SFXTION II 



Products of Fermentation and Heat. 



Ferment Oils. 



The flowers and other parts of plants from which essential oils 

 can be drawn by distillation (without any previous treatment) of 

 course contain the essential oil ready formed and stored in glands, 

 glandular hairs, ducts or cells. The formation of the odorous 

 principle in some plants is continuous, in others it takes place only 

 during the day-time, in others only at night, but the production is 

 regarded as the result of either the decomposition or fermentation 

 of the chlorophyll or of a saccharine juice, glucoside or other 

 proximate principle. 



In a flower, the perfume once formed, has a tendency to furtlier 

 oxidation, or partial fermentation, and when the flower is plucked 

 this deterioration l)egins very soon and works rapidly. Such 

 flowers as are used in the perfume industry should therefore be 

 taken at once to the factory and operated upon immediately. The 

 effects of this fermentation are more marked in some flowers than 

 in others, by reason of the bodies with which the odorous principle 

 is associated. The new compounds generated vary accordingly. 

 The matter which in the natural way is converted into odorous 

 principle in the living plant appears in some cases to be capable 

 of conversion bv artiflcial means. Liebig; states* that it is a fact 

 that very small c|uan titles of the blossoms of the violet, elder, 

 linden, or cowslip, added to a fermenting liquid, are sufficient to 

 communicate a very strong taste and odour, which the addition of 

 the water distilled from a quantity a hundred times greciter would 

 not effect. The various kinds of beer manufactured in Bavaria are 

 distinguished by different flavours, which are given by allowing 

 small quantities of the leaves and blossoms of particular plants to 

 ferment alons; with the wort. This leads to the consideration of 



* Chemistry of Agriculture, p. 332. 



