How do you extract the oil from a mint plant?

Is there a stove top method? I have various mint plants, peppermint, spearmint, lemon mint, pineapple mint and chocolate mint? Also, What else can you do with mint besides make tea?

How do you extract the oil from a mint plant?
If unable to do the distilliation, try making a poultice or Tinture.


The tinture will extract the oils out @ the cost of alcohol. So if one is willing to use that route, hey go for it.
Reply:Oil of mint is extracted by steam distillation of mint leaves/stems that have been partially dried and cured (like hay). Not sure if it's possible to do this in the home although you could try setting up a stove top kettle with a long tube attached to the spout and collecting the distillate of boiling mint plant. Then you just need to separate the oil from the distilled water. I think you would need a LOT of plant material to make it worth while.





mint is great as a tea of course, but you can do other things with it. use it to flavour desserts (especially chocolate based ones) or mix finely chopped mint leaves with some vinegar and sugar to make a mint sauce for lamb. i use mint whenever i cook new potatoes: after boiling and draining them, add a knob of butter and some chopped mint leaves and coat the potatoes. tastes great!