Abstract: - Steam distillation is a separation process which consist ofdistilling water together with other volatile and non-volatile components. Thesteam from the boiling water carries the vapour of the volatiles to acondenser, where both are cooled and return to the liquid or solid state; whilethe non-volatile residues remain behind in the boiling container. If thevolatiles are liquids not miscible with water, they will spontaneously form adistinct phase after condensation, allowing them to be separated by decantationor with a separator funnel. In that case, a Clevenger apparatus may be used toreturn the condensed water to the boiling flask, while the distillation is inprogress. Alternatively, the condensed mixture can be processed with fractionaldistillation or some other separation technique. Steam distillation can be usedwhen the boiling point of the substance to be extracted is higher than that ofwater, and the starting material cannot be heated to that temperature becauseof decomposition or other unwanted reactions. It may also be useful when theamount of the desired substance is small compared to that of the non-volatileresidues. It is often used to separate volatile essential oils from plantmaterial. It is however much simpler and economical than those alternatives,and remains important in certain industrial sectors.
Keywords: - Distillation,Extraction , Organophosphates