Finally can report success in producing Sassafras Oil from sassafras root bark via Steam Distillation. Now I can hear folks saying "Why bother - just order it!". Well, it was done for four reasons:
1) I have yet to find a good source to purchase.
2) I hate to see all that rootbark going to waste on the trees that are being cut down round here.
3) I will always have a source no matter the restrictions on sassy oil.
4) I need to get my Karma rating up.
Root bark was stripped from sassy roots and dried to approx. 5-10% moisture. Reason for drying was two-fold: so mold doesn't grow as bark quantity being accumulated and can pack more weight of dried bark into steam distillation unit.
Dried and crumbled bark was loaded into pyrex distillation chamber, approx. 200 grams at a time. This chamber has bottom steam feed. Distilling head/thermometer adapter on top of that, and condenser and receiving flask off to side.
Now I was wondering whether steam, at 100 degrees C. would extract the sassy oil/safrole since it's boiling point is like 232 C. A quick check of the literature proved comforting: "The partial pressure of each component of a mixture of immiscible, volatile substances at a given temperature is equal to the vapor pressure of the pure compound at the same temperature and does not depend on the mole fraction of the compound in the mixture; This indicates that the total vapor pressure of the mixture at any temperature is always greater than the vapor pressure of even the most volatile compound at that temperature (in this case the H2O); Thus the boiling temperature of a mixture of immiscible compounds must then be LOWER than that of lowest-boiling component (H2O)". Ah-ha! I've left out the math, but my calculations showed that the mixture of sassy oil and steam should be boiling at about 95 degrees or so.
Sure enough, once the setup reached equilibrium, temp showed a constant 96 C. and oil and water dripped from the condenser nicely. The sassy oil was a nice water white and formed a layer at the Bottom of the H2O, with very little if any other oils on top of the water. Total yield seems to be about 8-9% by weight, which matches nicely with tests done on the rootbark to determine oil %. So there you have it!
From roots to oil. The one thing that strikes me is that the oil produced this way is pure water white, rather than the reddish-gold as commonly seen in the commercial stuff. I suspect this has something to do both with the source of imported oil (tree wood rather than root bark) and the extraction techniques used overseas.
Next need to establish % of safrole in the oil. Any thoughts on this?
If they drive God from the earth, we shall shelter Him underground - Dostoevsky