today we're distilling rosemary and we
are doing the leaf because as I said the
material as in the leaf so we actually
have one of our students has arrived
which is wonderful and I'm wondering if
you'd like to come and help harvest
absolutely I have some gloves here and I
had some secret ores and if you just
want to cut into a bag and I was just
explained what was your name again
Jonnie Jonnie that's right nice to see
you thank you for coming I was just
explaining that the essential oil glands
and the rosemary are along the underside
of these leaves and I'm trying to sort
of cut it mainly off the pathway here
and then we'll cut into a nice rounded
shape and relocating the ladybugs
wherever we find them and you know we
just cut it just as if you were pruning
a regular plant and then when we take it
inside to
to start repair it for the still will
actually remove a lot of the leaves from
the stem because the there's a couple of
different reasons if you put a lot of
stem into the stove the steam doesn't
move through the plant material evenly
and so you lose a lot of the potential
oil you get what's called rat holes and
in the stove which isn't very effective
and the other reason is the ketone which
is the Canfor I believe is more in the
stem and the boring ol acetate which is
the ester which is the anti-inflammatory
in this part is mainly in the leaf and
so we can adjust the end product
somewhat by being sure that we put in
the still only the best quality and also
the part of the plant that has what we
want hi there thank you for coming
absolutely
Cindy Yannick and you just enrolled in
not to turn eight to twelve that's right
we talked about that yesterday and
Yannick is in I'm doing
100 frames of silver night so terrific
so what we're doing is harvesting just
you know trimming off this main area
here making it into a nice rounded shape
being careful not to bruise and damage
it too much making cuts where it's going
to also you know put out a shoot in a
nice way I've got some more cutters here
and some gloves learn yes absolutely
all these are stuck together thank you
and there's a couple of bags here
good old IKEA bags and her thank you yes
all along here I found here and we'll
just keep harvesting I was just talking
about we're going to be harvesting you
know quite a lot of stem but when we
take it inside we're actually going to
be taking the leaf off the stem because
the Easter and this plant is what we
really want to ensure we get the most of
esters and plants are
anti-inflammatories and this is a
wonderful anti-inflammatory I just
talking about how great it is for
energies that rubs it's wonderful mix
whereas peppermint and black pepper it's
called a ruby sation so it brings blood
to an area and it might feel hot when
you put it on initially but that's
really a good sign because it's bringing
all that blood to the area bringing
nutrients and increasing nutrient flow
and then also taking away material like
the lactic acid buildup really assisting
was congestion so as you can tell I'm in
love with Rose me it's also very good
for memory
oh so whenever you're doing your exams
take a bottle of rosemary oil and
massage your scalp so let's pick as we
let's harvest as we taught there are
known of something that I'm looking for
that I wonder
I'm just cut I'm just cutting down to a
I mean really you can't go to wrong
because there's a lot of you can see
where these are coming out these little
shoots so just cut to it and we can tidy
it up later anyway so don't worry too
much now ideally this should be
harvested for destination just before it
flowers or just as it flowers and as you
can see here the flowering is over
you know it's always hard to arrange
your life to do things at the very best
time
so rather than not do it at all I'm a
great believer in spontaneity and if
something occurs to you you know if
you're in the mood if you want to do it
I'm a great believer and just going for
it and doing it years just go ahead and
do it and it might not be as ideal but
we'll still we're still going to be
getting a very interesting product this
is a very good that's a very good
question does harvesting it at not the
ideal time decrease the potency you know
I would normally say yes that is correct
but really rather than thinking about it
as decreasing the potency is just going
to create a somewhat different
constituent blend
I mean essential oils are a very complex
array of constituents as is as any plant
even you know if you make a tincture if
you make an extract if you make an
infusion if you make a decoction you're
actually extracting different
constituents some constituents will
dissolve into water some don't like
alkaloids will partially dissolve into
water but pretty much fully dissolve
into alcohol whereas you know vitamins
and minerals will come out into the
water so you're not really going to get
that in a tincture but an essential oil
is taking up the volatile material which
you're going to get a very marginal
amount out in a tincture which is with
alcohol or a
or water so it just really depends and
some plants won't give their volatile
material even to steam I mean we're
going to be doing steam water
distillation today but some plants won't
give their volatile material to to steam
so some parts you can't even disturb you
actually have to extract with a solvent
and then volatilize off the solvent so
it's just getting to know the plant so
it it isn't that its diminished it's
just going to be different and of course
if we had a gas chromatographic mass
spectrometer piece of equipment in our
lab we could actually test exactly what
is in there something this oil that we
make today which would be wonderful I'd
love to be able to do that but being
that we don't have that very expensive
piece of equipment we can't but we can
certainly do what's called organoleptic
testing on it which when you study the
aromatherapy classes that's what you're
learning to do and you're really
training your olfactory system to
to become very sensitive to the nuances
of aroma some distillers for example can
turn recognize over 200 constituents
just for smell so you know they could
they could brews this leaf and smell it
and say oh it's really high in camphor
it doesn't have much money or acetate
right now therefore we won't harvest it
so that's that's really what you're
learning when you when you start to use
your olfactory system and that's even a
very useful thing when you're becoming a
a medical or master herbalist is to
develop your olfactory because here you
want to be really you know in touch with
the plant this hops has decided to take
a liking to me it's sticking to my
so you do want to develop a
relationships with London you know I
find whenever I go out walking one of
the things I love to do is I'm always
stopping and taking a sniff at the plant
and smelling it and looking at leaf
shapes and and trying to identify and
it's it's it's a fascinating hobby and
it's really something you can do no
matter where you are no matter what
country you're in and it really hopes
you should start to develop an awareness
of of plants and like I said really
develop your olfactory of course