hi Bellowbelle,in James Green's "the Herbal Medicine-maker's Handbook" he says "a true hydrosol is a particulaly pleasant offspring of the steam distillation of aromatic plants." He has whole chapter( only 5 pages) on distillation of hydrosols. He mentions that the oil is on top of the liquid and that it is certain herbs and does n ot mention fresh or dry.My guess is yes, it is a hydrosol. Your distiller sounds interesting. Gloria````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

We are becoming self sufficient on a 2 acre lot. We are installing solar power as we speak. We plan on digging a very deep well. We have planted over 100 fruit trees and over 30 fruiting shrubs (working on tons more) we are also building a 12,000 square foot raised bed garden. We are planting as many perennial vegetables as possible as we are trying to keep it more maintainable. We are also raising chickens, ducks, rabbits, and goats. We are considering raising talapia and catfish in 55 gal drums. We are planting medicinal herbs and learning how to use old remedies. We are planning to build a greenhouse to have a way to make a few more bucks while also providing year round food. We are learning how to save seed so that Monsanto doesn't gain control over the food we eat. We are looking at a wood stove for heat. Geothermal seems to be more effeciant as it uses almost no energy to heat and cool your home. Most power companies will finance it to you. We are trying to go to hand crank appliances when possible. I have started building a solar hot water box to heat our water for free. We are also thinking about building a solar outdoor shower but are not sure if we would use it. We are putting up a clothes line the next chance we get and hopefully a rainwater collection system. We want to build an outdoor kitchen with a smoker and a solar oven but are having a hard time finding enough scrap brick and tile. We are composting everything we can and trying to raise worms for the garden and for sale. We have lots of ideas but how do you prepare for the end of tis civilization and be the solution for the next. There is a show that you can watch on youtube or google video called peak oil. For each episode they interview someone who is preparing for peak oil and they show you what they are doing. They generally give a walk through of their property and show sustainability at its best. There are also many many videos on youtube. We need to post our own and show others that there are many like minded people out there and they are not as crazy as people think they are. It seems to be a feat to find any useful information on living self sufficient and how to achieve this. But anyway I am tired of babbling. I hope this sparked some ideas. Try www.pathtofreedom.com to see the answer to peak oil.

You can use it as a weapon if you're ever burglarized :0) For that matter, here's an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry for "pepper spray": Pepper spray, also known as OC spray (from "Oleoresin Capsicum"), OC gas, and capsicum spray, is a lachrymatory agent (a chemical compound that irritates the eyes to cause tears, pain, and even temporary blindness) used in policing, riot control, crowd control, and personal self-defense, including defense against dogs and bears.[1][2] Its inflammatory effects cause the eyes to close, taking away vision. This temporary blindness allows officers to more easily restrain subjects and permits persons using pepper spray for self-defense an opportunity to escape. Although considered a less-than-lethal agent, it has been deadly in rare cases, and concerns have been raised about a number of deaths where being pepper sprayed may have been a contributing factor.[3] The active ingredient in pepper spray is capsaicin, which is a chemical derived from the fruit of plants in the Capsicum genus, including chilis. Extraction of oleoresin capsicum from peppers requires capsicum to be finely ground, from which capsaicin is then extracted using an organic solvent such as ethanol. The solvent is then evaporated, and the remaining waxlike resin is the oleoresin capsicum. An emulsifier such as propylene glycol is used to suspend the OC in water, and pressurized to make it aerosol in pepper spray. The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method is used to measure the amount of capsaicin and major capsaicinoids within pepper sprays. It's basically your procedure up to aeresolization. Sounds like dangerous stuff there. Here is a link that might be useful: Pepper spray

I think you just let the gardenina flowers sit and steep in warm (just warmed not hot/boiling) oil and or in the sun. Implements/oil must be very sterile or mold will form. In tahiti where monoi de tahiti (gardenia oil) is popular I believe they use macadamia nut oil as the carrier. :)