in a mason jar with a new lid. Then set it
lid down in a shallow pan of water.
        In fact, I will try this today. I'm gonna use an aluminum baking
pan for the water, so that there is some reflection. What should happen
is that the heat of the sun should evaporate the essential oils, then
the cooler lid should condense them. That is why I say use a pan of
water, so that the oils condense where you want them. Putting the jar,
lid down, in the water should make -most- of the oils condense on the
lid
rather than all over the inside of the jar.
        I'll let you know if it works, if you don't hear from me in a
couple of days and you are still wondering, remind me. I get so
scattered...
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