Chapter 12 - Raw Materials for Perfumery Flashcards
What are the 3 types of raw materials for perfumery?
(1) Naturally occurring - Plant/animal origin
(2) Nature-identical - Same structure as that of the natural substance but made by chemical means
(3) Man-made - Not found in nature
Describe the ‘Plant origin’ of raw materials for perfumery.
- Immense reservoir of fragrance raw materials
- Isolated by various extraction methods from whole plant to specific parts.
- Some plants yield different products from different plant parts
What are the various sources of plant raw materials?
(1) Flowers
(2) Leaves
(3) Fruit- peel/rind
(4) Seed
(5) Root
(6) Bark
(7) Wood
(8) Lichen
(9) Resin
Describe the ‘Animal origin’ of raw materials for perfumery.
Animal secretions, glands and other organs with high odoriferous potency have been used for centuries as pharmaceutical ingredients
What are examples of ‘animal origin’ raw material and its sources?
(1) Ambergris - Sperm whale
(2) Castoreum - Canadian beaver
(3) Civet - Civet cat
(4) Musk - Musk deer
What are the 5 extraction techniques?
(1) Distillation
(2) Expression
(3) Enfleurage
(4) Solvent extraction
(5) CO2 extraction
What are the perfumery products obtained from extraction?
(1) Essential oils
(2) Floral waters
(3) Pomades
(4) Concretes
(5) Resinoids
(6) Absolutes
(7) CO2 extract
What are essential oils and how are they obtained?
- Essential oils are volatile - unlike fixed/fatty oils
- Mainly obtained by steam distillation
- Some essential oils are obtained by expression or cold pressing (citrus oils)
What are the main components of steam distillation?
- Water inlet
- Essential oil
- Condenser
- Still
At the end of steam distillation, how do we know if the essential oil is above or below the water?
Check the relative density.
- RD > 1 = Below
- RD < 1 = Above
How are floral waters obtained?
- By-product of steam distillation
- For some oils (rose and orange flower oils), some of its constituents are slightly soluble in water = Floral water
What are 2 important examples of floral waters used in perfumery?
(1) Rose water
(2) Orange flower water
What is ‘Expression/Cold pressing’ used for?
- For citrus fruits (lemon, orange, bergamot)
- Converting the peel of citrus fruit to essential oil
Describe the process of ‘Expression/Cold pressing’.
1) Peel placed between mechanical crusher
2) Oil squeezed out
3) Resultant liquid allowed to settle, then oil pressed.
What is ‘Enfleurage’?
- Old processing technique used in South of France
- Makes use of cold, purified fat
- Mainly for some flower varieties that are fragile (Jasmine & tuberose)
Why is ‘Enfleurage’ rarely used nowadays?
- High cost
- Labour intensive procedure
Describe the process of ‘Enfleurage’.
1) Glass plates covered with thin layer of fat (75% lard and 25% tallow)
2) Plates place in wooden frames - ‘chassis’, covered with petals and stacked in piles
3) Petals removed and replaced by fresh one after, 24 hours (jasmine) and 2-3 days (tuberose)
4) Process repeated till fat is saturated or harvest is over
5) Scent-saturated fats melted, filtered.
6) On cooling, pomade formed.
What are pomades?
Combination of flower oil, waxes and fats obtained by enfleurage.
Describe the further process needed after obtaining pomade from enfleurage.
Extraction with alcohol and subsequent removal of alcohol is need to obtain ‘absolutes’ from ‘pomade’.
What is ‘Solvent extraction’?
- Common and effective method
- Uses volatile solvents, e.g petroleum ether, hexane at low temperature
- Fragrant oil extracted, followed by removal of solvent to yield ‘concrete’ or ‘resinoid’.
How can ‘concrete’ be converted to ‘absolute’?
Through extraction with alcohol and subsequent removal of alcohol
What are ‘concretes’?
- Waxy masses remaining after solvent extraction of various plant parts (Fresh flowers)
- Waxes and colouring matter also extracted along with the fragrant plant oils (Need to remove)
What are ‘resinoids’?
- Containing resinous materials, often viscous, sticky and resiny in nature
- Obtained by solvent extraction from resins (solid or semi-solid plant secretions)
What are absolutes and where are they obtained from?
- Highly concentrated fragrance materials generally obtained through alcohol extraction from concretes (also from pomades from enfleurage)
- Often expensive with low overall production yields.
Describe the process of absolute production.
1) Homogenization of concrete in alcohol.
2) Cooling of mixture to ~15 degrees
3) Cold filtration to remove precipitated waxes and colouring matter
4) Concentration of filtrate by distilling off the alcohol
Describe the technique of carbon dioxide extraction?
- Carbon dixodie liquefies under pressure (good solvent properties with low boiling point)
- Extraction at fairly low temperatures and high pressure
- Considerably high cost but CO2 can be easily removed
- Product: ‘More true to the original scent’ of the raw material
Describe the raw materials used and the process for extraction of Galbanum.
- Gum exudes from roots of large herb native to Middle East and Western Asia.
- Extraction methods: (1) Solvent extraction - resinoid, (2) Steam distillation - essential oil
What are the products produced from the 2 different extraction techniques of Galbanum?
(1) Resinoid
- Rich, green, woody, balsamic scent.
- Functions as base note
(2) Essential oil
- Green-woody scent and soft balsamic undertone
- Function as top note
What plant parts are primarily produced by what extraction methods?
- Flowers: Steam distillation, Solvent extraction
- Leaves & Twigs: Steam distillation
- Peel/Rind: Expression/Cold pressing (citrus)
How has the use of raw materials changed over time?
- Early part of 19th century: Advances in development of extraction methods for natural products
- Mid to end of 19th century AD: Advances in synthetic organic chemistry = synthetic compounds
What is the definition of ‘Nature-identical’?
A nature-identical has the same structure as that of a substance which occurs in nature but is made by chemical means
What is the definition of ‘Man-made’ perfumes?
(1) Production of analogues - Chemical ingredients that are close in structure but not identical to a substance which occurs in nature.
(2) Creation of new ingredients not found in nature (Calone)
Name an example of Man-made perfume.
Methyl dihydrojasmonate/Hedione, an analogue of methyl jasmonate.
- Has a blending, fixing and enhancing effects on other ingredients
Describe the process of headspace technology/analysis.
- Headspace around/above live flower
- Scent molecules in headspace surrounding flower captured
- Analysis by GC/MS -> Give smell ‘fingerprint’ of the scent in the air.
- Useful for reproducing scent of live flower
What is ScentTrek technology and what does it do?
- For monitoring plant biorhythm
Process: - Portable computer controlled system
- Scent captured at various times throughout day and night
- Scent analysis at peak olfactive moment (Maximum scent emission): For scent recreation
What are the advantages of synthetics?
(1) Price:
- Ensure reasonable price of reliable raw materials with consistent quality (unaffected by market fluctuations.
(2) Availability:
- Production of natural ingredients may not be sufficient. Also concerns over use of raw materials of animal origin.
(3) Creative freedom:
- Much wider range of perfumery materials available to perfumers
(4) Extend use to perfume other product lines
- Some natural ingredients may be prone to degradation.
- High intensity, little used but smell good enough
- Stability in other products
