Evaluation of the Valuable Oxygenated Components in Iranian Rose Water

Rose water is one of the most important products obtained from Rosa genus (Rosaceae). Although Iran is one of the main producers of rose water, limited research has been done on it. A simple distillation and a Clevenger-type apparatus were used to obtain rose water and rose oil. All the volatile concentrates were investigated for their chemical composition by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Volatile concentrates from three commercial samples of rose water, purchased from the local market, were also studied. The major component of laboratory prepared and commercial rose water samples was found to be phenylethyl alcohol (45.1%-85.4%), while aliphatic hydrocarbons were identified as the main constituents of the oily phase of rose water extracted by simple hydrodistillation and Clevenger-type distillation method (49.1%, 60.3%). Our results showed that the volatile obtained from the oily phase had lower economic value than rose water.