204 PHILIPPINE RESINS, GUMS, AND OILS 
used in preparing the best handkerchief bouquets and hair 
pomades. When diluted with other odors it imparts to the 
whole a true flowery fragrance. 
The essential oil obtained from the flowers of Acacia farnesia 
is greenish yellow and viscid. This oil itself is never sold com- 
mercially, but is mixed with other substances and sold as per- 
fumes, fixed oils, pomades, or extract of cassie. 
Cassie perfume is prepared as a pomade by macerating the 
flower heads and placing the crushed material in purified melted 
fat where it is allowed to remain several hours. As many flowers 
are used as the fluid grease will cover. The spent flowers are 
next removed and replaced by fresh ones. This operation is , 
continued until the grease has acquired a sufficient richness of 
perfume. Eight or ten treatments are usually necessary. The 
melted fat is then strained and cooled. This preparation, which 
is simply a solution of the true essential oil of cassie flowers 
in a neutral fat, is the commercial cassie pomade. More modern 
methods of preparing pomades such as that of cassie are de- 
scribed by Askinson.* 
Extract of cassie is prepared by treating six pounds of cassie 
pomade, which is cut into small pieces, with one gallon of al- 
cohol. Askinson * uses four pounds of cassie pomade to one 
gallon of alcohol. The alcoholic solution of the pomade is placed 
in securely stoppered bottles and allowed to remain three or four 
weeks at summer heat. The perfume which the fat contains 
is dissolved out by the alcohol. The mixture is then filtered. 
The residue of fat still contains some perfume and serves as 
an excellent material for the manufacture of hair dressing. The 
extract of cassie prepared in this manner has a fine olive-green 
color and the rich flowery odor of the cassie blossoms. It should 
be preserved in tightly stoppered bottles in a cool, dark place. 
This is necessary, as under the influence of light, heat, and air, 
the delightful odors of perfumes are gradually destroyed. 
Cassie perfume may also be prepared by distilling the flowers 
and dissolving the essential oil thus obtained in alcohol. This 
method of preparation gives, however, an inferior product, which 
does not have the true, natural scent of the flowers. Usually, 
when the active odorous principle of the flower exists in un- 
usually minute quantities as in such flowers as cassie, violet, 
and jasmine, a better grade of perfume is obtained by making 
a pomade, rather than by distilling. 

* Askinson, G. W., Perfumes and cosmetics, (1915). 
