Something to make honeysuckle smell better?

[penelopejane]

Oh my gosh. This is why people have no idea what an essential oil is.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/225063-how-to-extract-essential-oils-from-honeysuckle-flowers/

Isn't that one method of making essential oil?

 

[artemis]

Isn't that one method of making essential oil?

No, that would just be an infusion. If you read the comments at the bottom of the article, a couple people more articulate than myself explained it.

 

[penelopejane]

No, that would just be an infusion. If you read the comments at the bottom of the article, a couple people more articulate than myself explained it.

I thought it was an enfleurage process using oil. Ancient and time consuming but still works?
I know distillation is the most common commercial process.

 

[TeresaT]

I thought it was an enfleurage process using oil. Ancient and time consuming but still works?
I know distillation is the most common commercial process.

HA! Thanks for the education. I never heard of "enfleurage" before today. I read some articles online regarding the process. (This one was fascinating. http://africanaromatics.com/enfleurage-101/) What the article I posted produces is an infusion. They're only putting flowers into oil a single time and allowing them to steep for weeks in a dark place then bottling it.

To get the essential oil via the enfleurage process, they would have had to mix alcohol into the infusion and shake or stir to thoroughly mix them. The alcohol would then absorb the scent from the fat and after a while would rise to the top of the fat where it could be poured/skimmed off. Then the essential oil removed from the alcohol.

The interesting thing about enfleurage is you can reuse the fats or oils used to gather the volatile fragrance oils in the first place. With the Livestrong method, there is nothing to reuse because they don't separate the fragrance from the carrier oil (or maybe "gathering" oil would be better?).

Thanks again for the interesting education. Ya learn something new every day!!

 

[penelopejane]

To get the essential oil via the enfleurage process, they would have had to mix alcohol into the infusion and shake or stir to thoroughly mix them. The alcohol would then absorb the scent from the fat and after a while would rise to the top of the fat where it could be poured/skimmed off. Then the essential oil removed from the alcohol.

The interesting thing about enfleurage is you can reuse the fats or oils used to gather the volatile fragrance oils in the first place.

Thanks again for the interesting education. Ya learn something new every day!!

I didn't realise (or had forgotten) enfleurage required separating the oil again with the use of alcohol. So I learnt something too. Making a real essential oil isn't an easy backyard process!