Enfleurage, extraction of Absolute from Pomade

[Charlepan]

I have a lilac farm and I have successfully used an ancient method of extraction in cold fat, known as enfleurage. For 30 days I changed the fresh flowers in contact with the fat and produced a scented pomade of lilac. The next step is to make an absolute of lilac from the pomade. First I understand we are supposed to wash the fat in ethanol, strain and filter the fat from the ethanol and then by vacuum and low temperature, 'boil' off the ethanol to leave the absolute behind in the beaker. Temperatures higher than 90 degrees fahrenheit might destroy or alter the natural scent. My question is, what apparatus would be best for this? I am considering a rotary evaporator or vacuum distillation.

Any thoughts?

 

[Marc-abba]

Dear Carlepan, so sorry to see nobody has take interest in this subject yet! To answer your question, yes you will need a rotary evaporator, and in order to create the vacuum in it, you will also need a vacuum pump. Now under vacuum the alcohol will evaporate at almost room temperature, so you will need a chiller to condensate the evaporated ethanol under vacuum, temp of condensation needs to be 40 degrees cooler than evaporation point. That will vary depending on pressure of vacuum. Now also you will need pure 200proof alcohol, that is, 100% alcohol, all other forms of ethanol will contain small amouta of water in it that will completely disturb the end product. A pure enfleurage should be fully non-polar like other essential oils.hope that helps, lilac absolute by enfleurage sounds absolutely amazing! Best of luck!