When we talk about cough drops, many people immediately have the typical smell of eucalyptus in their nose. The essential oils in the eucalyptus leaves are responsible for this. Sometimes, however, dried eucalyptus doesn't smell like cough drops, but stinks. Why is that?
Why does dried eucalyptus smell unpleasant?
Dried eucalyptus stinks if you have caught one of the many types of eucalyptus that smell unpleasant, like horse or cat urine. This smell increases when eucalyptus is dried. Another cause can be bacterial or fungal colonization.
Why does dried eucalyptus stink?
If dried eucalyptus stinks, you most likely got the wrong type of eucalyptus. Eucalyptus is not a single species, but rather a species-rich plant genus with around 600 different species. Of these, only a few smell like cough drops, but many others actually stink - like horse or cat urine. When dried, this smell naturally increases.
But be careful: Sometimes the unpleasant smell is not due to the eucalyptus itself: it can also be that the leaves are covered with bacteria or fungi and therefore stink. Of course, you should no longer use these leaves but rather dispose of them.
How to prevent dried eucalyptus from smelling?
To prevent the dried eucalyptus from smelling, you should initially only drycertain species. These smell pleasant:
- Lemon eucalyptus (Eucalyptus citriodora): smells intensely of lemon
- Peppermint eucalyptus (Eucalyptus radiata): pleasantly fresh peppermint scent
- Blue eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus): this species is used for the production of cough medicines, intense smell of cough drops
All three species can also be cultivated ashouseplant, although they are not frost hardy and have a strong need for warmth and high humidity. You can even harvest your own eucalyptus.
How does dried eucalyptus affect animals?
But no matter what type of dried eucalyptus stinks in your area: all animals - with the exception of koalas - stay away from this smell. This also applies to annoying insects such asmosquitoes, which can be easily repelled in summer with a lemon eucalyptus placed on the balcony or terrace.
A few dried eucalyptus branches (not the smelly kind, of course!) as decoration in the room have the same effect. Eucalyptus also has the ability to killpestssuch asmites. For this reason, preparations based on eucalyptus oil are used, for example, to remove mites from honey bees.
How to remove the smell of dried eucalyptus?
Eucalyptus smells very intense and if the dried eucalyptus stinks, this smell is difficult to get out of the apartment. All you can do is try to ventilate thoroughly and neutralize the scent with suitable products. These measures are suitable for this:
- put a bowl with coffee powder
- Spray vinegar water
- or pour into a bowl and set up
Both attract foreign smells and absorb them. Of course you can also use room sprays or something similar, but these often only smell worse.
Tip
Eucalyptus is poisonous
No matter whether dried or fresh: Do not eat eucalyptus leaves! Eucalyptus contains many toxins that can cause poisoning symptoms of varying severity. The industry has to significantly reduce these in cough medicines. By the way, the toxicity is also the reason why animals stay away from eucalyptus. Only the koala has adapted and can easily excrete the poisons.
