Steam distillation

Have you ever smelled something really nice, like a flower, and wondered how people get the smell out of it and turn it into perfume or essential oils? Well, they use something called steam distillation!

Imagine you have a cup of hot chocolate. When the hot chocolate is heated up, steam starts rising from it. This is because the heat is making the liquid turn into gas. Steam distillation is kind of like that, but using plants instead of hot chocolate.

When people want to get a scent or oil out of a plant, like lavender, they fill a big pot with water and put the plant inside. Then they heat up the water until it starts to boil and turn into steam. The steam from the hot water goes into the plant and starts to carry the scent and oil out of it.

As the steam carries the scent and oil out of the plant, it rises up through a special tube that is connected to the pot. This tube is called a condenser because it allows the steam to cool down and turn back into a liquid again. Once the steam turns back into a liquid, the scent and oil drops out of it and falls into a jar. This is the perfume or essential oil that people use for things like making candles or soaps!

In summary, steam distillation is a process used to extract scents or oils from plants by boiling them in water to create steam, which is then cooled back down to a liquid to collect the scent and oil.