Ooty: It is a well known fact that eucalyptus oil extraction/ distillation is being practiced as a cottage industry across the hills here.
Stating that eucalyptus oil distillation is simple yet laborious, C. Manikkam, who runs a distillation unit at Kallhatti near here, has given an account of the interesting process on eucalyptus oil distillation.
Good matured leaves of the eucalyptus trees are plucked by hand and collected. Even those leaves fallen on the ground are also collected.
Such leaves are put in a compressed form in a boiler placed in a small hut. Around 200-kg to 300-kg of leaves are used at a time for distillation. Water is poured to the brim of the boiler and it is closed air tight. The boiler is heated for nearly 10 to 11 hours. The vapour is let out through a tube, which is suddenly cooled in cold water, when oil and water get separated and are collected.
“This is the crude/raw eucalyptus oil, which is sold to the traders who filter it further and sell in the market.” he said. A litre of eucalyptus oil is now priced around Rs 1,500, he said, and added during the shiny season the trade is good while in the rainy season the weather plays hindrance in oil distillation .
Rohit Jain, an eucalyptus oil trader, said that the oil collected from the cottage industries are being filtered using modern techniques to bring the best to the market using proper bottling techniques.
