Part 1:
Spice Oil Facility
Part 2:
Floral Extraction
Facility
Part 3:
Jasmine and
Tuberose Harvest
Part 4:
Visit to Tumeric
and Sandalwood Area
The Project
Excerpts from Fragrant Harvest Journal-1
Visit to Kerala and Tamil Nadu-November 1995:
Part 1: Spice Oil Facility
India is a unique country
with a rich tradition in the appreciation of fragrance. Since ancient times
aromatic plants and products made from them have played a central role in
the social, religious, economic and political lives of the people. Fragrant
plants have found their way into the foods, medicines, cosmetics, and perfumes
of the people. The culinary tradition of India is filled with the use of
exotic spices such as pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cumin,
and clove. The traditional medicinal practices such as Aryuveda utilize
aromatic plants extensively for curing a wide range of diseases. Such lovely
fragrances as champa, khus, keora, rose, jasmine, sandalwood, agarwood,
and night queen all derived from plants grown in India since ancient times
have been used in the manufacture of hair oils, skin products, incense and
indigenous Indian perfumes called attars. Many of these plants and their
products formed a intregal part of international trade that stretches back
for centuries. Flowers and fragrance play a significant roll in the religious
and spiritual lives of the people as they are seen as symbols of purity,
sanctity, and devotion. Indeed, fragrance is woven into the very fabric
of the lives of the Indian people....
I arrived in Cochin on Saturday, November 12th to begin the project.
The specific aim
of this first trip was to gain a introductory understanding
to the state of India's modern essential oil industry by visiting the spice
division of Synthite where spice oils and oleoresins are produced and their
fragrance division near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu where the concretes of
mimosa, tuberose, and jasmine are being produced along with several other
specialties. Through their brochures I was aware that their facilities were
modern and sophisticated but the actual visit to their spice division on
Saturday afternoon was a truly amazing experience. In the West we may have
the impression that India is backward in respect to possessing state of
the art distillation/extraction equipment and laboratory facilities to perform
quality control analysis so critical for meeting international standards
of purity but a visit to Synthites operation would totally dispel such thoughts.
In every way this tour of the plant showed that India was swiftly emerging
as a major contributor to the international fragrance and flavor industry.
The vigor, vitality, discipline, cleanliness, sophistication, and commitment
of the company to modern industry standards was exemplary. Huge storage
areas contained tons of cinnamon, cassia, tumeric, black pepper, nutmeg,
and chili peppers; chippers, shredders, and powdering equipment occupied
their own areas where the raw spices were processed into the appropriate
form for extraction or distillation; numerous immaculately kept stills were
kept busy producing oleoresins and spice oils; tractors went about loading
and unloading materials into and out of the stills; forklifts transported
the raw materials from the storage areas to the processing machines; workersspread
chilies and red sandalwood on outdoor areas for thorough drying; others
spread the waste material from distillation todry so it could be used as
fuel for the burners or for use in some other products; all this being done
in a quiet, efficient, and disciplined manner. It was an impressive sight....
Updated: 5/24/2006
Copyright (C) 1998 by Christopher McMahon. All rights reserved.
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