Rose Otto Essential Oil

Rose otto is the beautifully fragrant essential oil extracted from the species Rosa damascena, and it holds a special place in the hearts of all who love aromatherapy and natural perfumery. There is quite simply, no other essential oil quite like it in terms of fragrance and wealth of therapeutic healing benefits.

See Quinessence Bulgarian Rose Otto essential oil.

In Bulgaria, the rose blossoms begin to bloom around the third week of May and will continue for three or four weeks, depending upon climatic conditions. The yield of oil can be dramatically affected by the prevailing weather conditions - for example during very hot and dry weather the harvest may last only two weeks and the yield of the oil is lowered due to loss by evaporation. Conversely, during mild and humid weather the harvest time can be extended whilst at the same time increasing the oil yield.

Time is of the essence

Under normal conditions, harvesting commences as soon as the flowers begin to open and continues until all the roses have been gathered. The flowers are still picked by hand, where they are nipped off just below the calyx (the green, outer protective cover). The flowers are gathered at daybreak and placed into baskets, and then transferred to sacks for transportation to the distilleries.

From the minute harvesting begins it becomes a race against time, for all flowers must be picked before 9.00 a.m. whilst the dew is still on the flowers and the sun is low. Once collected, the harvest is then transported to the distillery as quickly as possible since the picked flowers will begin to deteriorate immediately as precious volatile oil begins to evaporate due to the heat of the sun. This in turn of course will lower the yield of the crop and push up the price of production.

Method of extraction

Modern stills are made of copper and are heated with an open wood fire from below. The roses can not be distilled in the usual way by directly injecting steam, because the petals compact to form a large mass that the steam can not penetrate. Therefore the distillation techniques have been refined in various ways to overcome this problem.

During distillation a large amount of oil is absorbed into the distillation water, and this is known as the ‘First Water’. The rose oil must be recovered from this water to produce an acceptable yield, and this is achieved by skillfully re-distilling the water to separate the oil; a process known as cohobation.

On average, Rosa damascena will yield 1 kilo of oil per 4,000 kilos of flowers using modern distillation processes. Under very favourable conditions only 2,600 kilos of roses may be required to produce 1 kilo of oil, whereas under less favourable conditions up to 8,000 kilos of flowers may be required to produce the same amount of oil.

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