HERB - hound decontamination ....

[Jenne Heise]

On Thu, 30 Sep 1999, Lynette wrote:
> No. essential oils are made by steeping the plant in oil.  Commercial
> essential oils are extremely concentrated.   That is why so many are very
> expensive.  (but a little does go a long way) I do not know anyone who has
> tried to do it at home who has been able to approach the potency of the
> commercial oil.  Not all oils are essential.  There are fragrant sented oils
> that are less potent and often mixed with other things.  These are still
> more concentrated than the plant.  You can get oils at health food stores.

I believe that many kinds of essential oils are actually extracted by
repeated distillation, in the same way that it was done in period. I don't
have my _Encyclopedia of Essential Oils_ with me here, but it gives the
methods whereby each oil is now extracted.

To see a near-period method for extracting distilled 'waters', try the
book I'm transcribing from the 1653 edition, John French's _Art of
Distillation_. Currently, you can go to the web page:

http://www.lib.lehigh.edu/exhibits/distill/french_I.html

And scroll all the way to the end of the page for the beginning of the
section on distilled vegetable and herb waters...

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
 "in verbis et in herbis, et in lapidibus sunt virtutes"
(In words, and in plants, and in stones, there is power.)

"The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part;
But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother 
	of the careful soul and the troubled heart.
And because she lost her temper once, 
	and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest,
Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest."
				-- Rudyard Kipling, "The Sons of Martha"  

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