|
Dear visitor and international investor,
We
warmly welcome you, if this is
your first visit to Africabiz
Online - The ultimate newsletter
on trading and investing in 49
sub-Saharan African countries.
If you are a regular and faithful
reader, welcome back.
The Section about Business Opportunities In Africa deals
with the production methods and processes of essential
oils. Click
here for more. Prior to the exposition in Issue
50 of a small scale operation to producing marketable
pure essential oil right from your kitchen table!
-
NEW ELECTRONIC MARKETPLACE TO TRADE AND INVEST IN AND
OUT AFRICA
AFRICABIZ Forum upgraded to a new version of the
Discusware platform. More user-friendly than the old
one. Click
here to start posting - for free - bids
and offers for equipment, tropical products, financing
research and proposals, business development. You
have 10 Topics at your disposal to promoting your
business worldwide and in and out Africa.
AGRIBUSINESS
INDUSTRIALIZATION
ENERGY
PHARMACEUTICALS
CONSTRUCTION
INTERNATIONAL
TRADE
AFRICAN
HARBORS ACTIVITIES
AFRICAN
AIRPORTS ACTIVITIES
PROJECT
FINANCING
GENERAL
INFORMATION
|
Each Topic divided into 2 to 5 specific Sub-Topics plus
a Miscellaneous Sub-Topic. New messages can only be
inserted into one proper Topic and Subtopic; or into
the Miscellaneous folder of said Topic. That way the
messages' board kept orderly and tidy. And the management
made easier for Board's manager and moderators. Messages
queued and reviewed by moderators to avoid bizarre postings.
AFRICABIZ Forum is a strictly English speaking
platform. Messages in other languages deleted..
Please
do pay a visit to the System
Announcement page to review "Basic Rules
and Instructions" and use freely the Electronic
Marketplace to do business worldwide.
-
SOME CLARIFICATION ABOUT
FINANCING RESEARCH AS PERFORMED BY BusinessAfrica™ /
Dr. QUENUM & ASSOCIATES
Dr. Quenum & Associates / Dynamic Group, LTD are
in the business of financing research for more than
a decade. Starting from 1999, they setup businessafricanet.is
to make use of the Internet. A formidable tool to promote
and develop business worldwide 24 hours around the clock.
The Internet lowers the costs to managing the business.
Clients, loan researchers, make contact easily through
businessafricanet.is platform, read posted instruction
and documentation about financing ; and contact Dr.
Quenum & Associates / Dynamic Group, LTD.
Clients forward Executive Summary and other preliminary
documentation to Dr. Quenum & Associates / Dynamic
Group, LTD on a fly as attachment to an email. Everything
done just punching the Send Mail button from one's computer.
It is fast. Client do not need to send snail mail and
wait for weeks to get a reply.
Therefore, some clients, loan researchers (not all of
them thanks God) expect a fast outcome for the result
of their loan application. They expect everything done
through the Internet and loan conditions (interest rate,
loan period, grace period) sent to them as soon as the
application introduced to Dr. Quenum & Associates
/ Dynamic Group, LTD.
Unfortunately, Financing Research business does not
works that way! There is a great misunderstanding that
we decide to clarify with this delivery. Click
here to read more about How Financing Research
Brokerage Works.
-
Contributor's Guidelines are here
for review. Your contribution on "How African
countries / entrepreneurs could bridge the developing
gap" is welcome.
Many thanks for dropping by and
see you here on June 15, 2003
Dr. B.M. Quenum
Editor
of AFRICABIZ
|
|
-
Several business opportunities - component parts of the Integrated Developing Scheme described in Africans, Stop Being Poor! are listed in following table.
|
a-
SHEA BUTTER (Issues 5,
6,
7,
11,
12,
13)
b- BLUE GOLD (Issues 14,
15,
16,
17,
18,
19)
c- FREEZE-DRIED PAPAIN (Issues 20,
21,
22
and here)
d- KENAF (Issues 23,
24)
e- VEGETABLE OIL (Issues 25,
26,
27
and 28)
f- CEREALS (Issues 30,
31,
32,
33)
g- FRUITS (34,
35,
36,
37,
38,
39,
40,
42,
43,
44,
45,
46)
h- ESSENTIAL OILS (47,
48)
|
-
TROPICAL FLOWERS AND FRAGRANCE
PLANTS AGRIBUSINESS AS INCOME BUILDING POWER FOR AN
AFRICAN COMMUNITY: PART
- III - PRODUCTION PROCESSES OF ESSENTIAL OILS
Essential
oils are odorous products from natural raw materials
such as leaves, fruits, roots and wood of many seasonal
or perennial plants. They are of complex composition
and contain alcohol, aldehydes, ketones, phenols, esters,
ethers, and turpenes in varying proportions. An estimated
3,000 essential oils exist of which around 300 are of
commercial importance. Most of them obtained from agricultural
plants, but some 28 essential oils collected in commercial
quantities from wild sources Here
is a shortlist of essential oils and the plants they
originated from; with the main producing countries.
To give an idea of the complex mixture of chemical
ingredients present in essential oils, the chemical
composition of Geranium essential oil is exposed here
- TWO CATEGORIES OF ESSENTIAL OILS ARE IN THE TRADE
In the essential oils' industry, products are divided
into two categories:
|
1-
Large volume oils produced from leafy raw
materials such as Lemon
Grass, Citronella,
Eucalyptus,
roots (Ginger, Tumeric), some flowers (Lavender,
Rose, Jeranium, Violetta)
2- Small volume oils produced from fruits,
seed (Coriander), buds (Clove), nuts (Almond,
Nutmeg), some flowers (Geranium),
wood (Sandalwood).
|
- METHODS TO PRODUCING ESSENTIAL OILS
There are several methods to producing essential oils
depending on the categories as above outlined, which
finally boils down to three techniques of extraction
of the oils.
|
1-
"Cold" Pressing.
2- Water Extraction done at cold temperature
(Maceration) or high temperature (Steam Extraction
or Distillation)
3- Solvent Extraction of the oils from the
raw material.
|
The first listed method - Cold Pressing - used
mainly to produce citrus fruits' essential oils from
orange, lemon, grapefruit and tangerine. The technique
uses two pieces of wood to press the citrus fruit's
peels, one of which has a sponge attached to it. The
oil released by the cells insides the peels absorbed
by the sponge. And the sponge treated to disgorge the
oil.
Cold Pressing yields high-grade essential oil if controlled;
that is processing temperature kept as low as possible
to avoid final product's degradation ; raw material
(peels of the raw material) are free of external ingredient
(residue of pesticides, dust) to avoid contaminating
the oil; and working conditions as clean as possible
to avoid pollution during the treating the sponge.(Clean
sponge at start, clean environment).
Water Extraction is the most used method to producing
essential oils on small, medium or large-scale.
Divided into the Maceration and Steam or Distillation
In Water Maceration the raw material is in direct
and prolonged contact with water, in a vessel at current
normal atmosphere, to separating the constituents by
soaking. After the period of soaking, the content of
the vessel filtered out and the resulting liquid contains
the essential oil. The liquid further treated to recover
"pure" essential oil.
Water / Steam Distillation is the main method to extract
essential oils from plants. The technique has two
variants:
|
a) Distillation at normal current atmosphere
- during which the distilled substance reaches
its normal boiling temperature point;
b) Vacuum Distillation during which the atmosphere
in the distillation vessel is far lower than current
normal atmosphere and the distilled substance
boils at a temperature lower than its normal boiling
temperature.
|
There
are variants to a) and b) categories above outlined
depending on the sort of contact (direct or indirect)
the raw material has with the distilling water or steam.
In direct contact, the raw material is inside the distilling
water; in indirect contact the raw material is not inside
the distilling water.
Steam Distillation is based on the assumption that
essential oils are volatile in steam and generally insoluble
in water. The distillation water, in direct or indirect
contact with the raw material, is heated and the volatile
constituents of the raw material released into the resulting
water's vapor. The vapor is then cool down (condensation)
into a liquid containing the raw material's volatile
constituents, that is the essential oil.
In short, the main purpose of water distillation is
to separate a mixture of several ingredients by taking
advantage of their different volatility, or to separate
volatile ingredients of a raw material from it's nonvolatile
parts. Distillation at current atmosphere is less costly
than vacuum distillation.
If the final product is too sensible to heat or humidity
Solvent Extraction is the most efficient method to use.
| 2 |
 |
3 |
| 4 |
| 1 |
Solvent
Extraction is adapted to producing essential oils generated
by some flowers (Rose, Violetta, Geranium), gums and
resins. The raw material is placed in a glass vessel
and soaked with a solvent (petroleum, ether or benzene
for flowers; acetone for resins and gums). The mixture
is then electrically heated. The volatile molecules
of essential oils evaporate. They are collected, condensed
and filtered to yield the final product. This is a sophisticated
method of production of essential oils, which yields
high quality essential oils. Diagram at left of this
paragraph [Courtesy of KMPS
- Kock Modular Process System] schematizes process:
1- Primary Boiling Vessel; 2- Tube Heat
Exchanger; 3- Secondary Boiling Vessel; 4-
Condenser / Cooler Vessel.
- BRIEFS ABOUT EXTRACTION / DISTILLATION
TECHNOLOGY AND APPARATUS
There are all kinds and size of steam distillation equipment
available for sale. They are based on the principle
shown on the diagram below: [Courtesy of Maison
Mousse]
 |
| Schematic
Diagram of A Steam Distillation Unit |
Description
of the ingredients of the distillation are here
extensively exposed. There are in the trade equipment
from 2 liters of countenance for the primary boiler
up to several hundred liters. Pricing ranges from US$
300-400 upward each. Next issue
deals with a small-scale operation with only 2 liters
of countenance for the boiling vessel.
- WHY AFRICAN COUNTRIES SHOULD CONSIDER ESSENTIAL OILS
INDUSTRY
The
size of essential oils' market exposed in Issue
47 averages US$ 8 billion export a year and increases
at the annual rate of 10.9%. Africa' share is less
than 1% of that market. So there is doubtless room
for Africa to have a better portion of the cake and
kill two birds with one stone.
Indeed, most subsaharan African countries suffer recurrent
drought, which results in desertification of their territories.
A well planned and carried out reforestation policy
is the answer to the problem. Trees species, which are
raw material to produce aromatic oils should be planted.
The most promising speculations are essential oils from:
Geranium, Citronella, Lemongrass or Sweet calamus,
Eucalyptus. (See
Issue
47 for briefs about said plants)
Once an essential oil industry set up in a subsaharan
African country, it opens the way to develop other business
opportunities: foods, cosmetics, detergent, pesticides.
It will doubtless contribute to the Self-Inducing
And Accelerating Impact Factor/ Synergetic
Impact Factor and speed up the economic development
of said country.
Malawi,
which already has huge acreage of these plantations
Geranium, Citronella and Eucalyptus as here
briefly exposed, is the right destination for international
investors willing to enter the essential oils market
and benefit from incentives existing in Malawi
Adobe
Acrobat Reader is available here
Issue 50
exposes a small scale operation to producing essential
oils from the kitchen table.
- Interested parties - private African and international investors /
companies, government
agencies,
international development
agencies - to make contact through the Free Access Support Console available at this link
Contact through the support console will get quickest reply from Africabiz Online's staff, than contact by emails. Click here for contact information. Be advised that first contact should be through the support console to be followed by phone calls. If you are a VIP-Member, use VIP-Members Support Console available here.
Before you consult please click
here to review this clarification
|
