Commercial Floriculture

Extractor

• The extractor used is a rotary type.
• It has a capacity to treat 3 kg of flowers at a time.
• For every kg of flowers, 2 liters of solvent is added and the extractor is closed tightly and rotated slowly for 25 minutes at the rate of 3 rotations per minute.
• After five minutes, the flowers are allowed to stand in the solvent for another 20 minutes.
• During the process, the solvent absorbs the perfume of the flower.
• After mixing, the solvent is drawn through the drain cock at the bottom of the extractor, and filtered through a fine filter to remove the dust, dirt etc.
• By opening the drain cock all the free solvent may come out but still a small quantity of perfume laden solvent may be sticking to the spent flowers in the extractor. 
• To draw this small quantity of solvent the spent flowers are gently pressed. It must be noted that the flowers should never be squeezed to remove the solvent completely.