Research On The Extraction, Analysis And Application Of Rose Essential Oil

Rose (Rosa rugosa) is a deciduous shrub of genus Rosa in the Rosaceae family, the rose essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds that is extracted from rose flowers. Being known for excellent health effects, rose essential oil was widely used in domestic chemicals, flavors, perfumes and aromatherapy. In Middle East, rose water was used as a flavoring for food. Presently, the world annual consumption for rose essential oil is increasing each year, though the supply of the oil still falls short off demand. Jiangxi has mild natural conditions for introduction of roses. Therefore, doing research on extraction, analysis and application of rose essential oil produced in Jiangxi would be a useful exploration for rose industrial development in Jiangxi province. The main research results are followings:The essential oil of R. damascena Miller which planted first in Jiangxi province was obtained through steam distillation, with a yield of 0.023%. Physical indexes and major compositions of the rose essential oil were analyzed according to ISO 9842:2003 rose essential oil standard. The results indicated that the oil was yellow liquid with a natural rose flowers smell, having the similar constitution of major compositions to Bulgarian rose oil illustrated in ISO 9842:2003 standard, physical indexes and the percentage of characteristic compositions met criteria of the standard as well.A total of 73 compositions were identified by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) equipped with HP-5MS capillary column and by heuristic evolving latent projections (HELP), of which flavor compounds were various and relatively comprehensive.β-Damascenone, whose presence and quantity is considered as the marker for the quality of rose oil, was also detected. In this paper, HELP made it possible to resolve the overlapping/embedded peaks of total ion chromatograms (TIC) from GC-MS workstation, particularly after HELP resolvation to peak cluster of nerol and L-citronellol, the percentage contents of the two components were more near to the results of GC analysis which were did according to the method required by ISO 9842:2003.The antioxidant activities of rose essential oil and ethanol extracts from rose dregs were assessed by means of DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical) system, pyrogallol-luminol chemiluminescence system and phenanthroline-copper sulfate-ascorbic acid-hydrogen peroxide chemiluminescence system. In the range of 1.5-50mg/mL, rose essential oil was able to scavenge DPPH, superoxide anion radical (-O2-) and hydroxyl radical (·OH). Using the ratio of two IC50 values to show the antioxidant capacity, the DPPH-scavenging activity of rose essential oil was 1.63% and 0.91% of the activity of BHT and pineapple polyphenol respectively, the·O2- scavenging activity of rose essential oil was 11.63% of the activity of pineapple polyphenol, while the·OH scavenging activity of rose essential oil was 49.85% of pineapple polyphenol; the·O2- scavenging activity of ethanol extracts from rose dregs was 62.29% of the activity of pineapple polyphenol, but the DPPH-scavenging activity and·OH scavenging activity of ethanol extracts from rose dregs were equal to pineapple polyphenol.Using rose essential oil as the flavoring base, the flavoring rose essence was trail-produced, and the product could be added into some domestic chemicals, foods and tobaccos. Besides, the essential oil components in rose water was analyzed by GC-MS, the total percentage content of linalool, phenylethyl alcohol, a-terpineol, nerol, L-citronellol, geraniol, eugenol and methyl eugenol reached 88.10%, higher than 54.74%, the total percentage content of the same components in rose essential oil; the ethanol extracts from rose dregs was found on analysis to contain the total flavonoid content of 8.85%, and it was certified to have stronger antioxidant activity, overall, the rose water and rose dregs possessed of application value.All these research results would be firsthand data or information on Jiangxi R. damascene essential oil, and provide the reference data for rose industrial development in Jiangxi province.