by Anya McCoy
Part 2
History of Natural Perfumery
For centuries, long before the beginning of recorded civilization as we know it, people gathered fragrant plants and extracted the scent to add delight, sensuality and sometimes sacred elements to their life. This was plainly illustrated recently when archaeologists unearthed evidence of one of the oldest perfumeries known to the world. In Cypress, an archaeological dig found the “world’s earliest perfumery”. The truth of that statement is in question by those who study ancient cultures, but it is true that the discovery is monumental, in that it is one of the largest extant “factories” for extracting fragrant materials and producing scented products. For more details, visit the following link: http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=212432005
Ancient Greece, Egypt, China, India, and the countries on the trade routes – they all had well-developed Natural Perfumery industries. Alchemists, herbalists, ordinary folk and experienced scientists created fragrant oils and unguents for themselves or for sale and trade. This article cannot, due to space constraints, detail the wondrous and exotic history of Natural Perfumery throughout history, but here are some links to help transport you back in time:
http://www.mindspring.com/~tbennett/perfumes/ancient_perfumes2.html
http://tinyurl.com/3o8sw About.com’s links to perfume history sites
http://www.perfumes.com/eng/history.htm
In France, and a few other areas of the world, notably India, there are still perfumers who make fragrances “in the old way”, rejecting the synthetic chemicals so prevalent in mainstream perfumery.
In history, as now, the natural perfumer would extract the fragrant molecules by infusion, tincturing, enfleurage, or distillation. To make an infusion start by placing the fragrant material in oil and either heating the oil or placing the container in the sun, until the oil takes on the fragrance of the source. Tincturing required an alcohol base. The alcohol could be wine, or something stronger, like brandy or vodka. Again, the materials were placed in the alcohol until the liquid became fragrant.
Enfleurage is a method of scent extraction perfected by the French. Trays of animal fat were the receiving media for delicate flowers like jasmine, gardenia and tuberose. Usually, the flowers had to be replaced numerous times before the fat became saturated with the scent. Then, the fat was “washed” with an alcohol to separate the scent from the fat. Distillation, the art of placing the plant material over steam, and separating the “oil” of the plant from the water constituents, was typically done on a large, industrial scale, and, on a smaller scale, some home distillation took place.
Throughout most of Western history, perfumes tended to be “one note”, i.e., the wearer had to choose between rose, jasmine, sandalwood, patchouli, etc. In India, the user could choose from glorious attars, which are hydro distilled aromatics co-distilled with sandalwood or cedarwood (typically). Some attars were just one aromatic combined with the sandalwood (e.g. rose, jasmine), others were a carefully constructed formula of flowers, roots, woods and resins. When the hydro distillation of fragrant materials was done into a dry receptacle, it was called a ruh. For more information on ruhs and attars, see:
http://www.chandnichowk.com/attar.htm
http://www.habibintl.com/indian_attars.htm
Another source for wonderful information on the fragrant offerings of India is the collection of newsletters of Christopher McMahon on his Website: http://whitelotusaromatics.com
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