The quality management of osmanthus concrete
Salted process: Before production, we have to use salt solution to pickle osmanthus for 2-3 months when they picked from the osmanthus tree. This process is an aging and preservation process. After salted process, Osmanthus concrete yield can improve by more than 10%, and the aroma is more strong and stability with ripe fruit sweet and sweet flowers. While without salted process, although some aroma are very strong, they still have a little green smell. The salt solution concentration is generally 20%. If the pickling time is a bit long, 25% salt concentration is available, while if the pickling time is short, 15% -18% salt concentration is suitable. During pickling storage, keep osmanthus under the liquid level without contacting air, and store in a cool place without direct sunlight, otherwise the aroma will have a very strong irritating sour, affecting the product’s aroma.
Preparation before exteaction: Product requires that the total content of heavy metals is less than 40ppm(parts per million) and the main part is lead. Harmful ingredients are mianly arsenic and it should less than 3 ppm. These harmful substances mainly come from environmental pollution which caused by pickled, chemical fertilizers and persticides. So we must use a lot of water to wash and remove salts and impurities before production, then remove the middle layer and the lower water layer as far as possible after extraction and filtering. Try to choose osmanthus of natural growth because they grow on the hillside or the dry land and seldom use chemical fertilizers and pesticides. While osmanthus of artificial planting may add fertilizer to promote its growth. But its florescence is about one week and its aroma is natural bug-resistant, there is almost no pesticide pollution problem.
Extraction process:The temperture of extraction process generally controlled at about 10 ℃ to 20 ℃. If the temperture is too low, the absolute content is high but the yield is low, the product’s appearance can’t reach to a paste but colloidal status.And its aroma is weak because there is a small amount of aroma composition undissolved. If the temperture is too high, the yield is high but the abosolute content is low, and plant wax and impurities dissolve too much,so the aroma is not good.
The same set of extraction equipment is best to produce only osmanthus concrete, otherwise the petroleum ether, equipment and pipe accessories will have other product’s aroma and the aroma is not easy to remove which affects the purity of osmanthus aroma. We have researched many companies who have extraction equipment in China, most of them are use one set of equipment to extract varieties of concrete. The aromas can’t keep pure because they affect each other.
The storage temperture, humidity and time will have influence on the quality of finished osmanthus concrete.
In the normal storage condition, the early three months is the aging process of osmanthus concrete which will make ripe sweet and more pure. After that, fruit aroma become less and tea aroma become more. Then after a little more time, riped fruit aroma become strong with slight sour. After a long time, it has sour fruit aroma which means it has passedthe expiration date. Osmanthus concrete normally can be stored more than 2 years with temperture under 25 ℃ in a cool and dry place, it can be stored more than 5 years with good quality in sealed and cold condition. And the products with high purity and low viscosity hs a longer shelf life.
If the Storage is more than 3 months, its surface ooze a oily liquid at high temperature condition, maybe caused by the delamination high absolute oil content and the wax layer. When the absolute oil content and temperature are low, its surface may appear cracks and yellowish-white wax substance, that is normal phenomenon. As long as to melting and solidificationagain, the surface will also back to normal.
Stored for a long time, it will appear rancidity phenomenon if the temperature and humidity is too high(the sour smell here is different with pickled weathering acidity,it has slightly stink smell). Especially unpure osmanthus concrete, it’s more likely to rancidity or even resin if the storage time is too long and the temperture is too high, and higher melting point at this time, it’s not easy to melt and viscosity increases afte melting and not easily soluble in petroleum ether and its colour become darker and greener.
Other reasons:If aroma mixed with animals flavor, in addition to the reason of varieties of osmanthus raw material, insufficiency pickle process and the use of impure petroleum ether in production process, another one is increasing the precipitation setting time, in order to remove the middle layer and the lower water layer as far as possible and fully dewaxing and deslagging, otherwise osmanthus concrete will resolve unstable substance after high temperature distillation and decompressive,concentration methods which may caused deep colour osmanthus concrete, impure aroma and high viscosity and melting point osmanthus concrete products.