Making Scents Out of Maceration

Maceration is another method that also involves yummy animal fats. Egyptians used it to extract frankincense, myrrh and pine oils when not burning them as incense. And before the isolation of alcohol from wine was perfected, these fats were the best solvents for these essences. Sort of a cross between distillation and enfleurage, the maceration process required that the botanicals be immersed in double boilers of lard and suet and stirred with long wooden spatulas. A press-bag or scourtin, similar to that used by wine-makers, removed the scent-saturated oil from the blooms. The press bag was later replaced by a centrifuge. Maceration was a popular method of extraction for orange and rose blossoms, since neither loses its fragrance at high heats.

The best method for most citrus oil extraction is expression, or cold-pressing. It is used to obtain oil from bergamot fruit, a citrus fruit with a lemony flavor, native to the Calabria area of southern Italy. (Bergamot oil is the key ingredient in Earl Grey tea.) This method is very similar to the pressing method used in extracting the fatty oils of olives, sesame seeds and peanuts. Citrus oils lie in glands in the outer peel of the fruit (the flavedo); below this outer layer is the spongy inner layer, the albedo. When the peel is squeezed under a spray of water, the oil becomes trapped in an emulsion of albedo, water, cellulose and pectin. This mixture is screened, centrifuged and chilled to remove the wax. The oil is given a final filtering and then is stored.

Hey, did you know that the orange was originally introduced to the west by China? Actually, so were peaches, apricots, camphor and cassia (the source for cinnamon and an ingredient in cola drinks). Arabs brought the orange from China and introduced it to Spain and Sicily during their occupation of those areas in the 8th through the 11th centuries. Spain and Sicily were the first areas to develop citrus plantations and were also the first to use citrus oil. Sicilian oil produces one of the most fragrant oils because of its dry climate, which creates a thicker peel on the oranges to help retain moisture.

Until modern presses were available, the most popular method of citrus oil extraction in Sicily was the sponge method. It's pretty grueling stuff. First, the fruit would be cut in half and then the fruit scooped out. Then the fruit peels were placed in water and pressed between a convex-shaped piston on one side, and a sponge on the other. The sponge was then periodically wrung out by the worker. Although this method produces a fine-grade oil, the technique has died out because machine extraction is cheaper, and no doubt, less exhausting.

So, would you ever have thought perfume to be so complicated? Jolique just figured you took a little of this, a little of that and voilà! (Of course, if that were the case, Jolique would be a master-perfumer by now, instead of just writing about it.)

Bibliography:

-Guenther, Ernest, The Essential Oils, Vol. 1, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., New York, 1949.
-Morris, Edwin, Fragrance: The Story of Perfume from Cleopatra to Chanel, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1984.
- Newman, Cathy, Perfume: The Art and Science of Scent, National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C. 1998.
-Snively, John H., A Treatise on the Manufacture of Perfumes and Kindred Toilet Articles, The Druggists Circular, New York, 1890.

Photo Credits:

(1): Poucher, William A., Perfumes and Cosmetics, with Especial Reference to Synthetics, D. Van Nostrand company, New York, 1923.
(2): Snively, John H., A Treatise on the Manufacture of Perfumes and Kindred Toilet Articles, The Druggists Circular, New York, 1890.