Botanical Name: Rosa Centifolia

Origin: Morocco

There are currently over 30’000 cultivated varieties of Rose in existence and it has the most complex family tree of any known flower species. History suggests Roses where initially cultivated around 5000 years ago in Asia, true or not Roses are now cultivated worldwide.

The big producers of Rose Oil are Bulgaria, Turkey and Morocco. Of the cultivated varieties of roses, rosa damascena, because of its hardiness and prolific yield of flowers, is the supreme variety for oil production. It does not occur wild. Rose Oil is produced both as an Essential Oil (distillation) and as an Absolute (solvent extraction). The two products differ considerably largely because phenyl ethyl alcohol which is one of the constituents responsible for the fragrance is soluble in water and therefore is hardly present at all in Rose Otto Essential Oil. This results in Rose Absolute having a more potent Rose aroma.

They used to be concerns that some of the solvent remained in Rose Absolute. These days though, extraction by carbon dioxide or hexane is extremely sophisticated and the possibility of solvent residue is not an issue. Absolutes dissolve in alcohol and fixed oils but not in water.

The Rose is steeped in history and my favorite story is regarding Greek mythology which tells us that it was Aphrodite who gave the rose its name, but it was the goddess of flowers, Chloris, who created it. One day while Chloris was cleaning in the forest she is said to have found the lifeless body of a beautiful nymph. To right this wrong Chloris enlisted the help of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who gave her beauty; then called upon Dionysus, the god of wine, who added nectar to give her a sweet scent. When it was their turn the three Graces gave Chloris charm, brightness and joy. Then Zephyr, the West Wind, blew away the clouds so that Apollo, the sun god, could shine and make the flower bloom. And so the Rose was born. In another story, an ancient Hindu legend, the supposed creator of the world ‘Brahma’ and Vishnu (the protector of the world) argued over whether the lotus was more beautiful than the rose. Vishnu backed the rose, while Brahma supported the lotus. But Brahma had never seen a rose before and when he did he immediately recanted. As a reward Brahma created a bride for Vishnu and called her Lakshmi - she was created from 108 large and 1008 small rose petals.