Anyone have experience trying to capture fragrances? I'm changing the flowers every 2 days.
This year the flower scent has changed just a bit (or my sense perceptions) and the flowers scent is too strong for me to keep in the house.
Instead of using animal fats, I'm using peanut oil. I've read that sesame oil is preferable but I'm using what I have.
Ooooooo now that would be to die for....how long do they "soak?" I just took a workshop re plants for medicinal uses...ordered 3 books as well...very interesting topic, for sure.
thank you for this post. I have not thought about capturing fragrances. Why do you change every 2 days if I may ask? Do you use the discarded flowers/oil in baths? In india, they use coconut oil but any vegetable oil should do the trick.
Sometimes flowers' fragrance can change quite a bit after a few days. I often bring in fragrant flower samples to the gardens where I work for the public to see and smell along with their latin and common names. I use a small piece of moist paper towel on bottom and prefer to use plastic 'dole tropical fruit cups'.
When I clean up at the end of the day, a lot of the fragrance fills the paper towel. Jasminum sambac is very nice this way as well as J. affine.
Right now yellow plumeria is in full bloom as well as the M. champaca and J. sambac. I recently read that Aglaia odorata can take temps down to 10 deg. F.
Update-champaca flower season seems to be over for right now (yellow one at least). I've noticed something very strange. The oil is fragrant but my washing out metal strainers with hot water filled the house with fragrance. It seems the fragrance might be trapped in the oil somehow.
Natually I have no interest in applying this to myself; it's a bit too feminine. I'm glad the ylang-ylang scent goes away quickly whenever I use prell shampoo!
thanks for the update. Probably the heat in hotwater activated the fragrance or something to that effect. In ancient India, they used the flowers straight into bath tubs for kings..etc. You can think of yourself as a KING when you smell them :)
Well...Kevin feel free to ship that oil right on up to VA - I'll be more then happy to soak in it!!!
Usha - the T. Flore Pleno you sent a couple of years ago is filling my bathroom w/her beautiful scent...I cant' thank you enough. She was more then worth the wait and is thriving!!
that is good to hear chantell. How is your friend's plant doing?
Now I'm wishing I'd put her blooms in oil...hey, Kevin...help me out...with some "how to's" I have lots of blooms with fragrance - how do I go about that?
Usha - good question - I should ask her! You should see how big mine is...I really need to pot her up some. Are they sensitive to being repotted? I was waiting till she was done blooming.
chantell,
as far as I know, they should be fine with repotting. Someone I know uses hairspray to keep the flowers look fresh. I think these flowers are a good choice for that kind of thing.
Chantell-2 ways to capture scent; 1 way is for a few days only (water)
For the water way, put flowers between paper towels, moisten them & keep moist all day. At the end of the day, remove the petals and use the towels as fresh scent wipes.
2nd way is to immerse them in oil; change flowers every 2nd day; use metal strainer and pyrex glass to capture drops from oil changing overnight. In other words, pour the old flowers and main oil through strainer, pour right away into a sealable jar-mason is ok. Set the strainer back over the glass (I use a 6 c measuring cup) overnight for what drips off. Combine with main oil 1st thing in the am and then discard the spent flowers.
What kind of oil are you using? I have picked them in the morning, let them sit overnight in a 5 gallon bucket, then mopped my tile floors with the water. The oils get in the grout and the house smells wonderful for days.
My tree got really tall, about 30' in 6 years. It barely had any limbs so I cut it back to 8 feet. The trunk is huge and it has no limbs. I hope the botanists are correct and it will sprout new growth. I have no clue if the growth will come from the sides or the top where I cut it off. It's only been a week but so far, nothing. I have a new one, 3 years old, in a pot, getting ready to put it in the ground so it can take off.
bump
They were right, my Ylang Ylang I cut off is now sprouting. It's not from the top like they said though, it's from the nodes. Here it is before we cut off:
Here it is sprouting new growth from the nodes on the tree trunk:
Capturing the fragrance from flowers is my business so i know a little bit about this....usually i distill a flower into a 'water' or hydrosol. If that doesn't work, i will macerate it in fractionated coconut oil (has no order of it's own & is lightweight & less likely to go rancid during storage.) Or you can enfleurage it in solid coconut oil ...or you can tincture it in alcohol.
