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Abstract
An experiment was conducted to study the influence of flower to water ratio and distillation time of damask rose (Rosa damascena Mill.) flowers on essential oil content and composition in the western Himalayas. Essential oil was produced by hydrodistillation extraction method using a Clevenger-type apparatus. The experiment consists of 12 treatments; four flower to water ratios (1:2, 1:3, 1:4 and 1:5) and three distillation time (3, 4 and 5 h). We hypothesized that the chemical constituents of damask rose essential oil are eluted at different times during the hydrodistillation process and vary with flower to water ratios, resulting in oils with different composition. The compositions of the essential oils were characterized by GC–MS. A total of 25 compounds were identified, constituting over 89.1 ± 1.3% to 96.2 ± 2.3% of oil composition. Flower to water ratio influenced the essential oil content and significantly higher rose oil was recorded by 1:2 flower to water ratio (0.051%). Distillation time did not significantly affect the essential oil content. Distillation of flowers in 1:2 ratio for 3 h recorded the highest citronellol + nerol content (41.1 ± 0.2%) as compared to other treatments.
Acknowledgements
Authors are grateful to the Director, CSIR-IHBT, Palampur, India for providing necessary facilities during the study period. The authors are thankful to Mrs. Vijaylata Pathania, technical assistant for chemical analysis. Authors are also grateful to Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, India for financial assistance under the CSIR network project BSC0110. This is IHBT Publication No. 3872.