How Much Essential Oil Can You Make? Yield Insights with LT3000 and ADI
Essential oils are the highly concentrated essences of plants—powerful, fragrant, and valuable. But if you’ve ever wondered how much essential oil can actually be extracted from herbs and flowers, the answer is: it depends. The amount of oil you get varies widely by plant type, whether you use fresh or dried material, and the equipment you use.
In this post, we’ll walk through the essentials of essential oil yield, how LT3000 and ADI distillers work, and share a chart of approximate yields from 20 common herbs when using 1 liter of plant material.
1. How to Make Essential Oils
Essential oils are most commonly extracted through steam distillation. Here’s how it works with equipment like the LT3000 or ADI:
Load the herbs: Fresh or dried plant material is placed into the distillation chamber.
Apply steam: Water is heated, producing steam that passes through the herbs.
Release oils: Heat and steam break open plant cells, releasing volatile aromatic compounds.
Condensation: The steam and oil vapors pass through a condenser, cooling into liquid.
Separation: Because oil and water don’t mix, the essential oil floats (or sometimes sinks) above the aromatic water (hydrosol), allowing easy collection.
Key points for successful distillation: medium heat or lower for LT3000 and loose packed herb material in herb column or herb basket.
Both the LT3000 and ADI are designed for herbalists, skincare makers, and small businesses, offering efficient extraction with user-friendly operation.
2. How Herb Quantity Determines Oil Yield
Essential oil yield is directly tied to the amount of plant material used. Simply put, the more herbs you put in, the more oil you can extract—but only up to the natural limit of that plant’s oil content.
For example:
Lavender flowers might yield about 1–1.5 ml of oil per 100 g fresh material.
Peppermint leaves yield higher, about 5–10 ml per 100 g fresh material.
This means that different plants require very different amounts to produce a meaningful amount of oil. Some herbs are generous oil-producers, while others produce just drops.
3. Fresh vs. Dried Herbs in Essential Oil Making
Whether you use fresh or dried herbs makes a big difference:
Fresh Herbs: Contain a lot of water, so they take up more space in the chamber. Yields are sometimes lower per volume, but the aroma may be brighter and lighter.
Dried Herbs: Concentrated plant material with less water. You can fit more actual plant matter into the same chamber, often leading to a higher oil yield per liter of material.
👉 Rule of thumb: Dried herbs usually give more oil per liter, but fresh herbs may offer different aromatic qualities.
4. Essential Oil Yield Chart (Per 1 Liter of Plant Material)
Here’s an approximate yield chart for 20 popular herbs distilled in units like LT3000 or ADI. Results can vary with growing conditions, harvest time, and whether fresh or dried material is used, but this gives a practical reference.
⚠️ Actual essential oil yield varies with plant type, harvest time, part used, and distillation efficiency. These numbers are approximate ranges based on loose-packed plant material.
Final Thoughts
With distillers like the LT3000 and ADI, small businesses, herbalists, and DIY enthusiasts can reliably produce essential oils and hydrosols. Understanding how much oil you can expect from different herbs helps set realistic expectations, plan production, and maximize your harvest.
Essential oil distillation isn’t just about quantity—it’s about quality, aroma, and capturing the plant’s true essence.
🌿 Don’t forget the hydrosol!
When you distill essential oils with LT3000 or ADI, you also create a valuable co-product: hydrosol. This aromatic water contains the plant’s water-soluble compounds in a gentle form, making it perfect for skincare, hair care, first aid, aromatherapy, and even culinary uses. Freshly distilled hydrosols are especially beneficial because they retain their delicate aroma and therapeutic properties without preservatives. Using both the essential oil and hydrosol means you capture the full gift of the plant.
