I studied aromatherapy many years ago, where I learned about the
extraction methods of essential oils. The most common and cost effective method
of extraction is distillation, where the raw material or herb is macerated,
placed into a large vat of water, and heated over a fire. The natural oils from
the plant seeps into the water, the vapour then rises, with droplets of oily
water running along an attached tube or pipe, and then filtering into another
empty vessel. Water and oil of course separate, and this is how the oils are
obtained. Pure, unadulterated essential oil.
Another method is called enfleurage. A large framed plate of glass
is smeared with a layer of animal fat and allowed to set. Petals or whole
flowers are 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
used herbs with fresh ones until the fat has reached a desired degree of
fragrance saturation.
This method is considered the oldest known procedure for preserving
plant fragrance substances. Once the fat is saturated with fragrance, it is
then called the enfleurage pomade, which is further washed or soaked in ethyl
alcohol to draw the fragrant molecules into the alcohol. The alcohol is
then separated from the fat and allowed to evaporate, leaving behind the absolute of
the botanical matter – the pure essential oil.
The spent fat is usually used to make soaps since it is still
relatively fragrant. Floral oils, such as rose, Ylang ylang and Jasmine are
typically extracted in this manner and it takes about 1 ton of rose petals just
to get a small bottle of essential oil. Hence pure Rose oil being so expensive.
I never really understood the full meaning of the process though, until
I watched the movie, Perfume – the story of a murder. It’s a German fantasy
thriller, about a man called Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born with a superior
olfactory sense, who creates the world's finest perfume. His work, however,
takes a dark turn as he searches for the ultimate scent. The scent of a
woman.
It’s a rather dark tale and not everyone’s cuppa, but since I studied
aromatherapy, the film fascinated me. So let me tell you
about Jean-Baptiste Grenouille.
After growing to maturity as a tanner’s apprentice, Grenouille makes
his first delivery to Paris, where he revels in the new odours. He focuses on a
redheaded girl selling yellow passion fruit, following her and repeatedly
attempting to sniff her, but startles her with his behaviour. To prevent her
from crying out, he covers the girl's mouth and unintentionally suffocates her.
After realizing that she is dead, he strips her body naked and smells her all
over, becoming distraught when her scent fades. Afterwards, Grenouille is
haunted by the desire to recreate the girl's aroma.
After making a delivery to a perfume shop, Grenouille amazes the Italian
owner, with his ability to identify and create fragrances. He revitalizes the
perfumer's career with new formulas, demanding only that Baldini teach him how
to preserve scents. Baldini explains that all perfumes are harmonies of twelve
individual scents, and may contain a theoretical thirteenth scent. Grenouille
continues working for Baldini but is saddened when he learns that Baldini's
method of distillation will not capture the scents of all objects. Baldini
informs Grenouille of another method that can be learned in Grasse and
agrees to help him by providing the journeyman papers he requires in exchange
for 100 new perfume formulas. En route to Grasse, Grenouille discovers that he
has no body odour, and is therefore worthless. He decides that creating the
perfect perfume will prove his worth.
Upon arrival in Grasse, Grenouille catches the scent of Laura Richis,
the beautiful, redheaded daughter of the wealthy Antoine Richis and decides
that she will be his "thirteenth scent", the linchpin of his perfume.
Grenouille finds a job in Grasse under Madame Arnulfi and learns the method of
enfleurage. He first kills a young lavender picker and attempts to extract her
scent using the method of hot enfleurage, which fails. After this, he attempts
the method of cold enfleurage on a prostitute he hired, but she becomes alarmed
and tries to throw him out. He murders her and successfully preserves the scent
of the woman, after which he embarks on a killing spree, targeting beautiful
young women and capturing their scents using his perfected method.
I won’t tell you the rest. Like I said, it’s a thriller and rather
disturbing, but beautifully narrated. The story of his life is told in flashback,
beginning with his abandonment at birth in the stench-filled air of an 18th Century
Parisian fish market. It is the very fetid malodorous rank of the market and
its patrons that stirred the newborn to life. Born without a smell of his own
but endowed with an extraordinary sense of smell, he is able to nose out
rotting fish or the richest perfumes with just a whiff, describing in detail
the composition and element of each aroma.
THAT is what fascinated me the most; the ability for someone to have
such a profound sense of smell.
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