Hydrosols

ARTEMESIA DRACUNCULUS - TARRAGON

Ph 4.2 (VARIABLE)

Aroma and Taste
A distinct licorice /anise scent but with the complex overtones of fresh tarragon; The flavour is very potent, almost overpowering when undiluted, but it softens considerably at normal dilution. Delicious, unusual, and hard to find reliably.

Stability and Shelf Life
Unknown: at least twelve months.

Properties and Application
Significant digestive aid; relieves gas, bloating, colic, gastric spasms, and hiccups.

Seems to have a relaxing effect on the nervous system, calming stress-related physical symptoms.

The essential oil is used in asthma treatments for its significant antispasmodic properties and the hydrosol also seems to have pronounced antispasmodic properties, at least foe the digestive tract. It is worthy of further investigation in respiratory conditions like asthma, whooping cough, and spasms of the diaphragm.

Absolutely delicious in cooking, and if you like tarragon, the hydrosol makes a wonderful beverage. Take it when travelling to keep the system working despite time zones and stress.

Reference; Hydrosols; The Next Aromatherapy: Suzanne Catty

Angelica archangelica / Angelica Root - Hydrosols

pH 3.8

Aroma and Taste
Unusual. The first aromatic impression is reminiscent of dirty socks, but it is quickly followed by the dry, sweet, green, herbaceous scent of the plant and oil.
The flavour is slightly fruity, strong earthy but not earth-like, with a hint of green floral tones, a really lovely taste. Diluted it becomes quite mild and retains the fruity-floral edge. There is also a hydrosol from angelica seed.

Stability and Shelf Life
Unknow, but certainly twelve months or more.

Properties and Applications
Distinctly sedative, grounding, and calming the nerves and very useful for anxiety states or high stress.
A mild digestive, although not nearly as effective as the oil, perhaps the hydrosol lacks the bitter principals to the same degree.

It is warming to the system and can be used to increase appetite and tone the digestion.
Energetically, angelica is said to bridge heaven and earth, connect the seventh chakra to the first, and still have grounding effect. When dowsed with a pendulum, both the oil and the hydrosol exhibit a phenomenal energy field, and so intention of use becomes a contributing factor in its applications for vibrational healing.

Reference; Hydrosols; The Next Aromatherapy: Suzanne Catty

The Key, or More Correctly, the pH - 2 - Hydrosols

One distiller I know, puts a small piece of the plant material into the finished hydrosol and leaves it there for two to three months to "revive" the hydrosol. While energetically this is a nice idea, it raises serious issues concerning contamination.

Say a hydrosol blooms. You will see some evidence of the residue in the bottle. It may be tiny bits of particulate matter, a furry algae-type growth, spiral that looks like frog's legs, wispy ghost like bits-each one seems to develop its own unique pattern of growth. But you can see it. Even if the smell and taste have not changed, you can see this stuff floating around in the bottles. It's a pretty simple and unmistakable clue. But what if the hydrosol is contaminated and just hasn't had time to grow a bloom? It doesn't make it any less contaminated; you just don't have any way to know about it....until now.. 

A change of more than 0.5 from the initial reading on any given batch is positive indication of bacteria. Testing should be undertaken at least every two months (sixty days), and more frequently if you resell the products. At present I have only my own benchmarks to work with, but within five years I believe hydrosols could come labelled with their pH at the time of distillation, giving everyone involved in their handling a perfect reference point for both contamination testing and therapeutic action.

Now, does it matter? Are they still safe to use if we can't see a bloom/ Difficult questions. I have hydrosols with bloom, just filtered through a paper coffee filter, to see what would happen. Nothing so far. I am fairly sure that friends, colleagues, and maybe even some clients have consumed hydrosols that were contaminated but not blooming. I would certainly never knowingly give anyone a "contaminated" water, but without a bloom, how would we have known, before the pH  test?

I am pretty sure that anyone who has worked with hydrosols has consumed "contaminated" but non-blooming waters, probably many times. But what comes out of your tap could be also as bad, depending on where you live. All I know is that I am alive and well and have never been made sick by a hydrosol. However, there can be some unpleasant organisms contaminating hydrosols, and it is obviously much better never to drink or use contaminated products.

What matters most is we now have a simple method for monitoring hydrosols, checking for contamination, and choosing what to do about the knowledge that we have. We also have a way to filter them, as I've mentioned . Testing the pH of hydrosols will monitor more than bacterial contamination; it can also reveal the addition of preservatives like alcohol. Ethyl alcohol is 6.9 pH; as you'll see in the table below, if alcohol is added to a hydrosol to prevent bacterial growth, it will change the pH of the water.

Let's use rock rose as an example, since it has such a low pH to start withy and it is so important in therapeutic care. If you were to conduct a test and find the pH to be 3.6 instead of the normal 2.9 to 3.1, you could assume one of two things; either bacteria are present or alcohol has been added.

To determine which is the problem, you could smell or taste a small amount to see if alcohol was detectable. Although at less than 5 percent it's hard to detect alcohol from the odour, if you are sensitive you will usually notice a slight "rush" of alcohol entering the bloodstream if you drink the hydrosol undiluted; whereas, if the problem is bacteria, you will not feel the same alcohol effect.

But do you want to taste a potentially bacteria-carrying hydrosol? Probably not. You can also spray the hydrosol on your skin; if alcohol is present, it will be quite drying, usually leaving a light or white patch on the skin if the alcohol content is over5 to 7 percent, but a lower concentrations there may be no immediately visible effects. In any case, you will know that something is wrong with the hydrosol, and you should either filter it, return it to your retailer, or use it to wash the floor.

The pH will also give a scientific information as to the potential therapeutic applications of the waters. Rose rose, as discussed, is the most acid of all, with a 2.9 to 3.1 pH, so it is highly astringent. It will constrict cells and reduce blood flow, which is why it is used as part of an aromatherapy protocol for fibroids. That is also part of the reason why it reduces wrinkles, since it tightens and tones the pores, reducing visible fine lines.

Rock rose will also slow or stop bleeding by the same astringent action; it can be used on cuts that bleed profusely, like those on the fingers or on animal pads, and it makes a wonderful addition to men's aftershaves. Of course, if the cut is deep, it may require medical attention, but this is what to use first, before you panic.

The essential oil does the same thing, only more powerfully, but at forty dollars or more for 5 milliliters, compared with fifteen dollars for 120 milliliters of hydrosol, it's more likely that you'll have the water on hand. Rock rose has other unique properties that you will find described in chapter 3. 

Reference; Hydrosols; The Next Aromatherapy: Suzanne Catty 

The Key, or More Correctly, the pH-Hydrosols

When I started testing the pH of the waters, I had no idea why I was doing it. I was given a meter by my brother. L'aromatherapie Exactemente listed the pH values for a few hydrosols, and I was curious. Also, it was the only "scientific" test I could conduct in my kitchen.

I knew that distilled water has a 7.0 pH, and I already knew hydrosols were just not "just water" as some would have it. They have aroma and flavour, unlike distilled water, so at the very least these were substances comparable to herbal tea. What the tests showed is that hydrosols are nothing like water or even herbal teas and although waters are distilled, not one has a 7.0 pH-far from it. I was excited!

If we look at the pH of a few other common substances, we can see that the acid nature of hydrosols, while not immediately apparent, is very important. Compare the pH valuses of various hydrosols (pages 69-72) to the substances listed in the table on the next page.

Lemon juice is highly acidic, as is vinegar, and we can taste and feel this acidity in the mouth and in the way our body reacts. Rock rose hydrosol is as acidic as some vinegars, but we do not taste or feel the acidity in the same way at all.

Tomato juice is too acidic for some people's taste and sugar is often added to tomato sauces and juice to reduce the acid effects. Elder flower, German chamomile, neroli, fennel, and several other hydrosols have a pH value equivalent to that of tomato juice-4.0-but we find no acidity in their flavours; on the contrary, they seem quite sweet.

This does not however, change the fact that they are acid by nature, and this is an important consideration in how, why, and when we use them. Only peppermint and linden blossom hydrosols have a pH close to that of our own saliva, which is very near neutral. 

pH Table of a Few Comparative Substances 

I compared my first hydrosol pH tests with those of Franchomme and Penoel, and the measurements didn't all jibe. Some were spot-on, but for others there was a huge difference between their figure and mine. To much difference to be right, I thought. So I started testing every batch soon after it arrived but without developing a clear picture of what the data meant.

Really, I just wondered why my numbers were so different from the only reference numbers I could find. Interestingly, my tests were usually pretty close to each other; that is, geranium was always in the 4.7 to 4.9 pH range, different from the 3.3 pH in Franchomme and Penoel but relatively stable within my own tests. Other glaring differences were green myrtle, 3.95 pH versus my reading of 5.8; rosemary cineole, 3.7 versus 4,2 pH; and oregano, 5.2 versus 4.2 pH.

However some hydrosols, specifically neroli, or orange blossom, were quite variable in my own tests, ranging from as low as 4.0 pH to as high as 5.5pH. The hydrosols came from several different countries and sources, and at the time, I put the differences down to those variables. I now believe that some of the neroli waters contained preservatives, probably alcohol.

Ethanol, or 95 percent ethyl alcohol, has a 6.9 to 7.o pH; distilled water also has a pH of 7.0 and is considered neutral. No hydrosol has a Ph in the alkaline range above 7.0; they are all acid-either slightly, like lavender ( lavandula angustifolia, 5.7 pH), or very like rock rose (cistus ladaniferus 2.9 pH), According to data the pH range of authentic essential oils is around 5.0 pH, with a maximum of 5.8 pH.

I have never tested individual oils but must assume that there are distinct ranges for each oil, as there are for each hydrosol. Balz and others go on to say that the acidic nature of oils contributes to their antibacterial properties, as an acid environment inhibits the growth of bacteria and can even kill some bacteria.

When we are dealing with the huge range of pH values in hydrosols, we can see the importance of using this knowledge in judging appropriate therapeutic applications. We can also see that they must work. 

For the most part I tested each bottle of hydrosol only once, usually on or shortly after receipt. Then I decided to test the bay that had bloomed-bingo! The pH was way off, infinitely more alkaline than the original reading. I ran the hydrosol through a paper filter, and although the pH dropped by 0.15, the reading was still nowhere near where it should be.

It was clear that a change in pH can be triggered by the appearance of bacteria. ( Okay, so maybe this would have been obvious to a chemistry student, but to me it was ..... Eureka!).  After numerous tests of this kind, I would suggest that as soon as a change in Ph is noticed, one should suspect that the hydrosol has become contaminated in some way, I now test each bottle of hydrosol every three to four weeks.

Hydrosols are really remarkably stable for natural, preservative-free products, including beer (Budweiser's shelf life is 110 days0, have a much shorter shelf-life then hydrosols. Regardless of our former thinking, if we want to embrace this new aromatherapy, that is the first bite of the cookie to digest. They don't last forever, but they are not totally unstable!

Contamination can happen in may ways, from non sterile bottles, shipping and transport conditions, formation of condensation inside the bottles, plant matter or residue from the distillation stage, heat and light damage, just smelling the bottle directly under your nose, and so forth. Even aerial contamination during the bottling stage could undo all the precautions and sterilizing techniques you may employ; it's not common, but it's certainly possible.

 Reference; Hydrosols; The Next Aromatherapy: Suzanne Catty