PERFUMES
The basis of most perfumes comes at some point from plants (leaves, roots, rhizomes, stems, seeds, fruits and flowers).
Obtaining the aroma of a plant usually involves a process aimed at extracting its essential oil, i.e. an oil that contains its active ingredients (including aroma) in concentrated form.
For those of you who are curious about how to extract an aroma from a plant, here are the main methods:
The choice of the right method to obtain a top quality essential oil or a second-rate product is decisive.
It has been said that the heat and pressure used during extraction can, for example, interfere with the final quality of the essential oil, because during extraction the sensitive aromatic molecules can be broken down and oxidized.
Extraction methods
Steam distillation (ex. ALAMBIQUES DE COLUNA OU ALQUITARRA)
Steam distillation is the most common method of extracting essential oils.
It is usually used to obtain essential oils from leaves and herbs, but it is not always suitable for extracting essential oils from seeds, roots, wood and some flowers.
For example, flowers such as Jasmine can, due to the high pressure and heat used in the process, suffer destruction of their fragile aromatic molecules and lose all their perfume and active ingredients.
Steam distillation takes place in an alembic where fresh parts of the plant (sometimes dried plants are used) are placed. Coming out of a boiler, the steam circulates through the plant parts forcing the fragile intercellular pockets to break open and release the essential oil. As this process takes place, the sensitive essential oil molecules evaporate along with the water vapor, traveling through a tube at the top of the distiller, where they then undergo a cooling process using a coil and condense along with the water. A layer of essential oil is then formed at the top of this water, which is separated by decanting. The water left over from this process after the oil has been removed is called floral water, distillate, hydrosol or hydrolate
Hydrodistillation (ex. ALAMBIQUE TRADICIONAL)
The plant materials are completely emerged in water, like tea, and then distilled. The temperature does not exceed 100ºC, thus avoiding the loss of compounds that are more sensitive to high temperatures than in steam distillation. This is the oldest and most versatile distillation method. It is commonly used in backward countries, where steam boilers have not yet arrived and in these cases, distillation is a completely artisanal process. Examples include small farms in India, Indonesia, the Philippines and other countries in the East. It is often used to extract essential oils from flowers such as Jasmine and Neroli, as well as from roots, wood and bark.
Perfumes are classified according to the origin of the raw material and according to the French Perfume Committee, perfumes can be classified as:
- Citrus fruits: obtained from the peel of fruits such as bergamot, tangerine, lemon and orange.
- Floral: groups together perfumes whose main theme is flowers: floral bouquet, green floral, aldehydic floral, woody floral, among others.
- Filifolia: perfumes with notes of lavender, bergamot and geranium.
- Cyprus: a family of perfumes based mainly on patchouli, bergamot and rose.
- Woody: includes perfumes with soft notes such as sandalwood and patchouli, sometimes dry notes such as cedar and vetiver, others with lavender and citrus notes.
- Amber: this group includes perfumes with soft, vanilla notes, known as orientals.
- Leather: very distinctive perfumes, with dry notes that try to reproduce the characteristic smell of leather, burnt wood and tobacco.
A good perfume often takes several years to create, various essences are mixed and tested, mixed again and more tests until the desired scent is achieved.
To extract 1 kg of essential oil from roses, 2,000 kilos of petals are processed.
