Abstract: Phenol (10) produced by the cleavage of cumene hydroperoxide is chemically treated with a base (12) such as a polyamine, is optionally then treated with an acid or acid anhydride (15) such as phthalic anhydride, is then steamed distilled (12) to remove a lites fraction as a water azeotrope (21) and the bottoms (34) of the steam distillation are vacuum distilled (35) to recover high purity phenol (36) as an overhead. The overheads (21) of the steam distillation are condensed (22) and may be phase separated (23) into an aqueous phase (25) and organic phase (24), with the aqueous phase (25) mixed (26) with an organic solvent (27) which preferentially dissolves benzofuran impurities. This mixture is phase separated into an organic solvent phase (30, 130) and a recycle aqueous phase (31). Alternatively, the entire condensed overheads (21) may be extracted (146-151 and 153) with organic solvent.