Geranium Concrète

#### Geranium Concrète. Geranium concrète is produced from the same plant material, i.e. leaves and branchlets of **Pelargonium Graveolens**, from which the essential oil is distilled. Extraction is carried out in Morocco, Italy, and France, Morocco being the most important producer by far. Various solvents have been used: first benzene which, however, is difficult to remove entirely from the evaporation residue (= the concrète); later on, petroleum ether became more popular as a solvent. It produces a concrète of less green color although the yield is slightly smaller than the yield from benzene-extraction. In both cases, the yields are slightly higher than the yield of essential oil by steam distillation. **Geranium**** ****Concrète**** **is a dark green or brownish- green, waxy mass; it has an intensely earthy herbaceous, somewhat sharp-rosy, foliage-green odor and great tenacity. It is soluble in perfume oils to a modest degree, and can thus be used with advantage in soap perfumes where its effect is quite inimitable. It lends a beautiful rich body to rose perfumes, and blends well with the conventional woody or spicy additives in rose soap perfumes, Oriental rose bases, chypre soap perfumes, etc. A great part of the Moroccan geranium concrète is further treated to yield geranium absolute (see previous monograph). **Geranium**** ****Concrète**** **is occasionally offered as a mobile liquid of green or olive-green color. Such products are not always true concrètes. However, extraction of geranium leaves with selective solvents which exhaust the plant material of odorous principles, but which do not extract waxes, coloring matter, etc., may lead to "liquid concrètes". **Decolorized Geranium Concrète **is produced from the plant material directly with selective solvents or by treatment of the dark concrète with other solvents, occasionally followed by treatment with activated carbon and filtration. The finished product is often dark olive-green or brownish, but white concrètes have also been offered. The latter type are presumably artificial concrètes made from myristic acid, or waxes with the addition of true or artificial geranium oil and various synthetic additives. **Geranium**** ****Concrète**** **is produced in increasing amounts and is available from Morocco with no difficulty. The annual production may soon exceed *5 *metric tons.