Ask the Perfumer - Sunday, April 22, 2012

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Have you planted fragrant plants in anticipation of using them for tinctures, distillation or another means of extraction.  I have this pricey butane extraction unit that I was given to play around with, but I need a source of PURE butane before I can use it.  Anybody in the South Florida area know of one? Acme Gas doesn't carry it.  I'd love to use the butane extractor, but I'll settle for any of the above processes in the meantime.  If you have any perfumery questions this Sunday, I'll be here until 10 PM EST USA to help.

Comments

  1. Test4/22/2012 4:00 PM

    Yes, we just got some angelwing,pink,twisted, and some Trachelosperum jasmines in to grow, tincture and ultrasonic extract. I really want to get a butane extractor too.
    My question is about roses. I noticed that R. gallica, R.Damask,even R. Moschata can be extracted for the essential oil, how come we don't see R. Centifoila is eo, only in absolute and organic extract form? Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kristie4/22/2012 4:39 PM

    Yes, I have a chinese osmanthus, orris florentina,
    sambac jasmine and a scented geranium that kind of smells like patchouli. The osmanthus tincture did not turn out as I had hoped. I need to look up butane extraction, as I've never heard of that before. Would that make CO 2?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Noelle Smith4/22/2012 5:25 PM

    I have a stunning viburnum that is in bloom and fills the neighbourhood with fragrance. I was thinking I should try to tincture it. Any thoughts? Alcohol? Macerate it in oil? Do we even know if viburnum scent will come out to play? Is there a way to tell?

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnyasGardenPerfumes4/22/2012 8:10 PM

    Dear James:

    Sorry for the late reply, I was out at a party. You bring up a good question, and it makes me miss Alec Lawless. With his 20+ years knowledge of all things EO and Abs., he would have the answer. I'm going to research a bit, but off the top of my head, I'm thinking of a few reasons there is no rose centi EO aka otto.

    Historic precedent. The French were the first to grow the Rose de Mai, and their absolute is divine. Perhaps they liked using the Bulgarian or Turkish rose dama EOs and held their RdM absolute to their standards.

    Cost. Absolutes are a lot cheaper to produce than ottos, due to the difference in yields.

    I'll post my research findings next week on the Ask the Perfumer forum, so check back.

    PS I have a lot of old texts that deal with the industry, so I'll check there. Arctander has nothing on this subject.

    HTH,
    Anya

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnyasGardenPerfumes4/22/2012 8:11 PM

    Hi Kristie:

    Sounds like you have a good fragrant garden going there.

    Butane is butane, CO2 is CO2. Nowadays some are even using 134, the gas that we put in our car's air conditioning system, as a solvent.

    xoxo,
    Anya

    ReplyDelete
  6. Test4/22/2012 11:05 PM

    Thanks Anya I look forward to your findings!

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnyasGardenPerfumes4/22/2012 11:31 PM

    Hi Noelle:

    Your message came through really late! Tincture the viburnum. Fill the jar with alcohol, put in slightly wilted flowers (let them sit for an hour or two to lose a little water) and then fill the jar as much as possible with the viburnums. Let sit one day, repeat. Keep going until you get the alcohol saturated with the scent. I'm not sure if that will happen in one season, it depends how many recharges of tthe flowers are possible in the given blooming period. It took me three year harvesting some tiny flowers of various plants to get the saturation point, but now I have tincture as strong as some absolutes.

    xoxo,
    Anya

    ReplyDelete

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