June is the time for the traditional ritual of rose petal picking in the Valley of Roses. Rose petals are collected at dawn, before the flowers have blossomed. It is believed that at that time of day the concentration of rose oil is at its highest. A little before sunrise, the rose-pickers enter the rose fields singing and jesting, and begin picking the fragile rose petals in their straw baskets. Visitors to the region are invited to join in, and become part of the magic of this ritual, which has become a means of livelihood for the local population.

 

 

Rose essential oil, or so-called "rose otto," is produced by a water distillation process in copper stills. Yields can differ depending on the quality of flowers and the method of distillation: it may take 3,000 to 5,000 kg of flowers (more than one million flowers!) to produce 1 kg of rose oil. A collector usually gathers 25 kg of blossoms a day. It is thus not difficult to understand why genuine rose oil is so expensive.

Rose water is a by-product of the distillation process, being the remaining water obtained when the oil has been recovered from the distillates.


Roses are also used to produce important quantities of concrete. The concrete is obtained by a cold extraction of fresh blossoms with hexane. Since rose concrete is only partly soluble in alcohol, it is later refined by an alcoholic extraction to get the absolute. 350 kg of flowers are needed to produce 1 kg of concrete, which explains why concrete is less expensive than the rose essential oil, and 1 kg of concrete gives 0.65 kg of absolute.

Rose essential oil is a pale yellow liquid which congeals around 20°C and is alcohol soluble. More than 140 molecules have been found in rose oil. Its main components are alcohols: citronellol, geraniol and nerol. Rose essential oil also contains terpenes, aldehydes, esters and oxydes. Numerous minor components nevertheless contribute significantly to the richness and complexity of its fragrance, such as ß-damascenone.

Rose Essential Oil
 

Most molecules of the rose oil can be isolated from other oils or synthesized, and good analytical reconstitutes may be found on the market, although the fine odor of the authentic rose essential oil has never been matched yet. Adulteration is often done by adding to rose oil its synthesized components in the same proportion. Given the high price of rose oil, a buyer should pay special attention to its authenticity. Fraud may be easily discovered, but sometimes very good equipment and above all great experience are needed to detect it.

Rose essential oil is produced from Rosa Damascena, which is the species cultivated to produce rose oil for the fragrance industry. Rosa Damascena cannot be cultivated everywhere as it needs a gentle temperature and a humid air during the flowering time to get a good yield of oil. That is why this rose is mainly grown under temperate climates, usually at an altitude between 300m and 1200m.


Rosa Damascena

When cultivated in fields, rose bushes are planted in parallel rows laid out 2 meters apart, from seedlings grown in glasshouses during winter. The first crop of roses may be collected after 2 years of plantation. It will take five years before the crop reaches its maximum. Then a well managed field may produce more than 7 tons of flowers a year per hectare. A field may last up to 20 years, depending on the care given to the rose bushes.

Climate directly influences the crop and the yield of oil. Therefore, the production can vary considerably from one year to the other, depending on the weather conditions during spring time.

 

Bulgarians are so fond of their roses,
they prepare even Rose Jam!