Faiza Tehseen

Promotion of rose cultivation and its value-added products can fetch Pakistani farmers good profits, also help the country earn handsome foreign exchange by exporting the products. It is to mention here that about four tonnes of rose flowers are needed to extract one kilogramme of purest essential oil. Depending on the nature of distillation, the price of rose essential oil ranges from $595 to $5,000 per kilogramme. Presently, about 90% of rose flowers are processed to extract rose oil, 5% to 6% to get rose concrete, and only 3% to 4% to obtain rose water. Industrially, rose/rose hips are vastly used in jams, jellies, food flavouring, preparing liqueurs, culinary, tea, rose RTS (ready to serve), cosmetics, perfumery, etc. Seeds from rose hips are also used as an aromatic spice. Roses are also used in huge quantities in the hospitality industry and religious practices and ornamentations.

Principal scientific officer, Plant Introduction and Seed Health Lab, National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Dr. Riffat Tahira, during a discussion with WealthPK about the extraction and economic value of rose, said the most commonly known rose products were essential oil, rose water, rose otto, rose concrete, rose absolute, etc. “Rose petals are used to prepare essential oil, whose by-product is rose water. Rose oil, water, and otto are obtained through supercritical carbon dioxide or steam distillation. Rose absolute and concrete are obtained through solvents like hexane, ethyl ether, ethyl acetate, ethanol, methanol, etc. Being the bearers of too-minute compounds found in considerably low quantities, rose absolute and concrete are used to prepare different fragrant notes and medicines. Cineol is the component that causes the typical rose fragrance and is also available in synthetic form.”

Riffat Tahira said a sizeable quantity was required to get even 1 to 2 millilitres of essential oil. “Only the pure essential oil is used for medicinal purposes as it bears the truly occurring compounds like terpenes, phenols, flavonoids, alcohols and ketones. Only the co-synergetic effect of precise quantities of these compounds gives true medicinal effects. Aromatic rings or benzene rings in them also act as curing agents.” “Another product of rose is rose hip oil, which is extracted by hydro-distillation. It smells totally different from the signature rose fragrance. It is used as a spice, food ingredient or for other purposes.” Riffat Tahira said normally rose oil available in the market was extracted by pressing and processing its petals in inert/dry oils or tweens of different strengths. “Oil extraction by this method can be done on a small scale. The purest essential oil extraction of rose is done only by a supercritical carbon dioxide extraction unit, which can be too expensive for an average investor, but the government can install such units in the areas close to rose cultivation regions. Public-private partnerships can also be offered for such projects.”

Dr. Shahbaz Javaid, principal scientific officer from the poultry/animal nutrition section of NARC, while highlighting the importance of dried rose dreg, said it acted as an antibacterial if used as biological litter on poultry farms. “Mostly a huge quantity of flowers is wasted, which can be used in bird cages/farms.” Talking to WealthPK about promoting rose cultivation and value addition, Naveed Ahmad, a flower expert from the Punjab agriculture department, said globally, rose was considered a valuable product in its true or processed form. “Rosa damascene and rosa centifolia are the famous commercial species in Pakistan for high yield and fragrance, but unfortunately, farmers are not well aware of their economic value.” He said mostly, such varieties were farmed in Choa Saidan Shah and other areas of Punjab. “In other provinces, it is cultivated at a low scale.”

Naveed Ahmad called for promoting its cultivation in Balochistan and other water-scarce areas as dry cool regions were ideal for it. “Farmers can be helped to install mini plants (very economic) in their farming areas to get valuable rose products.” Shumail Nizam, a commercial rose grower, said, “At my own farm, about 5,445 square feet area is under rose cultivation. These days it is sold at about Rs150 per kg and rose petals are sold at Rs100 per kg. Dried flowers/petals are sold from Rs4,000 to Rs6,000 per maund.” He said the government should provide proper awareness to farmers about its commercial value, value addition, sales promotion, marketing, exports, etc. “Farmers can earn handsome profits by growing extremely fragrant and high-yielding varieties.”

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk