Rose oil
Rose oil is an essential oil which is extracted by steam distillation from the petals of roses. The flowers used for oil extraction are mainly cultivated in Bulgaria ( Rosental ), France, Morocco and Turkey and picked by hand.
History
Before the steam distillation of rose oil was obtained by extraction of the flowers by means of fatty oils. The Greek Theophrastus (370 BC ) described the production of rose oil with sesame oil. Rose oil was then added to the wine. From Pliny recorded that the Romans scented their food as well as their body with rose oil. The findings on the distillation of rose oil came from Persia. Baghdad was already in the year 810 from the province Faristan about 30,000 bottles of rose water. The knowledge of the distillation of rose oil reached Europe around 1000 AD
In the 17th century, the rose cultivation stretched from Persia to India, North Africa and Turkey from. In 1710 the cultivation of roses in Bulgaria began, 200 km east of Sofia in Kazanlak. Since 1750 to the present day is the region between Kazanlak and Karlovo the most important producing region for the production of rose oil ( Valley of Roses ). Beginning of the 20th century, there were still about 2800 in Bulgaria Kleindestillierbetriebe for rose oil with steam vessels for about 1-10 tons of flowers.
The center of the Turkish rose cultivation is between Burdur and Isparta in southwest Turkey.
In Morocco, the rose oil production began shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War in El- Kelâa M'Gouna.
1938, the annual world production of natural rose oil was still at 3 tons annually. 1955, 700 kg in the early 1980 between 1-2 tonnes per year. In Bulgaria, the production in 2003 was at about 900 kg.
Production, costs and use
Rose oil is obtained mainly from the following types of roses:
- Rosa centifolia
- Rosa damascena
Less important are the types of roses from Rosa alba and Rosa gallica. The yield is low: only 0.02 to 0.05%. For three tons of flowers about a liter of rose oil is distilled.
Rose oil is therefore one of the most expensive essential oils. In a kilogram wholesale genuine Bulgarian rose oil ( pink damascens ) over 5000 €, one kilograms Turkish rose oil costs about 3000 €. Even inexpensive synthetic snares of rose oil are commercially available. Nature-identical replicas can cost 60-70 € per kg and are very close to the fragrance of real rose oil - this does not reach. Not identical to natural, synthetic replicas are much cheaper but the scent her less appealing.
Rose oil is used for precious perfumes used (eg, Chanel № 5 ), in an air-freshener fragrance lamps, in aromatherapy, sometimes for perfuming of sugar, chocolate, tobacco and liquors. In perfumery is Rose, next to Jasmine, the scent of flowers most often used.
Chemical ingredients
Rose oil of Rosa damascena
90106-38-0
The Bulgarian rose oil is a yellow to greenish liquid, with the following for quality testing physical and chemical properties: density 0.848 to 0.861, refractive index 1.4530 to 1.4640, solidifies at about 16.5 to 23.5 ° C, acid number 0 0.92 to 3, 75, ester number from 7.2 to 17.1, 8.0 to 21.0 saponification. The main ingredients are 34-55 % ( -)- citronellol, geraniol and nerol 30-40 %, in small traces linalool, farnesol, citral, 2-phenylethanol, carvone, rhodinol, nonylaldehyde are also available. Overall, contained in natural rose oil at least 350 compounds. The Bulgarian rose oil contains traces of the compounds Damescenon and rose oxide, these give the Bulgarian rose oil special touch.
Chemical major constituent of rose oil is 2-phenylethanol. Wherein the steam distillation is 2-phenylethanol as a result of its good solubility in water almost completely into the aqueous phase. Therefore rose water contains a lot of 2-phenylethanol.