Today we will have a brief overview of the Maceration process.
Maceration process is a variation of the Enfleurage process for recovery of essential oil from flowers, leaves, etc. Unlike the Enfleurage process, the maceration process is carried out at 50-70 degrees celsius.
The material (properly sized and dried) is stirred with an appropriate fat (purified lard or palmstearin) or a stable liquid oil (like olive or sesame) in a vessel at 50-70 degrees celsius for a few hours.
After the extraction the source material is filtered off on perforated screens and the fat-phase containing the aroma is collected. This fat phase is mixed once again with fresh charge of flower in the extractor. The process is repeated till the aroma content of the source materialis highly depleted.
The aroma is eventually isolated from the fat phase by several extractions with deodorized ethyl alcohol as done in the case of the traditional enfluerage process.