Enfleurage
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Enfleurage is a process that uses odorless fats that are solid at room temperature to capture the
volatile oils, produced by plants
. The process can be "cold" enfleurage or "hot" enfleurage.
Process
There are two types of enfleurage:
- In petals or whole flowers, is then placed on the fat and its scent is allowed to diffuse into the fat over the course of 1–3 days. The process is then repeated by replacing the spent botanicals with fresh ones until the fat has reached a desired degree of fragrance saturation. This procedure was developed in southern France in the 18th century for the production of high-grade concentrates.
- In hot enfleurage, solid fats are heated and botanical matter is stirred into the fat. Spent botanicals are repeatedly strained from the fat and replaced with fresh material until the fat is saturated with fragrance. This method is considered the oldest known procedure for preserving plant fragrance substances.
In both instances, once the fat is saturated with fragrance, it is then called the "enfleurage pomade". The enfleurage pomade was either sold as it was, or it could be further washed or soaked in
absolute of the botanical matter. The spent fat is usually used to make soaps
since it is still relatively fragrant.
Other fragrance extraction methods
The enfleurage fragrance extraction method is one of the oldest. It is also highly inefficient and costly but was the sole method of extracting the fragrant compounds in delicate flowers such as
solvent extraction or supercritical fluid extraction using supercritical carbon dioxide
(CO2) or similar compressed gases.
References
- Bauer, Kurt; Dorothea Garbe; Horst Surburg (2001). Common Fragrance and Flavor Materials. WILEY-VCH. p. 170. ISBN 3-527-30364-2.
External links
The dictionary definition of enfleurage at Wiktionary