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.

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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. 


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