Although this essential oil may not sell as much as lavender oil, partly due to the cost, it is one of the best all-purpose oils to have around. It not only fights depression, grief, anger and fear, but looks after your heart and digestive system, while being the most wonderful remedy for female problems and one of the best oils to use on the skin.
Oil properties
Damask rose oil has a deep, rosy, fresh aroma, the color ranges from clear to a pale yellow or greenish tint.
Origin of rose oil
'Rosa' comes from the Greek 'roden' meaning 'red', as the ancient rose was thought to have been crimson.
Anicenna, the 10th century Persian physician, used the rose as his first plant to distill and a rose distillery existed in 1612 in Shiraz, Persia.
Rose petals were scattered at weddings to ensure a happy marriage and are still a symbol of love and purity and are also used to aid meditation and prayer.
It takes about 60,000 roses (about 180 lb) to make one ounce ( 29.57 ml) of rose otto - or to put in a different way 40,000 kilograms to make 1 liter of rose otto.
Extraction
Rose otto oil is extracted from the fresh flowers, picked before 8 am in the morning, by steam distillation and the yield is 0.02 -0.05 %. The heat used in the distillation process is carefully controlled, as the aroma can be damaged if the heat is too high.
Chemical composition
The chemical composition of rose oil is one of the most complex and contains more than 300 known compounds, yet the main chemical components of rose oil can be listed as -citronellol, phenyl ethanol, geraniol, nerol, farnesol and stearpoten with traces of nonanol, linalool, nonanal, phenyl acetaldehyde, citral, carvone, citronellyl acetate, 2-phenylmenthyl acetate, methyl eugenol, eugenol and rose oxide.
Precautions
Damask rose oil is non-toxic, non-irritant and non-sensitizing but should not be used during pregnancy.
Therapeutic properties
The therapeutic properties of damask rose oil are antidepressant, antiphlogisti