In Europe in the fourteenth century, royal Hungarian water was most prevalent. Hungarian water was distilled by the Countess of Heino with flowers of alcohol and rosemary and given to her daughter Filipa, empress of Edward III. Legend has it that Hungarian water can be sprayed on handkerchiefs to relieve brain fatigue. But popular use in Europe is to wash your face and add it to your bathtub.
In 1379, King Charles V of France was old and was revolted by the English. He recuperated in the Garmuro Monastery in St. Gaste. The monastery used lemon balm to concoct a floral lotion for his daily bathing and sniffing to help restore his twilight brainpower. This camelite water was famous in Europe, and the nobles of various countries demanded it, and the monastery became famous. This Garmuro water lasted for 350 years. Similarly, this Garmuro water is distilled with water alcohol.
The main ingredients of Hungarian water and Garmuro water are rosemary and lemon balm, as well as other aromatic plants mixed in it. I found that one of the common features is that they all use alcohol. What inspired me was that there were essential oils at the time of distillation, but essential oils were of little use. These inventors must have found that these oil-like things can be combined with alcohol, so the alcohol added during distillation not only avoids oil droplets on the surface of the water, but also makes the water smell better.
With the improvement of distillation technology, pure liquid began to enter medicinal use. In the sixteenth century, pure dew first appeared in some pharmacological texts. For example: the dispensatorium noricum by the famous German botanist Valerius cordus, the works published by the famous physician and medicinal botanist Peter Andreas Mathiolus in 1554 and the German herbist Adam Lonice in 1578, Both describe the distillation method and plant pure dew in detail, which deserves our serious study to understand the development of distillation technology and pure dew and medical applications at that time.
For a considerable time in the sixteenth century, many european aristocratic mansions had separate distilleries, distilling herbs and flowers. Earl V of Northumberland in England was one of the best, collecting numerous books on distillable herbs and growing rosemary, true lavender, lemon balm, sage, calendula, and tansy in his garden for tea or distilled dew. These pure lotions are used for personal hygiene cleaning, medicinal use and cooking. According to the recipe that has been handed down, it was popular at the time to put several different plants together for distillation to get a better aroma or curative effect.
In 1600, the names essential oils and plant waters first appeared officially in the Pharmacopoeia published in Germany. In 1653, Nicholas Calpeper published his most famous Atlas of Materia Medica, which became a European medical classic during the Renaissance. In the European Renaissance era, with the development of chemical research and the continuous improvement of distillation technology, essential oils have been more widely used, and the scope of use covers medical treatment, perfumes, skin care (mainly flower water), aromatic oils, ointments and so on. Nicolas Lemery, the imperial physician of King Louis XIV of France, described in his Concise Dictionary of General Medicines the preparation and use of many essential oils and flowers.