Hidden Treasures of Roses
Dr. Rashid Hussain1, Dr. Zahoor Hussain2, Muhammad Ali3
(Horticulture-IUB Bahawalpur1, CA UOS2, BZU Multan3)
Rose is king of flowers. Roses are most important ornamental plants which are raised for flower production on commercial scale and for beautification. Usually they are well renowned for their esthetic gratification. These are also used for making perfumes and to get cut flower crops on commercial scale. Some roses are used as landscape plants, for hedging and for other useful purposes such as game cover and slope stabilization. They also have minor medicinal uses too.
Rose oil and Rose water:
Attar is a combination of unstable attained by steam distilling the crumpled petals of roses. For cooking a related product is used. Roses are also used in make-ups, drugs and religious practices. in other parts of the world is generally used. The color of oil is transparent light yellow. Weight of the oil extracted is around to produce one gram of oil two thousand flowers are required. Rose camphor, scented alcohols geraniol odorless solid composed of alkanes are the chief elements of attar (rose oil).
Food and drink.
Rose hip:
Rose-hips are rarely made into, jelly, jam, soup and marmalade, or are prepared for tea, mostly for higher concentration of vitamin “C”. Rose hip syrup is prepared through pressed and filtered rose hips. which is used in cosmetics and some skin products is also produced from rose hips.
Rose water:
Rose water has a typical flavor and used profoundly in particularly in different sweets like Nougat, Baklava, Barfi, Gumdrops, Gulab Jamun, Halva .
Rose petals or flower buds
Rose petals or flower buds are combined with other herbs to make herbal teas and occasionally used to flavor ordinary tea.
Rose Syrup
The extract of rose petal is used to make rose syrup. A concentrated squash made of roses normally known as Rooh_Afza is popular as rose flavored icy dessert called as Cone and Kulfi in subcontinent.
Rose flowers:
These are used in food; its key purpose is to add their scent to food also used in flavoring. Their minor use includes candied rose petals.
Rose creams:
Rose-flavored fondant are often topped with a crystallized rose petals which are covered in chocolate.
Medicine:
Rose hip is generally used as a little source of vitamin C. Significant levels of vitamins are present in many species of fruits and are being used as a food supplement. Use of many roses have been seen in several herbal and folk medicines.
Rosa chinensis:
In Chinese traditional medicines rose chinensis is being used since very long duration. In pre-modern medicine for investigating for controlling cancer growth and for the cure of stomach problems, rose chinensis and other species are being used.
Diarrhodo:
Compounds in which red roses are used are known as diarrhodo.
Benefits of Rose Essential Oil
Throughout the history attar is being used in the older art of aromatherapy as an alleviating tonic and mood refreshing supplement. Amusingly, rose petals contain less oil in them, due to these thousand pounds of rose petals are used to extract only one ounce of rose essential oil. It depends on the variety of plant being used for this purpose. Because of these factors attar is expensive. However, price of this oil does not affect its demand, still it is one of the most valuable and popular essential oil.
Antidepressant
Aromatherapists frequently recommends rose essential oil because it has mood refreshing and antidepression properties. It is used to relax the nervous system, calm the nerves and used as a tonic to reduce the signs of depression. Only the fragrance of attar can provide relaxation from depressive symptoms. Attar is used in baths, aromatherapy healers to cheer up the mood during stressful and depressive situations. Attar is also used in massage therapy to relieve depression and fatigue.
Aphrodisiac
Attar is used as an aphrodisiac. It is used in contemporary art of aromatherapy and in Ayurvedic treatments to stimulate the eroticism. Rose is notion to increase gentleness, emotions of love and affection.Page Break
Bactericide
Rose essential oil has acetic, germ-free, antibacterial and aseptic properties, that’s why it is useful in cleaning and treating minor cuts and scars. Farnesol, that kills germs and helps in generating new skin. Attar is used in skin care products and treatments to fight against bacterial conditions such as skin patches and acne. It assistances to prevent pimples and scars by alleviating the intensity of explosion. It is very useful for sensitive skin. Attar is generally safe for all types of skin and has no allergic side effects.
Garden Roses:
People produce thousands of rose cultivars in their gardens and farms. To describe the diverse types the names that are being used, often relates to one species, that is the main predecessor of the group, such as, Gallica roses are usually dropped from Rosa gallica. Other groups have some recognizable species among their antecedent. Now a day, Floribunda roses, English roses and Hybrid Tea roses are common in gardens. These roses have many colors like pink, purple, red, yellow, orange and so on. There are diverse types of roses centifolia, climbing roses, English roses, gallica, Hybrid Musk roses, Modern shrub roses, Alba roses, China roses, Damask roses, Floribunda roses, Hybrid Bracteata roses, Moss rosses, Bourbon roses, Miniature roses etc.
Products of Roses:
- Potpourri
- Attar (Attar)
- Rose water
Rose Water:
The word ‘Rose’ itself brings a fragrance and freshness in our minds. It is problematic to find someone who does not like roses and did not touch the beauty and aroma of roses ever. A single flower, with many colors, can be used to express our emotions and feelings without uttering a single word.
Manufacturing of Ros Water:
Rose water is natural element, that is magical for skin. Rose water has refreshing benefits and cool fragrance that’s why it is used in different cosmetic products.
Following are the steps used in the making of rose water:
- Early in the morning, after sunshine, pick some fresh rose petals.
- Rinse the rose petals with clean water.
- Place these rose petals in a large bowl of purified water.
- Dip the petals in to water properly and cover the bowl with lid.
- Boil the petals in low flame.
- Let the water boil until the water has the color of rose petals.
- Separate the petals from water, leave them till they get cool and store them in a pot.
Roses water always played a vital role in the beauty regime of men and women. It smells like fresh roses and looks like pure water. It has many health benefits. Historically rose water has been used in numerous rituals etc. In olden days, several people used rose water in their spiritual ceremonies and traditions. 3000 years ago, Cleopatra was fond of use attar as an erotic some. She always took bath in milk and rose water. It is trusted that old people like Babylonia were used to use rose water in their spiritual rituals and medicines, in India, rose water was used in kingly meals for the Noble family. Antique Rome used this water owing to its hygienic and antiseptic features. They used rose water to wash hands and in baths. At the time of middle ages, rose water was also used to reduce fatigue and depressive conditions. Even presently rose water has many health benefits.
Benefits of rose water:
Rose oil:
Attar is extracted from the petals of roses. Rose oils are extracted through steam distillation, while rose absolute are obtained through solvent extraction or CO2 extraction. Absolute is used usually in perfume industry. Alongside the soaring prices and availability of synthetic organic based oils. Attars are widely used as an essential oil in perfume manufacturing.
As it requires labor-intensive production process and oil contents are very low in the rose blooms, it demands high price. Harvesting of flowers is done by hand in the morning before sun rise and the same day the material is distilled.
There are three main methods of extracting the oil from plant material.
- By Steam Distillation:
That delivers an oil called rose attar.
- By Solvent Extraction:
That provides an oil named rose absolute.
- By Supercritical CO2 extraction:
Yielding an essential oil that may be marketed as either an absolute or a carbon dioxide extract.
Benefits of Rose Petals:
Rose petals are composed of 95% of water. Petals are nutritious and healthy, rose petals have limited Nutritional value because calorie count is low. Rose petals have vitamin C content but it’s less than found in rose hips, the fruit of the rose that appear after the flowers drop.
Economic Importance of Rose:
Plants of rosacea family give numerous flowers and fruits that have huge significance economically. These fruits, flowers and other products, extracted from this plant family, favors a broad variety of farms, companies, employees, firms and industries.
The rose family has broad variety of flowering plants. These plants are identified by the flowers having five different petals many stamens that come through a cup-like base. Decorative roses have 2800 species. Rose family is the third huge plant family in the world. That is very significant for any economy. Everyone respect roses for their fragrance and loveliness. Commercial growers grow tens of thousands of acres of roses to meet the huge demand of attar, rose water, cut roses and bushes. To grow broad variety of roses substantial number of work force is required because they need spraying, harvesting, fertilizing, pruning etc. Most of which is manual work. That’s why rose cultivation yields jobs to workers in the fields of marketing, production, farming, retail outlets, sales industries. Internationally, cut floral industry surpass 40 billion dollars every year.
Health Benefits of Roses:
Juliet in Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet, says “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” that is very true about the ‘Rose’ that has attracted people’s hearts, emotions and minds from the ages. However, the genuine worth of rose has proved due to its significant use in medicine and health.
Rose has thorns, woody plant of its family. Roses have more than one hundred species. Which includes showing flowers in many distinct colors. Roses are implanted in Asia. But also cultivated in North America, Europe and North Africa.
Medicinal use of Rose Flower:
There are many medicinal uses and health benefits of its flower. Attar is made of rose petals that includes steam distillation of petals. The byproduct of attar extraction process is rose water, that is a wonderful soothing agent, relaxes stress and use as a flavor in different dishes of the world. Rose substance is full of flavonoids, extracts, vitamin A, B3, C, D and E, that makes it beneficial for skin. Rose water is a very valuable tonic that diminishes the swelling of veins underneath the skin. It is effective in cleaning the liver and gall bladder and it aids to improve malice discharge. To make tea, rose petals are distilled and crushed. Rose Tea also helps to relieve bacterial throat infections. In the condition of fever and rashes, rose tea cools down the body and reduces infections. It is also beneficial for hair growth improvement. It nourishes the scalp and makes hair healthy. It is used as an antibacterial, aseptic, hygienic and antiseptic invention in medicines. It is also very useful for dry skin, eruptions and eczema. Its oil can be used with different oils like grape fruit or almond oil to relieve numerous diseases such as asthma, liver problems, fatigue, depression, nausea, ulcer, germs infections in stomach, hemorrhage, urinary tract and dehydration. From the Persian variety, rose water is prepared by using rose leaves. The rose water that is extracted from rose leaves is used to calm nerves, clean blood and relieve constipation. It is also used to treat the disease of chicken pox and measles. Rose water or attar has no side effects. It is decent to seek advice before using any product for treatment.
- For Skin Beauty:
Rose water use for skin beauty is popular men and women. It comes with broad variety for skin benefits. It purifies as well as protect the skin from bacterial infections. It is usually used as radiant skin toner as it tones and removes oil, makeup and dirt from the skin. It heals Sunburn and different wounds. It inspires blood circulation, broken capillaries and reduces thread veins. It maintains the pH balance of skin surface. It offers calming effect on acne and eczema.
- For Hair Beauty:
Rose water strengthens blood circulation and supports hair development. Likewise; it is used as conditioners to refresh hair, controlling dandruff and inflammation. It recovers scalp and hair health, makes them strong and flexible with reduction in hair breakage.
- Improvement of Eyes Vision:
Rose water is very obliging in comforting exhausted and fatigued eyes. It is finest for extensive computer users. Applying rose water to eyes conveys a sparkle to the eyes imparting stunning and healthy look.
- For Teeth Treatment:
Rose Water helps to cure diverse types of dental problems. It offers strengthening and reliefs from gum pains and inflammation problems. It removes unpleasant odor and foul breath, it is the best mouth freshener specially for those who have odor problem thus; fresh breath anytime.
There was also rose project started in University of Agriculture Faisalabad which made more progress for extraction of local and exotic cultivars of roses. But there is urgent need to boost up this work for nation. So, government should focus on this valuable work which can enhance our economy as flower marked is not established in our country so making rose and other flower oils could be a great step.
