Léa Boisjoli

Age 15 | La Prairie, QC

Regional Final in Montérégie of the Inventive Engineering Challenge

INTRODUCTION

In this project, the intention from the outset was to create a floral fragrance through distillation processes (König, 2016; “Narcisse en parfumerie”, n.d.). There are several perfume extraction processes such as enfleurage, expression, solvent extraction and supercritical CO₂ extraction, but due to resources and time, proceeding with distillation was the most logical choice. The simple distillation used in this project is the most common. This technique is used to purify a non-volatile liquid. The principle is to heat an impure liquid (or in this case, materials with an interesting smell and a solvent, water) to transform it into vapor by the boiling of water. Then, the vapors condense by cooling and a pure liquid and an odorous sample are recovered (“Distillation: Principe et techniques”, n.d.; “Distillation simple et fractionné”, 2011). Thus, a question arose, namely, whether it will be possible to make a perfume using flowers (“Le parfum et la peau”, n.d.; “Techniques de fabrication du parfum”, n.d.; “La fabrication d’un parfum”, 2012) by using distillation. As they have a very interesting smell, attempts to extract their essences were made ("Les huiles essentielles", n.d.). Subsequently, experiments using citrus fruits began. The materials used in these experiments were of plant origin. They were mostly flowers and citrus, but also wood. They were then mixed with essential oils (Muller, 2015) in order to make a concoction.

Materials and methods

The flowers used are: two lilies, a carnation, several lilies of the valley and a rose. The distilled citrus fruits are: two grapefruits, a lemon and an orange. Pieces of cedar and three stems of vanilla were also distilled. The equipment that was needed to make the distillations are: a pair of safety glasses, two water coolers, two supports, two support clamps, two thermometers, two hot plates, two 500 mL vacuum flasks, one Erlenmeyer flask, one-hole and two-hole rubber stoppers, four rubber tubes, one 100 mL graduated cylinder, twelve 100 mL beakers, twelve 10 mL flasks with twelve stoppers, twelve 7.5 mL pipettes, parafilm, 85% ethanol and a knife.

It is necessary to wash the citrus fruit, cut its peel and put it in an Erlenmeyer flask. Next, 300 mL of water should be measured with a 100 mL graduated cylinder. Put 300 mL of water in the Erlenmeyer flask, stopper it with a one-hole stopper (7 mm) and insert a thermometer. The vacuum flask should be placed on a hot plate. Subsequently, the water cooler must be placed on the neck of the Erlenmeyer flask to collect the citrus essences. It is necessary to install the water cooler by connecting the lower part to the tap with a rubber tube and leaving the upper part also connected with a rubber tube so that it flows into the sink. It is important to check that the different parts of the assembly are well stoppered and well fixed and set the temperature of the heating plate to the maximum. Then one must lower the temperature by half when the vapors start to rise so that the temperature of the vapors go into the condenser and circulate cold water in the condenser by slowly opening the water tap. The heating should be turned on while watching the boiling. It is important to keep in mind to gradually lower the heating temperature until it stops completely when about 30 mL of distillate is obtained and turn off the hot plate. Subsequently, the same operations must be repeated for the other distillations. 10 mL of the various distillates obtained are placed in the 10 mL flasks and the odor of the distillate obtained is then noted. Then several vials are filled with different distillate. Subsequently, 2 mL of the distillates are pipetted, and essential oils are added variably to obtain the desired odor with the trial and error method.

**Table 1**: Odors produced according to the different distillations and their substances and solvents

**Figure 1**: Workstation for the distillations of different substances
*Note: On station # 3 is a simple orange distillation and at station # 4, a lemon steam distillation.*

**Figure 2**: Distillate samples
*Note: After each distillation, recovering the distillates is a crucial step because it is with these distillates that the blends will be made.*

**Figure 3**: Samples of distillates in flasks
*Note: The distillates have to be put in flasks to conserve them.*

Results

The first distillation was very successful. The distillate smelled very good, sweet and mainly of grapefruit. The second distillation was not very successful. The distillate smelled terrible, a bit like rotten cabbage. The third distillation was not very successful, as the distillate smelled only of alcohol. The fourth distillation was not very successful because the distillate smelled very bad and one could smell rotten cabbage, like test 2. The fifth distillation was not very successful. The distillate smelled bad, it smelled like rotten cabbage like tests 2 and 3, but more attenuated. The sixth distillation was not very successful, as the distillate mainly smelled of alcohol and pickled beet. The seventh distillation was successful. The distillate smelled quite good because it smelled like cedar. The eighth distillation was not very successful. The distillate smelled very bad, there was a smell of alcohol mixed with other foul smells. The ninth distillation was successful. The distillate smelled very good, it smelled like grapefruit like test 1. The tenth distillation was successful. The distillate smelled good, it smelled sweet and of orange. The eleventh distillation was a success. The distillate smelled of lemon, a little bitter, but still very good. The most successful results were obtained when I used citrus fruits. So instead of making a floral scent, a citrus based scent will probably be made.

The grapefruit, orange and lemon distillates smelled best. Flower-based distillates like Casablanca lily, lily of the valley, carnation and rose did not smell very good, but the rose one was the most interesting among the flowers used. The vanilla distillate was smelly unlike the cedar distillate which gave off a very pleasant smell.

Discussion

The lessons in this experimental project are how to make a distillation with two different solvents (alcohol and water). Familiarization with the process of perfume manufacturing and with the trial-and-error method and a lot of research were necessary (Girard, 2013; Maalouf, 2010). Then, a concoction with all these blends was started using aromatic waters and essential oils. What was complicated, but very interesting, was finding the ideal balance so that the raw materials could bring out potentially usable odors. A fascinating world of chemistry has revealed itself. The extraction of odors from different substances to create different essences was carried out to achieve this fragrance. The most commonly used extraction method is distillation with water or water vapour. Both of these types of extraction methods worked well although sometimes the result was not always what one expected. Unfortunately, the distillates made from flowers had a rotten smell. A change from the initial plan was imposed and so the decision to create a citrus-based fragrance was born. In addition, an aqueous solvent was used, as the results were more significant.

The mistakes that could have been made are not having taken the right part of the flower to extract the scent and this would explain the poor results obtained during the experiments. When distilling with alcohol, one only smelled alcohol. The use of odorless alcohol should have been used. When distilling with vanilla, taking the vanilla beans and not the whole pod would have been more judicious. Between each distillation, better cleaning of the instruments (beakers, graduated cylinders, etc.) should have been done so that the smell of the last distillation did not influence the next. Thus, impurities in the aromatic waters would have been avoided. After two weeks, some distillates showed precipitates which surely explains the presence of foreign bodies.

The goal was to determine the different constituents of a perfume and manufacture them to create a perfume. The hypothesis was that it would be possible to create different constituents, such as essential oils, using distillation to extract odors. It was partly true. First of all, finding the different constituents of perfumes was made possible by researching the internet and reading on the subject. On the other hand, the impossibility to make one of these constituents by oneself arose. To be able to create one’s own essential oil, one has to obtain an essence. To do this, one has to go through several stages, such as experimenting with fragrances. It was possible to extract several fragrances from several substances, but the results were not always good. Subsequently, it will be possible to mix the essences to make an essential oil. Research and experiments will continue in the coming months. Will it be possible to take up the challenge and create the Espérance fragrance?

References

Distillation : Principe et techniques. (n.d.). LaChimie.fr. https://www.lachimie.fr/organique/technique/distillation.php

Distillation simple et fractionné. (2011, October 3). Académie de Nantes portail pédagogique. https://www.pedagogie.ac-nantes.fr/physique-chimie/mutualisation/travail-collaboratif/distillations-simple-et-fractionnee-682937.kjsp

Girard, C. (2013). Les parfums dans les produits cosmétiques [Unpublished doctoral dissertation/master’s thesis]. Université de Lorraine. https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/hal-01734006/document

König, C. (2016, August 3). Fabrication d’un parfum. Futura Planète. https://www.futura-sciences.com/planete/dossiers/geographie-grasse-ville-parfums-818/page/3/

La fabrication d’un parfum. (2012, August 9). Hayari Paris. https://www.hayariparis.com/fabrication-parfum/

Le parfum et la peau. (n.d.). http://wwwlaparfumetlapeautpe.e-monsite.com

Les huiles essentielles. (n.d.). ChemPhys. http://chemphys.u-strasbg.fr/mpb/teach/huiles_essentielles/huiles.html

Maalouf, L. (2010, May 31). Une première école de parfumerie au Québec. Métro. https://journalmetro.com/carrieres/13058/une-premiere-ecole-de-parfumerie-au-quebec/

Muller, C. (2015, July 27). Le lys : fleur muette, fleur esthète. AuParfum. https://www.auparfum.com/le-lys-fleur-muette-fleur-esthete,2419

Narcisse en parfumerie. (n.d.). Olfastory. https://www.olfastory.com/matiere/narcisse

Techniques de fabrication du parfum. (n.d.). Olfastory. https://www.olfastory.com/technique-fabrication-parfum.html

An Ideal Perfume