Rose Oil Article

Although rose oil is a well known product, we have witnessed a lot of confusion about what exactly the species of distilled roses are, their countries of origin and the products available on the market. Being involved in the cultivation, manufacturing and trade of rose products, I wish to share with you our knowledge about one of the oldest known fragrances. Because the spread of rose oil happened, thanks to the development of fine fragrances, this article will essentially describe the species Rosa damascena Mill, whose oil is widely used by perfumers, and which is the most commonly used by aromatherapists today.

Greek mythology says that white roses were born with Aphrodite to challenge her beauty. One day Eros, playing in the gardens of Mount Olympus, was stung by bees while gathering the flowers. His blood colored the blossoms. Then Aphrodite in her eagerness to heal him, dropped a bottle of perfume which gave its fragrance to the roses.
It seems that this delicate odor was appreciated very early and in the Antiquity blossoms were probably macerated in fatty oils by Greeks and Romans to produce ointments. In India, roses are mentioned in the Ayur-Vedas (200 BC), and may have been distilled as early as in the 1st century BC.
In Persia, roses were grown to produce rose water, and the process was improved by Arabs before the 10th century. Rose oil was probably discovered by chance. An Indian legend attributes the discovery of rose oil to the Moghul emperor Jehangir in 1612. While giving a sumptuous feast for his favorite courtesan, he had a canal crossing his gardens filled with rose water. The courtesan noticed the oil floating on the surface, and when collecting it she was delighted with its odor.
The scented roses spread in the countries under Arab influence in the following centuries, especially the Rosa damascena Mill, which is now the species cultivated to produce rose oil for the fragrance industry.

Under the Ottoman rule in the 17th century, Rosa damascena Mill was introduced in Bulgaria, in an area now called the ‘Roses Valley,’ located between Plodviv, Karlovo and Kazanlak. The Bulgarian people improved the Arab distillation process until they could obtain a better yield of oil. When Ottomans retired from Bulgaria at the end of the 19th century, seedlings of the ‘Kazanlak rose’ where taken to Turkey in the Isparta region to be cultivated on a great scale. Bulgaria remained the main producer of rose oil for a long time, but under the communist rule and during the transitive period of the 1990’s Turkey increased its production. These two countries are now the main producers of rose oil and rose concrete.
Morocco is also an important producer of damascena roses. They have been cultivated in the Daddes Valley for probably several centuries, and were originally locally used to produce dried rose buds and rose water. Roses were then developed in the 1940’s to produce rose oil and rose concrete when French perfumers built distilleries in the Valley.

Rosa damascena cannot be cultivated everywhere as it needs a gentle temperature and a humid air during the flowering time to get a good yield of oil. That is why this rose is mainly grown under temperate climates, usually at an altitude between 300m and 1200m.
In Bulgaria, roses are cultivated in large fields by cooperatives or industrials and picked by temporary workers. In Turkey, roses are grown in family gardens and are a complement to local agriculture. In Morocco, rose bushes form hedges to protect other cultures from the wind.
When cultivated in fields, rose bushes are planted in parallel rows laid out 2 meters apart, from seedlings grown in glasshouses during winter. The first crop of roses may be collected after 2 years of plantation. It will take five years before the crop reaches its maximum. Then a well managed field may produce more than 7 tons of flowers a year per hectare. A field may last up to 20 years, depending on the care given to the rose bushes.
In Morocco, roses are usually flowering in mid-April and in Bulgaria in later May; the crop only lasts for 3 to 4 weeks. In Turkey, flowers are gathered from late May to mid-July, depending on the sunshine and the altitude of the plantations. Roses should ideally be picked in the early morning, when they just start to bloom. They are taken to the distillery as quickly as possible, so that their fragrance does not alter before distillation.
Climate directly influences the crop and the yield of oil. Therefore the production can vary considerably from one year to the other, depending on the weather conditions during springtime. In Morocco, the crop may be ruined by late frost, then the few roses left are turned into dried buds.

Essential oil of rose is mainly produced in Bulgaria and Turkey. Rose oil is produced by a water distillation process in copper stills. Yields can differ depending on the quality of flowers and the method of distillation: it may take 3,000 to 5,000 kg of flowers (more than one million flowers!) to produce 1 kg of rose oil. A collector usually gathers 25 kg of blossoms a day. It is thus not difficult to understand why a genuine rose oil is so expensive. Oils are usually produced in large distilleries, but there still exist in Turkey “village oils” produced in direct-fire field stills. In every case, the oil is aerated for several days to improve its fragrance. Rose water is a by-product of the distillation process, being the remaining water obtained when the oil has been recovered from the distillates.
In Bulgaria, Turkey and Morocco, roses are also used to produce important quantities of concrete. The concrete is obtained by a cold extraction of fresh blossoms with hexane. Since rose concrete is only partly soluble in alcohol, it is later refined by an alcoholic extraction to get the absolute. 350 kg of flowers are needed to produce 1 kg of concrete, which explains why concrete is less expensive than oil, and 1 kg of concrete gives 0.65 kg of absolute.

Rose oil is a pale yellow liquid which congeals around 20°C and is alcohol soluble. More than 140 molecules have been found in rose oil. Its main components are alcohols: citronellol, geraniol and nerol. Rose oil also contains terpenes, aldehydes, esters and oxydes. Numerous minor components nevertheless contribute significantly to the richness and complexity of its fragrance, such as ß-damascenone.
Most molecules of the rose oil can be isolated from other oils or synthesized, and good analytical reconstitutes may be found on the market, although the fine odor of the authentic rose oil has never been matched yet. Adulteration is often done by adding to rose oil its synthesized components in the same proportion. Given the high price of rose oil, a buyer should pay special attention to its authenticity. Fraud may be easily discovered, but sometimes very good equipment and above all great experience are needed to detect it.
Rose absolute contains the same components, though in different proportions. It contains 40% of phenyl-alcohol, which is only found at 2% in the oil, since this alcohol is water-soluble.