HERB - Adventures in science

[ND Wederstrandt]

>>I also tried the enfleurage method with honeysuckle as well as an
>>infusion method.  The most frustrating part is how persistant you need
>to be replacing flowers...
>>Clare
>
>This is a method I have never heard of.  What does it entail?
>Christianna

Enfleurage is a type of extraction for flower essential oils.  They use it
alot for delicate scents like jasmine, lily, and violet.  I don't know the
technical side of it but I got interested when I saw some photos of a
company extracting the essential oils of lilies.  Basically you put a layer
of a fat down and cover the fat with whatever flower you're capturing
scent, you leave the flowers in the fat for several hours, then replace the
flowers.  You do this repeatedly until the fat has built up a very strong
aroma.  Then you heat the fat and since essential oils are lighter than
regular oils you dab off the essential.  It's a very expensive and tedious
process which I tried once.  I did cheat and used a coconut based oil and
rather than melting it it to pull the scent, I just used the coconut oil as
the base for a perfumed ointment.  I used honeysuckle since I had massive
amounts around the place I was living.  I went back to infusion which is
easier and not as hard. I also tried the distillation to see if I could
make a small one out of a glass coffee pot.  It worked.

	I think my enfleurage method is not quite the standard practise.
But it's fun to try.  The ointment was really nice, I used some beeswax to
thicken it and a little benzoin as a preservative.


Clare


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