distillation of arnica

[Nemeton48]

Hello
I live in Washington state. Considering growing a large patch of arnica for distilling into essential oil..much the same as lavender essential oil. Has anyone grown arnica with Success? Tips? I'm 73 with quite a few aches so having a nice big plot of arnica seems like a good investment as it's my go to muscle pain reliever. Thanks for any input.

 

[DeeAnna]

Making reasonable amounts of a given essential oil isn't practical for the home gardener. If the botanical material will produce a hydrosol (some plants don't), the average person will get much better results and a far larger volume of useful product if they focus on making a quality hydrosol.

This question gets asked on a regular basis, so there are other threads on this topic for you to learn from. Search the forum for "making essential oil" for more information. Here are two threads to get you started --

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/newbie-needs-advice-on-essential-oil-making.84966/https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/making-your-own-essential-oil.81855/
From my notes, the EO yield for commercial distilleries is about 1% by weight for arnica root and about 1% for arnica flower. A person should expect a lower yield when botanical material is processed in a home distillation system.