Essential oils

Relying on its lands, factories, labs, facilities & distillation units, Fridal cultivates the herbs to produce and extracts essential oils using "Steam distillation" Which is the main technique used to distill most of the aromatic plants in Egypt.  The distillation facilities owned by Fridal include complete solvent extraction units to extract oils of various aromatic herbs, jasmine which Fridal is renowned for and other delicate essential oil products.

Today, Fridal is working on introducing new varieties of essential oils to the Egyptian and global markets by growing foreign species that can adapt to the climate in Egypt.

During "Steam Distillation" which is the process used for manufacture and extraction of essential oils, the botanical material is placed upon a grid inside the still. The still is then sealed and steam is forced over the material.

Steam then slowly breaks through the plant, flower or seed to remove its volatile constituents. The hot steam helps to release the aromatic molecules from the plant material since the steam forces open the pockets in which the oils are kept in the plant material. The molecules of these volatile oils then escape from the plant material and evaporate into the steam.

The volatile constituents then rise through a connecting pipe leading them into a condenser. The condenser filled with cold water from a cooled water source starts cooling the rising vapor back into liquid form. The liquid is then collected below the condenser. 

Since the water and essential oils do not mix, the essential oil will be found separated on the surface of the water where it is siphoned off.  Occasionally an essential oil is denser than water and is found on the bottom rather than the top.

The temperature of the steam needs to be carefully controlled - just enough to force the plant material to let go of the essential oil, yet not too hot as to burn the plant material or the essential oil. This temperature of course differs from a plant to the other and is controlled by controlling the distillation period, We in Fridal are proud to use the most technical controlled distillation methods to provide the essential oils to our clients in the required specifications and needed packings.