Comparative Survey on Chemical Composition of the First and the Second Essential Oils of Rosa damascena Mill. in Different Locations in Iran

Background: Roses have been used since ancient time in rituals, cosmetics, perfumes, medicines and aromatherapy. Turkey, the main rose oil producer in the world, uses R. damascena Mill. for rose oil production. Objective: In this work a comparative survey on chemical composition of essential oils of Rosa damscena Mill. from different locations of Iran has been proposed in industrial scales. Methods: Essential oils from Rosa damscena Mill. was obtained by hydrodistillation. The extracts were analyzed by capillary gas chromatography, using flame ionization (GC/FID) and capillary gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS) respectively for detection and identification of the extracted compounds. Results: According to the results, for roses from Iran, citronellol was the main component with accounting for Kashan 27.6%, Bardsir 41.2%, Mehdyabad 38.4%, and Lalehzar 41.6%. It was compared with other countries such as Turkish 32.0%, Bulgaria 32.0% and India 40.0%.  Conclusion: The results showed that the monoterpene citronellol is the main component of the second essential oils of R. damascene from Iran, which is present in remarkably high amounts in the oil of Kerman and Kashan.