Plant Oil Chapter#14
Plant Oil Chapter#14 Oils in plants: Like animals, plants also store excess energy they take in as chemical energy in fats. The fats in plants are often liquids at 20 o C so we call them oils. Extracting the oil from plants: In order to get the oil from a plant, we have to break open its cells to release it. There are two main ways to break down the cell walls: Pressing (applying pressure) Distillation (heat using steam) Then water and other impurities are removed. Pressing: ´ In this method we squash the plant material. Then we collect the liquid. The oil and the water-based solutions are immiscible. ´ They do not dissolve in each other and will separate out into two layers. ´ Then the oil and water are separated by centrifuging (spinning the mixture at high speeds) or just by decanting (pouring off). Distillation: To extract plant oils we can either: ´ Boil up the plant material with water, or ´ P...