Although commonly known as an oil, Jasmine is only successfully extracted by solvent extraction, not by steam distillation. Like many flowers used in perfumery, the hot steam would alter and destroy the floral accords for which jasmine is so prized. In France jasmine is traditionally extracted by enfleurage, where the flowers are placed one by one onto a mix of beef suet and lard spread over a wooden-framed glass tray, called a chassis. They are left to release their oils to the fat over a 24 hour period, then removed. The whole process is repeated many times, which can last up to four weeks, until the fat is completely saturated with essential oil. Finally, the fat is separated through alcohol, which itself is then evaporated, resulting in an absolute extract. Moreover, enfleurage only works where the flower continues to produce volatile oils after it's picked -as with jasmine, tuberose and many others. Jasmine by enfleurage, or jasmin de chassis, is still produced in small quantities in Grasse (France) and Italy. This simple method produces the finest fragrance material as it retains most of the flower's aromatic components, producing the same rich, deep, natural version of its scent as when on the bush.

Not so with the most common extraction practiced today for jasmine, the concrete extraction. Here the essential oils, waxes and dyes are freed through petrochemical solvents that have a lower boiling point than water, thereby preserving most of the components otherwise lost through hot steam. For perfumery this concrete is then treated with alcohol to remove the waxes and the majority of pigments, which again results in an absolute. Egypt produces 70 - 80% of the world's jasmine absolute using this method, although India is gradually increasing its output. Many countries produce other very high quality floral absolutes besides jasmine, including jasmine sambac, tuberose, carnation, boronia, orange flower, oleander, frangipani and narcissus. Still, although the level of solvent in these absolutes has been found to be less than 10 parts per million, most aromatherapists believe that their use should be kept to topical applications in appropriately low dilutions.