How to Make Jasmine Oil from Jasmine Flowers: Starting an Extraction Business in India

To make jasmine oil from jasmine flowers you need a solvent, because steam distillation gives no oil. What you can actually sell is jasmine concrete and, from it, jasmine absolute. Concrete is the waxy paste left when fresh flowers are washed in hexane, a petroleum solvent, and the solvent is evaporated. Absolute is the liquid you get when that concrete is dissolved in ethanol, chilled, filtered to remove wax, and the ethanol is evaporated. Perfume and flavour makers buy these two, not a distilled oil.

The yield decides whether the business works. A tonne of sambac jasmine gives only about 1.2 to 1.3 kg of concrete, and a tonne of grandiflorum gives about 2.7 to 3 kg. At a recent Madurai flower price, the flowers alone cost lakhs of rupees for each kilo of concrete. Below are the process, machinery, flower arithmetic, approvals and investment, so you can test the jasmine flower business before you spend on a plant.

Which product do you mean by jasmine oil?

Three different products are sold under that name, and only two need a solvent plant. Jasmine does not yield a steam-distilled essential oil, so the equipment in a steam-distilled essential oil business does not suit it.

The rest of this page is about concrete and absolute.

How is jasmine oil made from jasmine flowers, step by step?

Hexane extraction accounts for more than 98% of world jasmine production, according to a socio-economic report on jasmine from SNIAA, the French flavouring ingredients trade body. The jasmine oil extraction process has five steps.

1. Receive the flowers within hours of picking, because the scent fades fast. Grandiflorum is picked from June to December and sambac from March to October.
2. Load the flowers into closed extractors and wash them with hexane, which pulls the scent out.
3. Evaporate the hexane, condense it and reuse it. What remains is the concrete.
4. Dissolve the concrete in ethanol, chill it to about minus 15 °C so the wax sets, and filter it cold.
5. Evaporate the ethanol. The absolute that remains can still hold 1 to 5% ethanol and traces of hexane, so test every batch before dispatch.

Weight shrinks again at the last stage: for Egyptian grandiflorum, absolute came to 55% to 61% of the concrete. The plant logic resembles solvent extraction for spice oleoresins.

What machinery does a jasmine concrete plant need?

Equipment follows the five steps, and everything that touches hexane or ethanol must be flameproof.

How many flowers make a kilo of concrete, and what do they cost?

Flower price divided by concrete yield gives the real raw material cost. Yields come from the SNIAA report; the price is one Madurai record, so the last column is an illustration.

The ₹350 per kg figure is the Agmarknet price record for Madurai at the Anna Nagar Uzhavar Sandhai on 9 October 2026. Prices jump at festivals and fall in glut months, so collect season-wise quotes. This low yield is why natural absolute sells for thousands of euros a kilo; the perfumery school Nose puts it at €4,000 to €10,000, depending on origin and quality.

Decision rule: add processing and solvent losses to the flower cost per kilo, and compare it with a written price from a fragrance buyer. If the price does not clear it, do not build.

Can you source enough flowers, and who will buy the concrete?

Tamil Nadu is the base. The SNIAA report puts sambac at almost 16,000 acres and grandiflorum at about 7,000 acres there, with around 20,000 sambac farmers holding 0.5 to 1 acre each. These are 2009 to 2014 figures. Perfumery took roughly 10% of the harvest; the rest went mainly to table and ceremonial use, including Madurai malli, which is GI certified. Your plant bids against those buyers every morning, so a standing contract with farmer groups matters more than tank capacity. Check Tamil Nadu's industrial clusters before picking a site.

The buyer side is small. India made about 5.5 to 6 tonnes of grandiflorum concrete and 3 to 3.5 tonnes of sambac concrete in 2014, per the same report. Buyers can also reach for aroma chemicals, so secure sample approvals and price quotes first.

What does the NPCS project report show for investment and returns?

In the NPCS project report on extraction of jasmine flowers, the model plant is set up as follows.

Working capital exceeds machinery cost, which suits a business buying fresh flowers in bulk during a short season. NPCS has prepared project reports since 1994, over 5,000 across more than 40 sectors; these are model figures, and your capacity, location and flower contracts will move them.

Which approvals does a hexane plant need?

Apply for the PESO licence early, because storage layout affects your building plan.

Where do jasmine extraction projects go wrong?

• Short season: sambac and grandiflorum overlap only partly, so the plant idles for months unless you add other flowers.
• Price spikes: festival demand lifts flower prices when you need volume.
• Thin buyer market: with a few tonnes a year across India, one lost buyer hurts.
• Quality: a 2014 study found jasmine scent emission changes through the day, so agree picking time with the buyer and test for residual solvent.

What should you do next?

1. Choose your product: infused oil, concrete or absolute.
2. Get season-wise flower quotes from two or three mandis or farmer groups.
3. Send a trial lot to a toll processor or lab, and ask two fragrance buyers for a spec and a written price.
4. Check PMEGP status. The scheme ran only up to 31 March 2026, and a ministry reply in the Rajya Sabha, reported in August 2026, said margin money releases were on hold pending approval for continuation. Confirm on the KVIC portal and review MSME support schemes for alternatives.
5. Build the project report to the standard described in what a lender expects in a project report.

An NPCS project report for jasmine flower extraction covers the process, machinery, raw materials, plant layout and five to ten year financials, so you can take firm numbers to a bank. More plans like this sit in our manufacturing business guides.

Frequently asked questions

How can I make jasmine oil at home?

You can make an infused oil by steeping fresh flowers in coconut or sesame oil and straining it. True concrete or absolute is not a home job, because it needs hexane and ethanol, both flammable, plus vacuum equipment and ventilation.

Why is jasmine oil so expensive?

Yield and labour. Sambac gives about 1.2 to 1.3 kg of concrete per tonne of flowers, which are picked by hand and processed within hours. Absolute adds a second extraction.

What is the cost of 1 kg of jasmine flower?

Madurai's Anna Nagar Uzhavar Sandhai recorded ₹350 per kg on 9 October 2026. Prices move with season and festivals, so check Agmarknet and your local mandi on the day you buy.

Is jasmine oil better than coconut oil?

They are different products. Jasmine absolute is a perfumery ingredient used in drops, while coconut oil is a base oil. Jasmine hair oils usually carry jasmine inside a base oil such as coconut.