The Development of Local Animal Fat as an Alternative Method in the Extraction of Essential Oil for Aromatherapy

Abstract

Enfleurage is a traditional method to extract the fragrance (essential oil) from delicate flowers using odorless fat. The preparation of fats is one of the most important factors to determine the quality of extracted volatile oil. The aim of this study was to develop the optimum conditions of various kinds of local animal fats and use them to extract oil from Michelia alba DC. Animal fats used in this study were fats from pigs, cattle, and buffalos, all of which were extracted using dichloromethane. According to the results, buffalo fat is the best material for enfleurage because of its colorless and smooth texture which provides optimum rigidity. Buffalo fats extracted with dichloromethane in the ratio of 3:2 (w/v) for 10 days and later soaked in ethanol for 7 days showed the best yield of purified fats. In addition, the extraction of buffalo fat by the aforementioned method is easy to perform since it is highly available at very low cost and requires only a simple preparation method.