Kitchen chemistry

My oregano has been growing like a mad thing the last few months, so I decided it was time to harvest some and make oregano oil. I don't have a stillhead or a double-ended flask, both of which are necessary for steam distillation of solid matter. However, I had ordered a 100mL separating funnel from American Science and Surplus a while back, but the stem broke off about an inch from the stopcock, so I decided that would do. So I filled the sep funnel with oregano leaves, connected the stem to a stoppered one-arm Erlenmeyer (with thermometer), tooled a cork down to where it would fit in the mouth of the sep funnel, drilled it out, bent some glass tubing, inserted it into the cork, and set up the whole apparatus with the sep funnel on its side so that the bent tubing ran ever so slightly upward, then down into a beaker to receive the distillate. Presto: one ghetto still.

About two hours of gentle boiling later, I am now the proud owner of just over a dram of oregano essential oil. I'm really pleased at how well this worked; I was afraid that the steam would all condense in the sep funnel and end up splurting a bunch of oily water into the beaker, but from what I can tell, the yield was nearly all oil. There may be some oily water left in the funnel, but I'll find out later when I drain it. (The glassware is all cooling on the stove right now. Remember, kids: hot glass looks just like cold glass!) Also, the apartment reeks of oregano, but I suppose there are much worse smells of which it could reek.

Useful side note for the kitchen chemist: if you don't happen to have any Vaseline on hand, you can lube up a one-hole stopper with Astroglide.

I can't wait for the lemon balm to grow enough for me to harvest -- then I can make citronella. And the catmint. If regular catnip is kitty pot, catmint essential oil must be kitty crack.