Did you know...? About Rose oil

[Guest guest]

Thank you so much for this information. The company I get my oils from

gives us a lot of this kind of information, and it's great to have it

confirmed from outside sources. So, what else do you have to share!!!!!

:):)

 

Lynn

 

-

Jonas Erelis <ishmintingas

< >

Thursday, October 21, 1999 2:52 PM

[aromaexchange] Did you know...? About Rose oil

[Guest guest]

It takes about 20,000 pounds of rose flowers to produce

only 2.2 pounds (1 kg) of absolute (pure) rose oil. Pure

" otto " of roses is so expensive that one little dram can

cost $300.00. Should you splurge and get some? You might

be in for a surprise!

 

True jasmine, or myrrh, or rose oil in absolute form are

not really particularly appealing fragrances. Up to ten

thousand pounds of rose petals are " condensed " into an

ounce or less to product attar of rose. Besides being

prohibitively expensive for the average consumer, the scent

which results from such high compression, is exaggerated,

and actually smells little like a rose in a garden.

 

Attar of rose contains a fairly high concentration of

various chemicals as its natural composition. It may

contain up to 7 or 8 percent citronellol. The unskilled

person may smell even the very highest grades of rose

attar, and imagine that it has been cut with citronella

oil, when it fact, that is the true natural scent of attar

of rose.

 

So the oils sold under the name of " Rose Oil " by a

high-quality supplier like the Attar Bazaar, for example,

are not strictly speaking only that floral oil.

Rather they are blends containing that oil as the primary

ingredient, but enhanced in tone and intensity by addition

of other oils in various quantities.

 

There are perhaps 200 species of rose used in manufacturing

of perfumer's raw materials. The first difficulty is to

'type' the rose, which means to determine precisely which

rose, or rose species were used it in the manufacturing

process. Few if any manufacturers will reveal specific

ingredient information to a lay person, because their

blends are closely guarded secrets, and disclosure is not

required by any regulatory agency.

 

But let us assume that we were dealing with an oil composed

of a single substance, just one rose, a common one, Rosa

augustifolia. We would first have to study the research

literature for this species, to determine what the

naturally occurring ingredients of the rose are, and their

quantities. Once we had this information, we would learn

that rose commonly has seven or eight different chemical

constituents-such as hydrocarbons, eleoptene, rhodinol,

citronellol and others. Some of these substances will

oxidize into other components, so it would depend on how

old the floral was at the time of extraction of the

essential oil. Moreover, some of these ingredients would,

if they had been added as dilutants or adulterants, be

undesirable.

 

Pure attar of rose may contain up to 8 percent natural

alcohol, and even higher concentrations of citronellol --

both of which can override the natural rose scent.

 

This is just a little bit of the very complex information I

have been finding out about what really goes into attars.

 

 

=====

menuo sauluZe vede

pirma pavasareli

 

The Moon married the Sun

In the first springtime

[Guest guest]

Thank you Dr. Erelis <g> for the chemistry lesson. All kidding aside, I

knew this was a complicated subject, but I wasn't really sure how

complicated. And from the way you wrote this, it sounds like you only

scratched the surface. I'll treat my little bottle of rosa otto with a

whole lot more respect.

Seriously, thank you.

Jason

 

Jonas Erelis wrote:

>

> Jonas Erelis <ishmintingas

>

> It takes about 20,000 pounds of rose flowers to produce

> only 2.2 pounds (1 kg) of absolute (pure) rose oil....