By David Soknacki, from Econ Manufacturing: “Essential oils are generally produced by injecting the spice bed with steam, and then separating the distillate into the essential oil and water. On the other hand oleoresins are produced by soaking spices in a solvent, whether a combination of ethanol and water in your example for vanilla, or hexane in the case of many of our spices. One of the final stages in processing is to remove the solvent to acceptable levels (35 ethanol for vanilla, but under 25ppm for hexane in spices). What is left are all of the flavour components dissolved by the solvent. Companies decide between essential oils and oleoresins usually depending on the flavour profile they require for their finished product.” 1.4 Names of Spices The following table summarizes the common and scientific names of most popular spices and the part of the plant they come from.
Oleoresins are produced by soaking in a solvent with the combination of water and ethanol or hexane. The oleoresins are used mainly as a flavoring agent in the food processing industry. Whereas essential oil is a natural component extracted from the leaves, flowers, roots and barks. This is used to enhance the mood, to relieve pain, fatigue and to kill germs. Know more about essential oil on Use essential oil.