Comparison of two famous oil producing Rosa species

Pakistan is growing roses before its independence according to the rose growers. At its early times demand of roses was very low because a few farmers were growing them. As much of the population and farmers were uneducated and living in the villages who did not give importance to roses. Their main focus was on the other crop like wheat, rice, cotton, sugarcane etc. At that time roses were mostly used on graveyards, marriage ceremonies, making gulkand (Rose jam) and rose water. From last few years its use has increased along with its area. University of Agriculture, Faisalabad played an important role in creating awareness among farmers and local people about roses and did extensive research work on different aspect of roses.

Oil bearing Rosa species (Rosa centifolia and Rosa damascena) are very famous among farmers in Pakistan. Among these species more area is under R. centifolia because it produces flowers though out the year, while R. damascena produces only one or two months of the year. Our research has been proved that R. centifolia can produce flowers at higher temperature (40-450C) when R. damascena stop flowering. This silent feature has made R. centifolia famous among farmers and companies to start a successful business with roses in Pakistan. But in the world R. damascena is more famous than R. centifolia. To study the quality of oil of these two species an extensive research work has done in Rosa project, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. Different components found in rose oil were citronellol, methyl eugenol, geraniol, geranyl acetate, phenyl ethyl alcohol, linalool, benzaldehyde, nerol, benzyl alcohol, rhodinyl acetate, citronellyl acetate and benzyl acetate. It has been resulted that R. damascena yielded more quantity of pale yellow oil as compared to yellowish brown oil of R. centifolia. The oil of R. damascena has higher specific gravity and optical rotation than R. centifolia. Higher optical rotation contributes to higher citronellol contents in oil. It also contains higher level of methyl eugenol and ester number. The higher ester number means strong fragrance of the oil. Our research has proved that in case of quality of R. damascena is better than R. centifolia but limiting time of flowering is main barrier in expanding its area.

Now more farmers are coming towards the R. centifolia to start commercial essential oil extraction business in Pakistan. According to a successful farmer who is growing and selling cuttings and flowers of R. centifolia from many years ‘number of companies and farmers who are purchasing material of R. centifolia from him has increased 4-5 times from last two years.
There is a need to explore the potential of R. centifolia found in Pakistan by focusing on following points.
1. Using of R. centifolia in breeding programmes to develop new varieties with such useful characters
2. Educating farmers to involve in this business
3. Establishing effective oil extraction plants
4. Establishing an efficient market
5. Involvement of national and international companies in this business
6. Use of cold transport system
7. Government incentives to start effective rose oil extraction business in the country

For more information:
University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan
Institute of Horticultural Sciences
Dr. Gulzar Akhtar, HEC Ph.D Scholar
M: +92 321 6211912
Email: Gulzar_butt1849yahoo.com