a natural products distillation question

[Rosemarie Szostak]

THe following question was posted to me. As I am an inorganic chemist
playing with pretty intractable things, I'm at a loss on the finer points of
steam distillation. Can any one answer this.

>Rosemarie:
>
>I'm trying to find out some information, and I'm asking everyone who I
>think might know.
>
>I am trying to distill essential oils from various plants and flowers to
>use for perfumes, soaps, etc. Last year I purchased a distiller from
>Edmund Scientific and I can't get it to work. They admit it doesn't work
>well ... but won't refund money because I bought it so long ago. I
>figured out how to steam distill with the water, but I need the alcohol
>(I think) to distill the oils. I'm afraid to put the alcohol/plant/fat
>mixtures in my tea kettle, because I'm concerned about having an
>explosion!
>
>Anyway, where can I get information on how to create and use a *simple*
>distiller for doing this? It has to be very simple because I am
>"scientifically challenged"<g>. I've searched for hours on the Internet
>with no results other than a killer phone bill. I don't have access to a
>reasonable library because we are too rural.
>
>I would deeply appreciate any information you could give me.
>
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Dr. Rosemarie Szostak Department of Chemistry
Professor Clark Atlanta University
rszo...@cau.edu 1-(404)880-6861 1-(404)880-6890(fax)
HOMEPAGE: http://p-chem.cau.edu/chem/people/szostak.html
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.....These opinions are my own and so is the spellling.....