Excerpts from "Hydrosols, the Next Aromatherapy"

by Suzanne Catty [ORDER]

"Aromatherapy is a branch of phytotherapy, or plant therapy, just as herbalism, homeopathy, flower remedies, traditional Chinese medicine, and many other treatments are also phytotherapy. Aromatherapy is holistic, concerning itself with the whole of the person and attempting to create balance for the whole of the body.

Aromatherapy, in the truest sense of the word, is the use of 100 percent natural, whole, unadulterated, aromatic essences obtained from specific botanical sources by steam distillation or expression for the benefits of mind, body, and spiritual health. These essences may be pure essential oils, the non-water-soluble, volatile, aromatic compounds found in flowers, leaves, branches, seeds, roots, barks, resins, and fruits and obtained by gentle steam distilation. They may also be the expressed oils found in the rinds of citrus fruits like lemon, orange, bergamot, and grapefruit, which are gathered by squeezing the oil from the peel.

Aromatherapy also involves the use of the nonvolatile fatty oils (carrier oils) found in avocados, sesame seeds, and exotics such as rose hips and hazelnuts.

Last but not least, aromatherapy uses hydrosols, the aromatic waters coproduced during the steam distillation of essential oils." (pgs 1-2)

"With more science under my belt I finally understood why bay leaf hydrosol clears swollen lymph nodes in breast tissue and why green myrtle hydrosol can be put in the eyes. The connection between homeopathy and hydrosols also became clearer. Hydrosols can be seen as microdoses of oil, and if used in the manner prescribed by Grosjean and others, this microdose is further diluted in water. In homeopathy, the more you dilute, the stronger the remedy. When you drink a liter of water containing hydrosols over the course of a day, you are taking multiple microdoses of your "remedy." (p9)

"Hydrosols contain all of the plant in every drop, just like a hologram. Here we have the water-soluble components, the essential oil molecules, the very fluid that was flowing through the plant cells when the plant was collected. It's all there in a matrix of water that is so much more than water, one the most recognized holographic substances in healing." (p 10)

"Hydrosols are not distilled, spring, or tap water with essential oils added. Nor are they waters with essential oils combined with a dispersant (alcohol or glyceron) to dissolove the oils in water. Water with fragrance oil or other synthetic compounds added to it is not hydrosol, nor are the cohobated distillation waters, with the exception of rose and melissa, which are virtually unavailable in any other form. (Cohobation means the hydrosols are recycled repeatedly through the plant material in the still to extract the maximum amount of water-soluble components)". (p12)

Every liter of hydrosol contains between .05 adn .02 milliliter of dissolved essential oil, depending on the water solubility of the plant's components and the distillation parameters. However, the essential oils in solution in a hydrosol will, when analyzed, show a chemical profile different from that of the pure oil from the same run. Why? Because some of the chemicals in the essential oil are just too lipophilic (oil loving) to stay in the water and others are just too hydrophilic (water loving) to stay in the oil; therefore, are found only in the hydrosol. (p12)

"Petitgrain (citrus leaf) is available, and the waters of mandarin orange, Clementine orange, and lemon leaves are particularly desirable and have profound appetite-stimulating properties that are very useful in treating disorders and appetite loss caused by pharmaceutical medication." (p 14)

"It is the responsibility of individuals to train their nose, study their botany, read labels, know their suppliers, and truly understand their oils to determine and ensure that what they use are in fact real, authentic, whole, unaltered therapeutic essential oils." (p30)

Hydrosols smell. Some are strong, others mild. Some smell nothing like the essential oil, while others are very similar to the oil. However, hydrosols never smell exactly the same as the oil or plant from which they are extracted. If some instances the hydrosol is so markedly different that you might not instantly recognize it by smell alone.

The smell of the mixture running off a still is sometimes quite unpleasant. The sweetness of lavender doesn't develop for days, often several weeks, after separation, and it takes even longer for the fragrance character of rose to fully develop. Fresh essential oils resemble hydrosols in that they exhibit a certain wetness and a slightly vague, not quite defined aroma that can be confusing. Indeed, essential oils need time to rest and coalesce after distillation before they are ready for use. Hydrosols require time to mature as well. They begin to settle several days after distillation and will be aromatically stable 4 - 5 weeks later, with the aroma peaking anywhere from two to five months afer distillation and remaining that way until degradation begins." (p32)

Oils vs. Water

"Why use hydrsols when we have essential oils?" To answer this question, let's again take a look at potency. An essential oil is highly concentrated. Some plants, like German chamomile, produce only a few drops of oil per kilo of plant. Others contain extremely potent chemicals that are needed in only small amount to exhibit their anti-infectious effects. If we are trying to fight a staphylococcus infection, we might combine oils like oregano, thyme CT linalol, and palmarosa. One dose used internally would be only one or two drops taken three or four times a day. This is really a tiny amount of oil, but it will have a large effect on the infection. (p34)

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