Clark Tillman, age 13, of Beaumont, Texas, for his question:
HOW IS PERFUME MADE?
Perfume is a substance that gives off a pleasant odor. Almost all perfumes are blended from a variety of natural and synthetic or man made substances. The most expensive perfumes contain oils from flowers.
The composition of a perfume depends largely on its intended use. Most expensive body perfumes contain rare flower oils from many parts of the world. Perfumes in soapmaking come from low cost, man made materials.
Many perfumes are blends of flower and plant oils, animal substances, synthetics, alcohol and water.
Fragrant plants have tiny sacs or baglike parts that make and store the substances that give them their pleasant odor. These substances are called essential oils.
Essential oils taken from flower petals are used in the most delicate and expensive perfumes. Essential oils ar also found in other parts of the plants. They may come from the bark, buds, leaves, rinds, roots, wood, or from whole plants.
Plants whose oils are used extensively in perfumes include the cinnamon, citronella, geranium, jasmine, lavender, patchouli, rose, rosemary, sandalwood and tuberose.
Much essential oil is extracted from plants by steam distillation. The first step of this process is to pass steam through the plant material. The essential oil quickly turns to gas, which is then passed through tubing and cooling to make it liquid again.
The essential oil is obtained from some flowers by biling the petals in water, rather than by passing steam through the petals.
Sometimes essential oils are obtained by solvent extraction. The petals are dissolved in a liquid that can dissolve other substances. The solvent is then distilled from the solution, leaving a waxy material that contains the oil.
Animal substances slow the evaporation of perfume oils and make the fragrances long lasting. For this reason, they are often called fixatives.
Perfume ingredients from animals include castor, from the beaver; civet, a fatty substance from the civet; musk, from the male musk deer; and ambergris, from the sperm whale.
Synthetic substances account for the largest amount of material used in the perfume industry. The raw materials for these substances may be obtained from natural sources, petrochemicals or coal tar.
Some snythetic materials have the same chemical makeup as naturally occurring materials. Others are different from any material found in nature.
Many synthetic odors have been developed in the United States to meet the increasing demand for perfumes. However, the United States still imports a variety of essential oils.