ON THE EXTRACTION AND PRESERVATION OF AROMATA. 207 
and on distilling them this summer I have procured a water, the perfume of 
which equalled that made from flowers of this season. 
As the essential oil seems soluble in all reasonable proportions, this is a very 
■convenient method of making a concentrated water, either by treating the gly¬ 
cerine after expression with a fresh portion of flowers or by regulating the 
•amount of water added on distillation. This process of preserving flowers will 
be found to far exceed the old plan of preserving them between layers of salt, 
particularly as it is almost next to impossible to distil the flowers so preserved 
without a small portion of the salt being mechanically carried over, which cannot 
be a desideratum in an emollient. 
By diluting with water the expressed glycerine, and shaking it with melted 
lard, and then allowing them to separate, an ointment may be obtained, which 
has the natural properties and aroma of the elder-flowers. 
I will now draw your attention to what may probably be a very useful appli¬ 
cation of the above properties of glycerine,—I mean in cases where the aroma of 
the flower is so delicate as to be much injured, if not entirely destroyed, by the 
application of heat. When such is the case, the extraction of the perfume by 
glycerine may be substituted for the process of enf,enrage as now carried on to 
such a large extent in the Yar district, France.* The process would then be¬ 
come one of cold maceration, no heat being employed. After digesting the 
flowers for some considerable time in the glycerine, the latter is expressed and 
again treated with fresh flowers until the excipient is thoroughly saturated 
with the volatile oil; the extraction seems perfect, as the glycerine evidently 
has a great affinity for the odoriferous essences. (Fresh mint placed over a 
thin layer of glycerine imparts in a short time a considerable odour to that 
fluid, although it may not be in actual contact.) The saturated glycerine is 
diluted with water and shaken with a small quantity of chloroform; after 
well agitating, the latter is allowed to subside; it carries down with it nearly 
the whole of the essential oil. The chloroformic solution, after being separated 
by a funnel, should be filtered, if necessary, and allowed to evaporate sponta¬ 
neously iu a shallow vessel. The residual matter dissolved in spirit forms the 
spirituous extract of the flower, whatever that may be. If operating upon large 
quantities it becomes desirable to economize. Therefore in such a case, the 
greater part of the chloroform may be drawn off in a still, the last portion being 
allowed to evaporate spontaneously; the boiling-point being so low that even 
the most delicate perfumes would hardly be deteriorated by the heat employed. 
Even the offensive smelling bisulphide of carbon, from its ready volatility, may 
be used ; but it must be quite pure, or, in other words, it must be perfectly free 
from all after-smell on evaporation. 
The glycerine may be used over and over again after diluting, passing it 
through charcoal, and then evaporating it to the desired gravity. 
As regards the application of glycerine to the preserving of leaves, etc., for dis¬ 
tilled waters, I have myself practically carried it out with great success, having 
kept flowers for two years, and on opening them, found not only the perfume na¬ 
tural, but the structure of the flowers without the least disorganization. The 
process proposed as a substitute for the ordinary one of enjleurage by fats, of 
course I merely throw out as a suggestion, as it could only be practically put to 
the proof at some place where the flowers are cultivated extensively. The great 
number of men and women employed in the present process at Grasse and 
Cannes would point out that a great saving would be made both in time and 
money by a method similar to the above. Another object is that although there 
* The commercial importance of this branch of trade may be indicated by the quantity 
of flowers annually grown in France, i. e. 2,284,000 lb. This only includes orange, cassia, 
jasmine, and such-like blossoms, the perfumes of which are extracted by the aid of fats. 
(Vide Exhibition Record, 1862.) 
