Asma Marzouq – Palestine Economy Portal

Balsam aromatic oils company, which was founded one year ago, is the only company in Palestine that produces oils by dripping, and is currently producing more than 60 types of concentrated oils inferred from local herbs, some of which are rare, such as watercress, sage, basil, celery, Chrysanthemum, anise, cinnamon, musk, camphor, thyme and mint, in addition to different types of solutions.

The director of the company Bashir Hithnawi said that the project's capital is up about $ 2 million.

Hithnawi refers to the importance of the project and its uniqueness stemming from the richness of the Palestinian land with herbs and diversity because of its climate, soil and terrain explaining that studies confirmed that Palestine produces about 45 herbs that are rare or limited in the world. He also added that another study conducted in the laboratories of al Najah University on a group of herbs including thyme confirmed the superiority of Palestinian herbs over their counterparts in terms of quality.

The factory uses two methods to extract oils from herbs and grains. These are the cold and the warm way, and both are natural ways to maintain the quality of the oils

The factory markets its products in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well as in Europe, East Asia and Arab countries. In addition to that, detergents and soap factories, as well as medicines and sweet” mlabbas” factories benefit from balsam products.

 Hithnawi also said that his company communicated with the Palestinian pharmaceutical companies, but they did not respond properly to it, despite the fact that these companies import the same oils and lotions from Israeli companies that are equivalent in quality but with higher prices for the Israeli products.

Hithnawi considered that the Palestinian market is still not aware of the importance of the products of the first factory of its kind in Palestine that uses water hydrogenated products (Hydrosol Water), of these products the hydrogenated water that is universally used in medical solutions, detergents and sweets industry, pointing out that it’s marketed in the United State as healthy drinking water.

Hydrogenated water is the water resulting from the distillation of oil, which contains a small percentage of oil 5%, and the rest is the components of the plant, the aroma and the flavor of the herb derived from it.

The balsam company has schemes for producing some cosmetics such as perfumes and lotions.

The company employs 12 employees, of among a chemical engineer, an administrative officer and a professional. The factory is provided with equipments and machinery imported from abroad, which are considered some of the newest machines in terms of type and size, as well as they are the only in Palestine.

On his part, D. Mohammed Shtayyeh praised the factory and the efforts of its workers and said: “This is a unique and successful experiment, and it is important that the factory begins to produce a Palestinian perfume that competes globally and rise with the Palestinian working hands to the top.