INGENIERIA PARA LLEVAR A LA CLASE DE LA SEMANA DEL 27 AL 31/ 10/ 2008

Abby's Aromatics
How to make perfume.
The purpose of the experiment was to try to make some home made perfume. I wanted to see which material (flower petals, fruit peels or herbs) would make the strongest scent or release the most aromatic oils over time.

Materials
Rose petals
Lily petals
Orange peel
Grapefruit peel
Lavender leaves
Eucalyptus leaves
Glass perfume bottles
Alcohol
Plastic spray bottles
Paper for labels

Experiment
Procedure
1. Collect the flower petals, fruit peels, and herbs that you will use to make the different types of perfume. I used orange peels, grapefruit peels, lavender leaves, eucalyptus leaves, rose petals, and lily petals.
2. Place material in each glass bottle and label each bottle. (Orange scent, grapefruit scent, lavender scent, eucalyptus scent, rose scent, and lily scent)
3. Fill each perfume bottle to the top with rubbing alcohol. Cap or cork each bottle.
4. Place the bottles in a sunny and dry place. An area that they will not be disturbed for several weeks.
5. After one week observe by smelling each bottle and noting which bottle had the strongest-weakest scent.
6. Repeat step 5 for a total of 4 weeks.
7. Graph the data week by week.
8. After the 4 weeks, pour off a small amount of each bottle ( the final product) into a small spray bottles and label.
This is for the display at the Science Fair. When the solution is sprayed on a piece of paper or your skin the alcohol will evaporate and the aromatic oils will stay on the paper or skin.

Observations
I learned that making perfume is fun. This simple project taught me the ancient art of perfume making. The more aromatic oils in flower petals, herbs, or fruit peels will produce the strongest scents. Aromatic oils of flower petals, fruit peels, or herbs are released when put in alcohol. The alcohol breaks down the petals, leaves or peels allowing the aromatic oils to be released into a solution.

This is my results:
Week 1- The orange peels and grapefruit peels smelled the strongest. Eucalyptus was next. Lavender was next. Then the rose and lily petals.
Week 2- Same as week 1
Week 3- The eucalyptus leaves smelled the strongest. Next was the orange and grapefruit peels. Lavender was next. Then the rose and the lily petals seemed the weakest scent.
Week 4- Same as week 3.

My data revealed that over time the eucalyptus leaves had the most aromatic oils in them and produced the strongest scent. The orange and grapefruit peels had a good amount of aromatic oils also producing the next strongest scents. The lavender leaves had a moderate amount of aromatic oils producing a fairly strong scent. The least amount of aromatic oils were in the rose and lily petals. These produced the weakest scents. I also noted a color change in the bottles. Eucalyptus leaves turned the alcohol green. Orange peels produced a orange solution. Grapefruit peels turned the solution pink yellow. Lavender leaves turned the solution purple. Rose petals turned slight pink. And the lily petals solution was clear.

How does it work?
What happened in my experiments was the material with the most aromatic oils produced the strongest scent. Eucalyptus leaves produced the strongest scent therefore having the most aromatic oils release in the alcohol. Orange and grapefruit peels also have a good amount of aromatic oils in them. They produced the second strongest scents. Lavender had a moderate scent. Lavender leaves have moderate amounts of aromatic oils. More leaves may have to be used to make a strong scent. Lastly flower petals such as rose and lily had the least amount of aromatic oils released. They had the weakest scents of all. My hypothesis was that the orange and grapefruit peels would make the strongest scents. I thought that way because the peels smelled the strongest of all the material before I started the experiment. I was wrong.