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Which solvents have been used to extract essential oils from plants?

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The chemistry behind craft beer — Essential oil Discover the chemistry of brewing different types and colours of beer.

Various substances have been utilized as solvents to extract essential oils from plants, depending on the historical period and the specific requirements of the plant material.

Historically, fatty oils were the primary medium used to extract odoriferous substances from flowers, roots, and leaves. This practice evolved into processes like enfleurage (using cold fat) and maceration (using hot fat), where plant materials are immersed in substances such as tallow and lard to absorb their oils.1

With the advancement of chemical techniques, specialists began using volatile solvents for materials that could not be processed via steam distillation. The primary volatile solvents employed for this purpose include:

Petroleum naphthas1
Benzene1
Alcohol (specifically ethyl alcohol)1

In broader industrial oil processing, modern methods also utilize purified hydrocarbons, such as petroleum benzin (often referred to as petroleum ether, commercial hexane, or heptane), to achieve more complete extraction from plant-based materials.2