Essential Oil andamp; Hydrosol Distillation Kit @ Hen of the Woods Artisan Acres, NS, Canada
The process of distillation (from the Latin 'de-stillare' for 'drip or trickle down") is the separation of a liquid by evaporation and condensation. The simplest example of this is when steam from a kettle becomes deposited as drops of distilled water on a cold surface. Distillation is used to separate liquids from non-volatile solids, as in the separation of alcoholic liquors from fermented materials, or in the separation of two or more liquids having different boiling points, as in the separation of gasoline, kerosene and lubricating oil from crude oil. Other industrial applications include the desalination of seawater.
As far back as the fourth century B.C. Aristotle suggested the possibility of spirit distillation when he wrote: "Seawater can be made potable by distillation as well and wine and other liquids can be submitted to the same process.".