The Amazing Rose

Is that really an amazing fragrance ?

Yes, It is really an amazing one. Highly prized in the ancient world, A fragrance without roses is almost unthinkable. These beautiful, fragrant blooms symbolized ethereal beauty and passion and were sacred to, goddesses of love in the Greek and Roman civilizations. Roses have been spreading their fragrances around for thousands of years.

The Rose on the history

Rose oil obtained from steam distillation of flowers of Rose species (family Rosaceae) is one of the costliest and sweetest fragrant material know to the world from the ancient times.

The oldest records of production of rose water are found in the writing of lbn-Khaldun. According to him the province of Faristan in Iran supplied 30,000 bottles of rose water to the Caliph of Baghdad between 810-817 A.D.

It indicates that probably the production of rose water started in Iran some where in 8th century. By the turn of 1600 the rose oil distillation was developed in Shiraz and rose oil was called “Attar” which is an Arabic word. From Iran the art of distillation of rose spread to Turkey, Bulgaria and India.

Between 1700 and 1800A.D. The rose oil industry developed simultaneously both in Turkey and Bulgaria. The species grown in the countries was damask rose (Rosa domascena). In India the damask rose was brought by Mughal in the 11th century and rose oil distillation has been done since 16thcentury.