DESTILLIERMEISTER ECO Series
Distillate for steam distillation for the production of essential oil
- Water-/steam-boiler: 7 to 11 liters,
- Plant basket: 3.5 to 6 liters,
- dome lid to reduce back dripping losses,
- counter-flow performance cooler
- Lockable with fasteners,
- Hygiene by stainless steel - no verdigris danger.
Stainless steel apparatus
Instructions for using the stills:
To seal between the plant basket and the lid, the supplied profile seal is pulled over the edge of the pot. The plant containers must be placed straight into the water/steam pot without tilting. In order for the steam dynamics to develop sufficiently, the kettle should only be filled with a maximum of 5, 7 or 9 liters of water at the beginning, depending on the model. The tension locks are hooked under the edge of the pot.
The systems with 2 baskets can be used modularly. For smaller quantities of plants, a plant basket is left out. The toggles are adjustable and take that into account.
The ideal filling height of the plant baskets should be determined specifically by experiment, depending on the plant or drug. In the case of fine material, attention should be paid to loose filling. The best results are usually achieved when the baskets are filled to the top. In the case of coarser material with a low bulk density, the plant matter can still be heaped into the helmet and slightly compacted, especially in the case of fresh material. For the distillation of oily wood, the material should be prepared planed into thin shavings.
The exact distillation time and the withdrawal quantity depends on several factors. these are:
- the heating power,
- the plant variety,
- the plant basket volumes.
The exact ratios should be determined by experiment for each situation with the existing system. But there are a few rules of thumb to start with:
The minimum heating power should be 1400 watts,
the heating output must be all the higher, primarily: the larger the diameter of the plant basket. For the present models, this means e.g. B.: If you heat with approx. 1500 watts of induction heating at 22 cm, you need approx. 1800 watts at 24 cm and 2000 watts at 26 cm. Secondary: The greater the dumping height. However, this only applies if the dumping height is high enough. If the filling height is too low, it can happen that the steam flows through the product to be distilled without dissolving the essential oils due to its dynamics if the heat output is too high. With a lower bulk height, it makes sense to compact the material to be distilled more. A larger bed height is, to some extent, better than a smaller one for yield. Except for very finely chopped cabbage, the ratio (filling height : basket diameter) should not be less than 1/2. Therefore, if you only have one plant basket, you should pile the distillation material up into the helmet. A dump height with a ratio of about 1 or greater would be ideal, but should then be operated with at least 3000 watts of induction or gas power.
In the case of the stills with a plant basket, it is usually sufficient if 1 to 1.5 liters of distillate are removed when they are full. This should best be done in 2 to 3 batches of 500 ml each. With 2 plant baskets you can roughly double these quantities. Due to the higher heating power required for this, however, the distillation time does not double.
With oleaginous plants, the oil comes out almost all in the 1st margin. In any case, the distillation can be stopped when the distillate no longer smells intense or has a pH value of over 6. In some plants, e.g. B. fennel seeds, depending on the quality of the material, 3 to 4 liters of distillate can be extracted, and the hydrosol still smells intensely and the pH value has not yet reached 6.
The hydrolate must be stored in well-cleaned or sterile, light-protected bottles. The bottles are stored as cool as possible. The hydrolat will continue to mature over the next 4 to 6 weeks, and the smell will become more pleasant and round. One can follow this process by olfactory testing from time to time. However, do not leave the bottle open for too long so that no germs can get in.
