Maceration is a technique consisting in keeping the plant in contact with a liquid solvent. It takes place at room temperature by soaking the plant in a liquid (water, alcohol, oil, glycerin, glycol or a blend of them) for a precise time. The plant, before beeing macerated, is properly treated (dried, crushed) to obtain the best conditions of extraction of the active substances contained.
Thanks to maceration, it is possible to obtain the following vegetable extracts:
– Hydroalcoholic macerates, generally obtained from a mix of water and alcohol as a solvent;
– Glycerin macerates or bud extracts, obtained from the maceration with a mixture of water, alcohol and glycerol.