Where I Can Buy Machinery for Manufacturing Lavender Oil?
Answered by: Richard Alan Miller
Question from: David
Posted on: November 27, 2006

I am looking for buying machinery for manufacturing lavender oil. Used one or new one will be ok.

I have been search on the net for a while cannot find any one to sell a new or used machine.

Manufacturing lavender oils from the tips (cut with a side-bar cutter) requires a simple steam distillation unit. Batch capacities usually will hold upward of 1/2 to 1 acre every four hours. Most mint farms (WA, ID, OR, MT, MI, WI) have used units for sale ranging from $500 upward. These are simple stills, using steam rather than alcohol for extraction.

I would begin with Ernest Gunther’s 6-Volume "The Essential Oils," probably volume 3. I estimate you may get upward of 1.2 kg lavandin oil per 100 plants (stalk and flowers). Of course, there is a much higher yield of lavandin from Mentha citrata (Orange Mint), cultivar #66. In other words, I might suggest other oils that might be considered from your local habitat.

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