The hot steam passes through control valves into stainless steel vessels, which hold up to 12,500 liters of fresh herbs. The valves are monitored to ensure that the proper amount of steam is released for the particular herb being distilled. At zero pounds of pressure, steam rises slowly through the densely packed raw material, heating the herbs uniformly. The plants release essential oils, which are carried upward in the rising steam. Care must be taken to avoid overheating, which can burn the oil and release unwanted byproducts.
Gravity does the rest of the work.
In a device called a separator, the oil floats to the top and is easily drawn off the water surface. We know the batch is finished when oil ceases to accumulate. The essential oils are poured into glass-lined containers and transported to our processing center where the oils are packaged in protective amber glass bottles. Similar to a home garden where each plant yields a different amount of fruit, each batch we distill yields differing quantities of oil-even when the crop harvest, plant maturity, and moisture content are the same. As you can see, at Young Living we pay meticulous attention to the harvesting and distillation of our organically grown herbs in order to produce the finest therapeutic-grade essential oils available.