A Word on Distilled Waters
I have mentioned distilled water before, in my post on the virtues of lavender. Such water can be made from almost any herb, and is generally regarded today as a byproduct of extracting essential oil. In the 17th century, however, a distilled water, like an infusion, is considered its own class of medicine--the weakest, in fact.
A simple method for making such a water today is to take a cup of the desired herb, and add it to a cup of distilled water in a glass container. Adding 1/8 cup of ingestible alcohol–such as vodka–will help preserve the mixture. Seal it, shake well, and leave it to sit for several days. Refrigerate.
But, Culpeper, in his Complete Herbal has different definitions and advice to give--so don’t simply take it from me.
From Nicholas Culpeper himself:
“1. Waters are distilled of herbs, of flowers, of fruits, and of roots.
2. We speak not of strong waters, but of cold, as being to act Galen’s part, and not Paracelsus’s.
3. The herbs ought to be distilled when they are in the greatest vigour, and so ought the flowers also.
4. The vulgar way of distillations which people use because they know no better, is in a pewter still; and although distilled waters are the weakest of artificial medicines, and good for little but mixtures of other medicines, yet they are weaker by many degrees than they would be were they distilled in sand. If I thought it not impossible to teach you the way of distilling in sand, I would attempt it.
5. When you have distilled your water, put it into a glass covered over with a paper pricked full of holes, so that the excrementitious and fiery vapours may exhale, which cause that settling in distilled waters called the mother, which corrupt them, then cover it close and keep it for your use.
6. Stopping distilled waters with a cork makes them musty, and so does paper if it but touch the water; it is best to stop them with a bladder, being first put in water, and bound over the top of the glass.
Such cold waters as are distilled in a pewter still (if well-kept) will endure a year; such as are distilled in sand, as they are twice as strong, so they endure twice as long.”