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Name: Ruth Ruane
Location: Galway, Ireland

I am an entrepreneur, SEO Web Designer, a graphic artist, a creative writer and a baker.

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Monday, July 21, 2008

Hydrodistilled Tuberose



I married an alchemist and that does have it's advantages.

Last week we extracted tuberose absolute using hydro-distillation.

Here is the tuberose concrete just beginning to melt. Tuberose concrete is a solid waxy substance, yellow in color.





Here the water is starting to boil, the tuberose concrete is bubbling over the water.
The heating mantle keeps everything at a steady temperature.












You can see the first sign of oil forming on the surface of the water. Very promising!





















Look! It's a blob of oil weighing down the surface of the water.
Altogether we collected around 7ml of hydro-distillate from the receiving flask. At first I thought the smell had a curious off note, which I discovered was what's called 'the still note'. We off gassed it for a few hours and the tuberose really started to sparkle.
I sent a sample to an experienced nose who sent me a sample of some rare hydro-distilled tuberose they had. We were able to compare.

So the experiment was a great success and we have managed to extract this rare exotic absolute using simple hydro-distillation.

We are planning to complete the distillation of the tuberose and will be offering it for sale.

Then we shall attempt to repeat the process with rose, and jasmine

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5 Comments:

Blogger Oh, True Apothecary said...

This looks amazing, Ruth. I am so jealous of your fancy distillation set-up. Mine is a simple copper alembic that requires constant babysitting ~ ugh! Good luck! I'll watch for this lovely hydro-distillate on your website.

j

July 23, 2008 3:02 PM  
Blogger Zita said...

Thanks J, the copper alembics are beautiful too I would love to have one. I'll send you a wee sample of it when we have a little more, I value you opinion.
Ruth

August 5, 2008 5:50 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

is it possible to isolate the wax from the oil through TLC?

February 21, 2009 5:20 AM  
Blogger Zita said...

forgive my ignorance, but what does TLC stand for?

February 22, 2009 2:20 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

how did you remove the oil from the water?

March 22, 2009 6:25 AM  

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