All About Jasmine Essential Oil
Jasmine essential oil is very fragrant and a useful oil. Here we will look at different ways the oil is used and how it is made.
Uses For Jasmine Essential Oil
Jasmine is one of the oldest and most used of scented botanicals of all time. Jasmine essential oil is known for its relaxation qualities. It is also known for its use in helping depression, and boosting libido. To reap its benefits, use it in burners or vaporizers, or add it to a hot bath.
By massaging jasmine essential oil into the skin one will find that it tones, calms, and improves skin elasticity. It can also help to lessen the appearance of stretch marks and scars. The best way to use it for skin is to find lotions containing jasmine essential oil. Geraniol, which can be found in some jasmine essential oils and other aromatherapy oils can be skin irritants in some people, so you should test jasmine oil first before using it on the skin. It should also not be used during pregnancy, but jasmine essential oil can help in childbirth. It is said to be able to strengthen contractions while relieving pain.
How Jasmine Essential Oil Is Made
Jasmine essential oils are made from Jasmineum Gradiflora (synonym officinale), of the Oleaceae family. The blossoms are so fragile they must be hand picked, processed quickly, and without heat. This plant is harvested at night, when the smell is most potent, in countries such as Turkey, France, Egypt, Morocco, China, Japan and Italy. It takes 1,000 pounds of flowers to make one pound of mixture used to make jasmine essential oil. After the entire process, 1,000 pounds of jasmine will come out to very little oil.
Because they are so fragile, jasmine is one of the very few essential oils still being manufactured by enfleurage. Enfleurage uses odor-free fats to capture the fragrant compounds let off by the plants. The plants are either hung over the fat or mixed directly into the fat. This process is called solvent extraction. The fragranced fat is called "enfleurage pomade". After the solvent extraction, an 'absolute' is obtained from the enfleurage pomade by separating the fat from the essence with alcohol. Put simply, the enfleurage pomade is soaked in ethyl alcohol to draw the fragrance into the alcohol to make sort of a perfume like mixture. The alcohol is then separated from the fat and is distilled. The essential oil is created from what is left over from this by steam distillation.
