Turkish Rose Distillation Report - June 2000

[Guest guest]

i figured some of you may be interested to read this as it is about

the rose products we purchase )

*smile*

chris

 

Hi folks,

 

Following is a report from Martin Watt - Anya posted it to Idma a few

weeks ago .. perhaps some of you are not on Idma so it might be new

information ... one'a these days soon, I'll post a series of photos on

my website that will take folks from the Rose fields, through the Rose

harvest, to the stills and finally to where the drops of golden nectar

are collected. Y'all keep smiling, Butch

*********************************************************************

Sat, 05 Aug 2000 18:58:35 +0100

 

Martin Watt sent this to me a few days ago, apologies for the delay in

posting it. ***** Martin also send a great photo of rose petals being

dumped into a big copper still, if you would like to see that photo,

email me and I'll forward it. I highly recommend you visit Martin's

website, addy below. He's extremely knowledgeable about essential

oils,

a great debunker of AT mythology, and in the end, his writings may

help

AT get its act together, IMO.

--------------

You may find the attached on rose of interest in view of your

newsgroup

posting. It will be going on my web site as soon as I get the photos.

(Anya's note here -- I had posted about rosewater, Avicenna, etc.)

 

Below is a section from some of my course notes. Avicenna definitely

did not invent distillation, just one more aromatherapy myth I am

afraid. From what I have recently found it looks as if distillation

was

perfected by the Arabs to extract kerosene from crude oil. There is

mention of Baghdad being lit by kerosene lamps in the 700s and that

they

knew of the properties of natural crude oil pools for 2 thousand years

before that.

 

Martin Watt,

http://www.aromamedical.demon.co.uk

----

800-870 AD - Al-Kindi (pronounced al-Hindi) studied in Baghdad and

Basra, the centres of Arab excellence in the sciences. His father was

the governor of Basra, an important trading port and opposite India.

Scholars say one third of his materia medica is of Indian origin (as

is

probably his family). Even today, the Arabs call anyone looking

remotely as if they are from the Indian continent by the name " hindi " .

 

(Butch's note: Which is also the Turkish word for the bird - turkey.)

 

This lends weight to the theory that the Indus Valley civilisation

knew

about distillation.

 

His `Medical Formulary' was rediscovered in an Arab manuscript

depository in Turkey and the English translation published by an Arab

scholar in 1966. The book contains some wonderful formulas and it is

quite clear that distillation of essential oils had been perfected.

In

several of the formulas he mentions things like rose petals and rose

oil

in the same formula. He prescribed screw pine oil for earache, and

describes colophony being obtained from turpentine. They knew how to

produce naphtha from coal and possibly even fractional

crystallisation.

This is important, because it means they possessed the knowledge of

how

to separate and purify natural substances. All this suggests that the

Arabs simply revived, or improved on, the process of distillation,

rather than invented it as is often quoted.

 

Among several works Al-Kindi is known to have written, is a volume

called " The Book on Chemistry of Perfumes and Distillation " . This

book

apparently contains 107 recipes as well as preparations for the

adulteration of costly drugs, so even in those days they were at

it. A

copy of this important book has been located by Martin Watt, and at

the

time of writing is awaiting translation from the old Arabic dialect,

directly to English.

 

(Butch's note - we could NOT find anyone to translate that book. I

went

to all the sources in Turkey, including the older linguists and the

Saudi Embassy - it appears to be more of an ancient language than old

English...)

---------

Rose distillation in Turkey.

 

In June 2000 I was fortunate to see the whole of the Turkish rose oil

production cycle.

 

I had been invited there by Butch Owen, an American who has lived in

Turkey for 18 plus years. Since he speaks the

language like a native, he has direct contacts with growers, producers

and miscellaneous other important people. He is treated by them as an

old friend, which of course opened doors that might be closed to other

people.

 

The organisation that I was allowed to visit was Gulbirlik the State

owned and controlled co-operative. They have a large office,

laboratory

and cosmetics production building and on the same site they process

small amounts of rose concrete. They have 5 distillation plants in the

Isparta area (consisting of a total of 80 primary stills and 10

secondary stills). The roses come into those from the surrounding

small

farms.

 

It was interesting that the small family-owned farms did not have vast

fields of roses, but rather they had many small fields interspersed by

fields growing all kinds of other crops. Each farm seemed to have

just a

few rose fields making self distillation uneconomic. Hence the reason

for co-operative distillation facilities.

 

The rose bushes are about waist height making for easier picking. This

is mostly done by the women from the villages who are paid by weight

picked. The bushes are extremely prolific in flowers and the speed

that

the women can pluck them off the bushes is quite remarkable. These

bushes keep producing roses for a few weeks and so they are repicked

almost every day. It was interesting that the rose bushes are left in

the same location for 40 years or more, just adding animal manure as

fertiliser. They cut the bushes back annually and every 8 or 10 years,

they cut them to the ground.

 

The night before we arrived it had rained hard, so we thought

harvesting

might be postponed. However the following morning it was sunny and

they

picked the flowers as normal. We were told it just meant they had to

get

them to the still a bit quicker than normal to prevent fermentation

occurring.

 

Picking begins before the sun rises and stops around 11 A.M. Once

picked, the roses are put into sacks which are then taken by tractor

trailers or old farm trucks to the nearest distillation plant. Upon

arrival the sacks are quickly emptied into the 40 year old seasoned

copper stills. The first distillation is done in a range of about 8

large stills. Each takes 1500 kilos of water and 500 kilos of rose

petals.

 

This first distillation takes aboout an hour and three quarters and

produces a layer of thick brown rose extract around an inch deep in

the

glass flask. This material is so valuable that it is never sold. When

the first distillation is complete the distillation water is pumped to

the second distillation units. Here the cohabitation occurs for about

half an hour; the final result being rose hydrosol and the second rose

oil. Later, the first and second rose oils are blended to get the

final

product - rose otto.

 

As is common with distillation, the rosewater and oil do not smell too

good when fresh. The beautiful fragrance takes a few weeks to appear.

In the case of rose oil it can take a year or more to obtain its best

aroma and it continues to improve if stored properly.

 

The distillation plant is set above concrete channels in the floor.

These are where the waste still jacketing water and the spent roses

are

discharged. The channels lead into an earth lagoon outside the

factory.

Once the reside drys out, the farmers use this on their fields as

mulch.

Some people have reported that these channels are where the rose water

drains, but this is not the case. The hot rosewater is led off into

large stainless steel storage tanks direct from the still. This of

course reduces the possibility of atmospheric microbial

contamination.

 

The Turks prize this rose oil so much that these factories are only

open

a few weeks of each year. Government regulations prohibit using these

stills for anything else for fear of contaminating them. So imagine a

factory in the West being open for just a couple weeks and what that

will do to the price of the end product. In addition it requires

approximately 4 metric tons of rose petals to make one kilogram of

rose

otto. So when people think rose oil is so expensive, perhaps you can

see why.

 

At the H.Q. I saw the processing of the flowers into concrete. This

was

only a small scale operation just to keep some of their big overseas

customers happy. Here the rose flowers are placed into a large mixing

machine where they are rotated along with Hexane as a solvent. The

liquid extract is filtered and extracted twice with hexane before

finally pouring into steel cans. The hexane solvent is recycled and

used

over and over again. The cans have a hole cut out of the lid so that

as

the liquid sets hard, the residual hexane given off just evaporates.

This concrete is then shipped to their customers who will reprocess it

to make an absolute.

 

The Turkish co-op distilled rose oil is certainly of the highest

quality

which is of course reflected in the price. You can get what is called

" village oil " , this is produced in small direct fired stills in the

villages, but its fragrance is dreadful for aromatherapy purposes. It

has these caramelised notes that certain perfumers prefer, but the

caramel notes are due to the overheating of the oil in the old

stills. I

was told by several experts that some private suppliers in Turkey

purchase these village oils, blend them with Turkish distilled oils

(and

even cheaper imported rose oil) before reselling it. This can easily

be

detected with GC testing, but my guess is a lot of this lower grade

blended oil finds its way into the aromatherapy market.

 

Also in the co-operative's HQ. they have production facilities for

making soaps, shampoos and skin creams using rose oil and water. It

was

nice to see that they also have laboratories capable of excellent

quality control and research on their products.

 

(Butch's note - they're developing two products for me now - a Rose

Body

Creme and a Rose Shampoo.)

 

While we were there, the chemist was doing challenge testing for

bacteria and testing of PH on some products. The entire process in the

products lab. is mechanical and none of the products are touched by

human hands. The laboratory is proud of the ISO 9002 Certificate

they have on the wall in the entrance way.

 

The main analysis of the rose oils though is undertaken by Prof. Baser

at Anadolu University under contract. His department has some of the

finest phytochemical laboraties in the world and really there is

little

they can't test for on botanical extracts.

 

So to summarise: Turkish rose oil and rosewater from the State

co-operative is the most highly controlled and excellent quality

product

one could wish for in aromatherapy. I have visited several growing

areas

around the world, but was most impressed by their set-up and the pride

they took in the quality of their products.

---------------

Anya again:

Side Note: Butch has the greatest rose petal jam. Unbelievable stuff.

I also like his oils. Usual disclaimer, no

$$ interest in his business, he takes my $$ :-)

 

 

Anya {{{*_*}}}

[Guest guest]

Is there a sort for bottles online? I just thought about it if I am doing

the blends and cutting I need bottles, LOL

 

Starr

[Guest guest]

testing