Composition of essential oil from orange peels

In my previous article I wrote about distilling orange peels. Out of 33 Kg orange peels I distilled 100 ml essential oil.

Citrus Sinensis  var. Valencia late

From literature and a number of analyzes undertaken by IFF for students in my school I knew that the main component of the oil is limonene.

Uit: The Chemistry of Essential Oils Made Simple van David Stewart

I thought it was interesting to analyze the composition of the oil. Last Saturday I received the analysis results.

Peak	RT (min)	Compound name	%	Norm (%)	Allergens (%)
5	13,3	b-MYRCENE	1,75	1,50 – 3,50
8	16,2	LIMONENE	93,99	93,0 – 96,0	93,99
17	20,7	OCTANAL	0,23	0,10 – 0,40
18	27,6	NONANAL	0,05	0,01 – 0,06

                                a part of the composition in mass %

The percentage of limonene, nearly 94%, is indeed high. Even higher than David Stewart in his book indicates as upper limit. Pyrenessences who performed the analyzes detected 68 different substances.

The final conclusion was that the oil composition complies with the ISO 3140: 05-2011 standard for sweet orange. The oil complies with this standard, if the analysis shows that the compunds be within a certain percentage. For limonene that is between 93 and 96%.
If you are interested in more analysis results please send an email with a request for some background to indekoperenketel@gmail.com.

distilling orangepeel

Citrus sinensis var. Valencia late

For the harvest festival which was held last year octiber, I was looking for a residual product, say waste, which can be distilled for making essential oil. That residual I had soon figured out. Almost every year graduated students are distilling orange peel. From about 400 grams of peels they remove about 4 mL orange essential oil.

Willem-Jan en Rose-Marie Peeters van tuinderij Peeters

The orange peels supplier was soon found. At Tuinderij Peeters we were able to collect 4 crates with   orange peel of Valancia late. They had the peels that remained last week in from the orange juice press kept in the refrigerator.

For the transport of full and heavy crates I got my bicycletrailer once again.

The morning after in the distillingplace I started to reduce the orange peel before they were ready to be in the distillation boiler. That was easier said than done.

It took me more than half an hour to reduce the content of three folding crates. To increase the yield of the skins filleting would have been even more efficient. Maybe next time with the help of some volunteers? Because the essential oil is located in the orange part of the peel.

I had a total of 33 kg (!) orange peels brought into the still. After placing the lid of the kettle in place, made the connection to the cooling bucket, I was ready for distillation.

 

For me it was the first time I had filled the distillation boiler with such a large quantitiy. In an herbal or conifer twigs filled boiler the amount is usually not more than 18 kg. It also took 2.5 hours (!) before the first distillate dripped from the cooling bucket.

The thermometer crept painfully slowly. But patience was rewarded when the distillation was once launched.

during distilling

There was spreading a wonderful sweet orange scent in the distillingplace. Soon a thick layer of essential oil was formed in the Florentine vase that I used to separate oil and water from each other.

florentine vase filled with orange essential oil and hydrosol

After distilling more than one hour, I stopped. Final result: 100 mL essential oil and approx 3 liters hydrosol. Because I'm very curious about the quality I will analyze this oil composition and the presence of pesticides. 

Distillingday at De Levensboom 2: Melisse hydrosol

Madeleine asked for the afternoon session of the distillationday at DE LEVENSBOOM  whether it was possible to make lemon balm hydrosol. The levensboom has a nice medicinal botanical garden so no shortage of freshly picked lemon balm!

That seemed like a good idea to let the students also show how to make hydrosol from fresh plants. It was after all a distillingday. After lunch a number of participants went to picking lemon balm.  In the meanwhile I cleaned the copper distilling kettle and all necessary glassware, which was used in the morningsession for distilling bio lavandin.

Foto: Madeleine Kerkhof Knapp-Hayes

The two crates with lemon balm we have not weighed, but I think we had about approximately 1.5 - 2 kg fresh herb at our disposal to fill the boiler.

Foto: Madeleine Kerkhof Knapp-Haye

Foto: Madeleine Kerkhof Knapp-Hayes

After sealing  with aluminumtape the gas could again be lit under the boiler. After ten minutes a deliciously citrus-scented odeur was being noticed and hydrosol was dripping from the cool bucket.

The distillation should be carried out slowly when making hydrosols. So the hydrosolsol did not come in trickles but drips from the cooling bucket. To make the process continuous, without intervening draining hydrosol, expired we used the Florentine vase. The distillation of lemon balm was not new to me.

Uitleg over CO2 extracten door Madeleine

After distilling two hours we have collected more than 2.5 liters hydrosol. Enough for Madeleine to give a bottle to all participants of the distillingday. I wonder what their experiences and applications will be. As I mentioned in my blog last year, according to Jeanne Rose expert in the field of hydrosols lemon balm hydrosol is suitable for:

This wonderfull fresh, lemonscented water is used for sensitive or aging skin, or sprayed down the throat for many kinds of throat infections 

foto: Kees Kerkhof

Catherine and I found this day were we had performed two distillations more than successful. The participants' enthusiasm was contagious and inspiring. The evaluation found that we were not the only ones who thought so. The participants remain positive and appreciated Madeleine and me with a 8,5 - 9. 

To be repeated so!

Distilling workshop at De Levensboom 1: BIO LAVANDIN essential oil

Madeleine Knapp Hayes had asked me earlier this year to give a workshop on her distillingday.
Madeleine is running a Centre for Complementary Care, LEVENSBOOM,  which is based in Wernhout NB. She has a lot of experience and knowledge in the use of essential oils and hydrosols and has launched a handbook written for professionals working in complementary care.

The first part of the distillation day last Saturday, I have taken for of together with Catherina. During the second part Madeleine acquaint students (particularly smell) with essential oils made by CO2 extraction. We started distilling bio Lavandin from Mevouillon (France) and previously used a copper alembic 20 liters.

Explanation about distilling with the copper alambic

The alambic had a capacity for 900 grams of dried lavandin.

Foto: Madeleine Kerkhof Knapp-Hayes 

After sealing with aluminum tape, to shut the steam boiler, the distillation could begin. I had the water already heated in the distillation boiler so it was not long before the first drops of distillate came from the cooling bucket.

For collecting and separating oil and hydrosol I used a Florentine vase.

foto: Madeleine Kerkhof Knapp-Hayes

The distillation process was viewed and photographed with great interest by the students.

During the two-hour distillation Catharina has monitored the process, so I could finish the morning session with the students.

Recognising scents  foto: Madeleine Kerkhof Knapp-Hayes

In this session the students were able to smell through an odor session differences and similarities of different essential oils. That the participants in this distillingday were well acquainted with essential oils quickly proved because they immediately recognized the odor of synthetic lavender oil. The participants were owners of trained noses!

Yield of lavandin essential oil

Soon during the distillation, the oil was darker than the yellow color of normal lavandin. At the end of the distillation it resulted in an amber oil. Whether that has to do with distilling in copper I still have to figure out . I do know that if you are distilling thyme in a copper alambic the oil turns red.

The total yield was approx 70 mL so all the participants could take home  a bottle of fresh lavandin after the distillingday. The essential oil must still ripen a month before it is ready and delevoped its smell.