4,000 kilograms of fresh rose petals

Did you know that to produce 1 kilogram of essential oil of roses, as much as 4,000 kilograms of fresh rose petals are needed?

Normally about 70 kilograms of plant material go to make up 1 kilo of essential oils). So this explains why Rose Oil may seem a little expensive!

Rose Options: vedaroma.eu/catalogsearch/result/?q=rose

Vedaroma Rose Oil is produced in two different ways–VedAroma Rose Absolute uses the method of Solvent extraction;

VedAroma Rose Distilled uses an even more refined type of Distillation called hydrodistillation.

The process of ‘solvent extraction’ results in what is known as an ‘absolute’. it’s a method that’s widely used to extract oils from fragile flowers like rose, jasmine, champaca and tuberose. The petals are covered in hydrocarbon solvents (like a good dry cleaner might use!)  and slowly heated to dissolve the aromatic molecules.

The solvent extracts the fragrance and is then gently filtered off, leaving behind a thick viscous, coloured liquid known  as an ‘absolute’. But a trace of the solvent will always remain which is why an absolute cannot be quite as pure as an essential oil which has been extracted by steam distillation.

Very many Essential Oils are produced through the method of Steam distillation.  Steam passes through the plant material and evaporates the oils.

The steam condenses and separates into the essential oil and the delightful floral waters or hydrolates,  but rose petals are too delicate to be directly exposed to steam, so an even finer method is used called hydrodistillation– a system more like a bain marie where the petals float on water and are never actually touched by the steam.