Anya's Garden Natural Perfumery Institute - The Production of Natural Aromatics

-
Arabic distiller
How detailed is the Basic Perfumery Course?  Very.
How comprehensive is the Basic Perfumery Course? Very.

http://PerfumeClasses.com

One example comes from the well-illustrated section in Module 3 on the Production of Natural Aromatics.  As the head instructor, I believe that a student needs to have a working knowledge of basic information on how the aromatic makes it from the field to the bottle they buy, whether it's rose, vetiver or some new boutique oil.
3.1: The Production of Natural Aromatics                                                             
Assaying Raw Materials                                                                                         
How Cost is Determined: Crops, Labor, and Demand                                           
3.2:  Extraction Methods and Products                                                                 
Distillation                                                                                                               
Steam Distillation                                                                                               
Hydro-distillation                                                                                                
Hydro-diffusion                                                                                                   
Cohobation                                                                                                         
Fractional Distillation                                                                                          
Rectification                                                                                                       
Vacuum Distillation                                                                                            
Destructive Distillation                                                                                        
Expression                                                                                                             
Enfleurage                                                                                                              
Concretes                                                                                                               
Absolutes                                                                                                               
Floral Waxes                                                                                                          
CO2 Extraction                                                                                                       
CO2 Extraction for Essential Oils or CO2 Selects                                             
Supercritical CO2 Extraction for Totals                                                              
Tincturing                                                                                                               
Infusing                                                                                                                  
Ultrasonic Extraction                                                                                              
Isolates                                                                                                                   
Natural Isolates: From Rejection to Acceptance                                                
How are Isolates Made?                      (Being rewritten)                                                          
Ongoing Study of Extraction Methods

There has been a good discussion on Rose Geranium Essential Oil Bourbon in the Natural Perfumery Yahoo group I host.  I know that the term Bourbon refers to the island of Bourbon, now the Island of Reunion, but I think it also refers to the process of extraction.  In my textbook, I want my student to get an idea of the hard work and often unseen things that go on in the production of aromatics:


From Steffen Arctander, Perfume and Flavor Materials of Natural Origin (1960)


Geranium OiI, Reunion.
Also called Geranium Bourbon from the old name
of the island of La Reunion (Ile de Bourbon),
Geranium Oil, R&mion is the most important of
all the geranium oils. It is produced in hundreds
of small, mainly primitive stills which treat often
less than one metric ton of plant material per
charge. The daily output of oil from one still may
be only a few kilos after many hours of work at
two or more distillations, not to speak of scores
of hours of back-breaking work in the field,
ploughing, weeding, cleaning, fertilizing and cut-ting on steep hills where not even wheel-carts can
go. The small lots of oil are sold to middlemen,
who in turn sell larger lots to the brokers. The
latter are usually French exporters or wholesale
brokers. They bulk the oil lots, and this stepwise
bulking of very small lots explains why the various
drum lots of Geranium Bourbon Oil are fairly
consistent and uniform in odor, but it also explains
why the appearance of the oil is often poor:
water, mud, precipitate and other worthless
impurities may amount to several percent of the
oil, and this can cause a sizeable loss for the buyer
who wants to clean, filter or strain the oil. It is
certainly no fun to buy water and dirt at the
price of U.S. $ 55.– per kilo. It should be kept in
mind, however, that certain exporters do filter
the oil and remove the water before the oil is
shipped overseas. The average temperature in
Reunion island is about 25” C. At this temperature,
the oil will dissolve more than one percent of
water. Most of this water will “fall out” of the
oil when the drums are shipped (particularly when
airfreighted!) to the buyer. The latter will find a
significant amount of water at the bottom of his
drum with the expensive oil. But in most cases,
this water separation cannot be blamed upon the
bulker or exporter in R6union. The water must
be accepted as a calculated risk. It ean only be
satisfactorily and finally removed after arrival at
its destination.

We're rather lucky, and a bit spoiled, aren't we?


I designed, along with the help of Andrine Olson, the editor for my textbook, with revisions by Bruce Bolmes, Guild Associate, a very modern, beautiful Production Flowchart for my students. I'm not sharing that because of intellectual property rights, but I have to say I'm very proud of it.  It's quite the accomplishment, as I've never seen anything like it in any book.

BTW, I need to blog on the natural isolates conundrum/confusion that has arisen since the textbook was originally published.  I'm waiting until the Guild members vote on natural isolates in the next week.

Online and offline study options are available. 


http://PerfumeClasses.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Boxgasm - for perfumers, aromatherapists, bath and body manufacturers, chandlers. What the heck is a boxgasm? Well, read below and you may have one.

-
Image
Project Boxgasm Announcement: If you are an artisan who makes perfume, bath & body products, aromatherapy products, candles - you can now make your own custom boxes! The Natural Perfumers Guild wishes to share this discovery with everyone, so please share the link to this blog with other groups, forums and chat places you may frequent.  The more the merrier - let's upgrade our products to the next level, with lovely, custom boxes!  I am the President of the Guild, and I like to roam social media sites and check out, and "like" the various projects and announcements of the Guild members.  Little did I dream when I visited a Facebook page of one of our members, a page that only had 21 followers, since it's new, that I'd discover something that can help all artisan small business owners. But there it was, an iconic image out of South Africa - custom perfume boxes! When I called some members of the Natural Perfumers Guild and told them about the discovery th
Read more

Ask the Perfumer Sunday Oct 21, 2012

-
Image
Ask the Perfumer - and an Ambergris hypothesis Guild member Lisa Coburn posted a link on Facebook that took me to a video on how cephalopods--squid, cuttlefish and octopus, are masters of disguise.  As I watched it, I made a perfume connection, straight to the elusive, mysterious, rare and valued ambergris, a gorgeous material used in perfumery. Photo of the famed 'Yeti' chunk of ambergris. Ambergris is produced by the stomach/intestinal secretions of the sperm whale to protect its insides from the sharp beaks of the squid and cuttlefish, two main items in its diet.  The whale evacuates the chunk of ambergris when it becomes large enough to be an irritant on its own, albeit a softer, rounder irritant compared to the beak and cartilage of the squid or cuttlefish.  As a perfumer, I often have to gently remind excitable newbies ;-)  that the scent of the ambergris is secondary to its major contribution to a perfume, which is its ability to 'marry' and allo
Read more

Contest: Fresh ginger, fresh ginger, wherefort art thou fresh ginger?

-
Image
Can you help me?  I need two things from my readers. There will be a freebie gift for two helpful souls who reply, one for each subject. First:  Back in late 2006, I stumbled across *fresh* ginger root essential oil at liberty natural.  There were two - one from Madagascar, one from Indonesia.  I immediately told my perfumery friends about it, and I used the fresh version in the kits for my students.  Why the excitement? Fresh grated ginger - zest, fresh, hot, spicy fragrance Previously, the only ginger root oil available was from the peeled, sun-dried roots, and it was a middle note for perfumery.  It had a mellow, soft fragrance, much like the dried ginger powder you get for baking purposes.  This fresh ginger, on the other hand, smelled just like the fresh cut or grated root!  Hot, spicy, wet, luscious, and a top note! I've used the aged, dried ginger EO, because it is valuable in perfumery and for food and drink purposes, but its soft character was just that, soft, c
Read more