Here is the lecture that we have presented at Botanica 2018 :
The aromatherapy industry interest in hydrosol has been growing in the recent years. As more practionners and enthousiast try to include them into their regiment, it gets more and more important to know their chemicals composition. Sadly, hydrosol did not get the same scientific attention as essential oils due to multiples factors. Furthermore, the lack of standardized testing can create some complication in comparing study and analysis.
The presence of water and the low concentration of the compounds in hydrosol hinder chemical as those two factors increase the complexity of the analysis. Therefore, sample pretreatment is a critical part of the analysis and a multitude of option are available to the analyst. Among other we usually see liquid-liquid extraction, solid phase extraction, and many others, each with their advantage and inconvenient.
Furthermore, hydrosol being a chemically aggressive medium, multiple reaction can happen during storage. This create sometimes unexpected or unusual component that add a layer of complexity to the analysis which is not found in traditional essential oils analysis.
This presentation will explain the difference between the analytical technic as to help an user understand the scope and limitation of an hydrosol analysis. We will also show some examples of the complex chemistry that can happen due to the aqueous media.
Full presentation :