I would like to share my understanding of the definitions for the terms below, I welcome your views.
Thank you
- Attars - Essence of the material being extracted, usually means essential oils but not limited to just plants.
- Attar Oils - Attars mixed with carrier oils, mostly sandalwood which is the final product, a perfume
- Essential Oils - Oils extracted from plants though hydro-distillation
- Absolutes - Oils extracted from plants though other means (not hydro-distillation)
- Otto - Essential oils of flower petals (i need some clarification on this)
A traditional attar doesn't actually mean essential oil; rather, an infusion of a botanical's aromatic qualities into a carrier (traditionally Mysore sandalwood oil). The jar that normally contains just hydrosol and the essential oil would be filled with sandalwood. The volume of the sandal typically remains the same, as the botanicals used to make attars normally give extremely low yields (tuberose, champaca etc) when hydrodistilled.
Attar "oils" is a blanket term that applies to anything comprised of various essential oils & absolutes & other type extracts, blended together in any fashion, whether by yours truly, Sultan Pasha or Elixir Efendi.....
Essential oils are normally steam distilled. Hydro-distilled essential oils are called "ruhs" in India which is one of very few places where botanicals are hydro-distilled.
Absolutes are botanicals extracted via a solvent (commonly hexane), which results in a solid "concrete". The concrete is then ethanol bathed and purified into the final product, which is called an "absolute".
Otto only refers to rose essential oil obtained via steam distillation. Hydrodistilled rose is called rose ruh, or ruh gulab.
It is interesting to note that similar misconceptions have surrounded oud for the longest time, where anything under the sun coming from an agarwood tree is referred to as 'oud oil', be it an essential oil, CO2 extract or absolute. Oud oil is strictly the
essential oil of agarwood – obtained either by hydro or steam distillation. Anything else is NOT oud oil. Rather, a CO2 extract is "agarwood CO2"; a solvent extract is "agarwood absolute" etc.