How to Distill Orange Blossom Oil

The bitter orange tree (Citrus aurantium) is a citrus tree that has many varieties. Its blossoms are the best source of orange oil, which is used in flavoring, herbal medicine and perfume. This oil was introduced as a perfume by Anne Marie Orsini, princess of Nerola, in the seventeenth century. Because of her association, it is now known as Neroli oil. The following steps will show how to distill orange blossoms.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Gather the blossoms by hand in late April to early May. The extraction process must be performed as soon as the blossoms are picked because the blossoms lose their fragrance fairly quickly.
2. Place the small, white flowers in a tightly sealed distillation vessel to minimize the loss of oil before it can be extracted. Inject steam into the vessel to provide enough heat to begin breaking down the plant tissue. This action allows the essential oil to be released from the plant cells.
3. Allow the oil to mix with the steam and pass it through a pipe into a cooling tank to condense this mixture back to a liquid form.
4. Perform a second distillation or evaporation to separate the pure Neroli oil from the water.
5. Use about 1,000 pounds of orange blossoms to make one pound of Neroli oil because the yield is no more than 0.1 percent. This oil must be stored in a tightly sealed container because it is highly volatile.