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OIL OF ROSES |
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Just as plants manufacture sap and chlorophyll, so do they make essential oils; these give flavour and scent and are found in the bloom, fruit, seeds, stem, root, bark, and leaf. We use
them from the leaf in tobacco and eucalyptus, the bark in cinnamon and turpentine, the root in ginger and gentian, the stem in myrrh and quassia, the seeds in mustard and nutmeg, the fruit in pepper and anise, and the bloom in roses, violets, lavender, daphne, and the like.
Essential, or volatile, oils are highly aromatic, and sufficiently soluble in water to impart their odour and taste to it. In flowers they are mainly in the petals; there is a little in the pollen and stamens. They volatilize quickly and easily. Tiny particles are released under the influence of moisture, sun, light, changes of temperature, and maturity of the bloom. Some varieties of roses make more of these oils than others, and they differ slightly in composition; hence the variations in intensity and type of fragrance. Usually, the double roses hold their fragrance longer because more of the petal surfaces are hidden and the oil volatilizes more slowly. As a bloom unfolds and exposes its pistil and stamens to insects for pollination, it not only increases its attractiveness by more fully displaying its colourful petals, but it becomes more strongly perfumed. Even indoors, roses increase their scent as they open. Blooms displayed on show benches have usually lost a great proportion of their fragrance, due to being kept in cool rooms and to being sprayed with water. The fragrance of R. damascena (Plate 63) remains the most favoured. It is the sweetest and heaviest of all rose scents, and it is from this old rose that both the ancient and modern perfume manufacturers derive their essential oil, known as oil of roses, or attar of roses; the two names are synonymous. It is commonly called "old rose" perfume. Many thousands of plants of R. damascena are grown in Bulgaria and India for the production of perfume, and a big industry has developed. One ton of petals of R. damascena will yield less than one and a quarter pounds of essential oil. The same weight of petals will give the following weights of rose oil from these varieties: Talisman 0.59 lb., Aroma 0.57 lb., Etoile de Hollande 0.51 lb., Briarcliff 0.42 lb., and Radiance 0.40 lb.; hence the great preference for R. dcmascena for perfumery. It takes nearly a million blooms of R. damascena to provide a ton of petals. To make one ounce of attar of roses about sixty thousand blooms are needed. Rose petals are commonly used in and comprise the great bulk of .potpourri, made either commercially or at home. |
