Extraction of Essential Oil by Steam Distillation of Tulsi (Ocimum Basillicum)

Extraction of Essential Oil by Steam Distillation of Tulsi (Ocimum Basillicum)

Essential oils are insoluble in water and evaporate easily. We can obtain essential oil from plant tissues by distillation or extraction processes. Generally essential oils are obtain from every part of plant like stem, root, leaves, flowers, seed, branches etc. And these essential oils are used in the preparation of drugs, cosmetics and perfumes.

Ocimum Basillicum means Tulsi is an aromatic plant. Ocimum Basillicum is used to obtain essential oil useful for different application. This oil evaporates within 24 hours after applying it to our body. This essential oil helps in cure of digestion problem, strained muscles, headaches and nervous breakdowns. Due to its good medicinal properties and aroma its demand is very high in many countries. A person or company can build a small or large scale industry for the extraction of essential oil from Ocimum Basillicum (Tulsi).

Top 10 General qualitative properties of Ocimum Basillicum essential oil are given below-

1.  Appearance : Transparent fluid

2.  Color : Pale yellow

3.  Fragrance : Ocimum Basillicum’s distinctive flavor and fragrance

4.  Refractive Index on 20°C : 1.51200 to1.51900

5.  Specific Gravity on 25°C : 0.95200 to 0.97300

6.  Optical gyration on 25°C : [-] 8.85º to [-] 11.85º

7.  Well mixed with Hydroxycitronellal

8.  Insoluble in water

9.  Dissolved in paraffin oil

How to obtain oil from holi Tulsi plant?

The extraction of essential oil by steam distillation of ocimum basillicum (Tulsi) is a solid-liquid extraction process. This process completes in following steps-

1.  Collect plant material and dry it if required.

2.  Fill this plant material in distillation vessel.

3.  Add water or solvent (like Ethanol, n-Hexane) in distillation vessel.

4.  Heat the mixture in well-equipped distillation vessel in control environment and controlled temperature, then

5.  Diffusion of essential oil from inside of solid material of plant to its surface occurs, then

6.  Transfer of mass from surface of plant solid material to surrounding liquid occurs, then

7.  This liquid contains essential oil which is obtained by reverse cooler.

8.  Then the collection of above liquid obtained from reverse cooler is put to stand for some time then essential oil come over water, then

9.  We perform layer separation to separate out essential oil from water, then

10.              Store this essential oil in dark, closed vessel for future use.

The experimental results proves that yield of essential oil of Tulsi (Ocimum-Basillicum)  from only leaves of plant is slightly higher than from the mixture of leaves and stems (means plant crush).