Strawberry Gum Distillate intriguing result

After being fascinated with distilling my own hydrosols lately after being inspired by a blog by Lise Anderson (link here). I have done cucumbers, oranges, calendula, yarrow, white clover, pineapple and many more. If you know me, you know I love to champion Australian native ingredients and use them in many of my formulas. I have fallen in love lately with Strawberry Gum.

So what is Strawberry Gum you ask? Good question! Strawberry Gum - botanical name - Eucalyptus olida, is a native Australian medium sized tree which is grown in the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales but now cultivated in southern regions. The leaves are highly aromatic and are reminiscent of strawberries, cinnamon and that classic Australian bush smell which I love. You can make it into a tea to drink and I have also used it in an infused oil which gave a very aromatic dark green infused oil. And now the turn of a distillate.

I followed my usual process and came back with an intriguing result! Some history - I have not had much success with obtaining essential oil from my distillation but that hasn’t been a real worry of mine as my main purpose is with the distillation of hydrosols.

Strawberry Gum dried leaves

The result of previous distillates was a crystal clear solution - no different to water. This time very different. It had a distinct cloudy/milky appearance. In horror I though that there must have been some contaminants in the herbs or the still. Was just about to throw it out - cursing about the waste before I decided to do some reading. Glad I did!

Strawberry Gum Distillate

Can you see the oil droplets and crystals at the bottom of the beaker?

Apparently the chemical composition of strawberry gum essential oil means that under temperatures of 40C the essential oil crystallises, but will dissolve again if heated slightly. I tested this out heating the beaker slightly and lo and behold it melted away. I am going to do some more research on this but in the meantime if you have a scientific background I’d love to hear about it!