Kobashi 奧圖(大馬士革)玫瑰精油 Rose Otto Essential Oil

KOBASHI ROSE OTTO OIL100% Pure

LATIN NAME: Rosa damascena

SOURCE: Hydro-distilled from the petals

COLOUR: light yellow and can have a pinkish tint.

ORIGIN: Bulgaria

AROMA: intensely sweet floral

Rose Otto prices have more than doubled from 2014 to 2016. Prices will fluctuate over time. When Kobashi started in the late 1980's and 90's we only purchase 100g to 200g and the equivalent kg price we were paying then was 10,000 GBP. Price dropped for us due to buying larger quantities. As demand goes up and supply is less due to crop failures we have not put the price up accordingly, but now have to due to restocking. Most of the Rose Otto on the market is adulterated, so if we want real we have to pay for it.

QUALITIES: Known as the queen of oils because of its affinity to the female system. Widely used in skin care, especially for dry, sensitive types. Soothes anger and grief. Renowned for its sensual properties.

Distilled Rose is semisolid at 17' to 22' C., stearoptene lanceolate or lamellate, shiny crystals separate from the liquid; because of their low specific gravity, the crystals rise to the surface and cover it with a thin skin which breaks easily if the oil is gently shaken. On cooling, the oil congeals to a cloudy transparent soft mass, which liquidates on warming even at hand temperature. If Rose does not do this it means it's adulterated.

The aroma of the oil is powerful and characteristic of fresh roses, the flavour is strong, sweet, and somewhat honey-like. Kobashi Rose Otto @ 10C (10C was chosen due to our warehouse temperature), gc-ms tested sample, in 3ml bottle 3/4 full clouded within 30sec and solid within minute.

When brought into a 18C room the meniscus started to get shiny and slowly grew liquidity as the temperature was raised. At 20C the naturally occurring stearoptene lanceolate or lamellate crystals in the Rose Otto softened to allow movement when the vial was tipped and one drop became mobile. When put upright the drop crystallized and stuck to the top side of the vial.

At 22c when tipped the crystals folded onto themselves like a slush. At 22.1 c the crystals were around ~80%-85% liquified.Shaken at 22.1Ccrystals bubbled through out vial and when left for a minute floated to cloudy mobile top ~25%. So the bottom 3/4 part of the vial was a clear yellow tinted liquid.As the temperature rose to 23C the top cloud slowly disappeared leaving a clear yellow tinted liquid. This process took approximated 40min due to the slow gradual increase in temperature. Going the other way, dropping the temperature, although I believe the crystals begin to solidify at ~22C without putting them under a microscope I could not see. (I'll do this when i have more time.)

Dropping from 24C, at 20.2C crystals started to form ~16.54pm and gradually increased solidity: time ~17:02pm.

When shaken at 20.2C ( 68.4F) at 17:12pm, crystals turned to slush.

At 17.24pm @ 19.2C (66.6C) vial was shaken vigorously and stayed 80% solid (firm slush.) and would not liquidize when shaken at this temperature. When shaken it is cloudy and solid to slush consistency. 18.16pm @ 18.2C still in a solid slushy state.

The size of your room heater and insulation will vary the control of the experiment. Although this is a very loosely scientific basic test. It is a good place to start before wasting any more time and money testing.

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Another suppliers sample@ 7C did not cloud or go solid and the colour is half of what would be expected. My guess is that this oil is less than 50% rose otto or synthetic geranial, or Palmarosa,with Ex Benzaldehyde, stearopten lanceolate or lamellate crystals added. Sad but at this point I can't go any further with testing this oil.

Geranium is also used as an adulterant in Rose Otto. Although naturally occuring, other adulterants can be citronellol, geraniol, nerol, linalool, phenyl ethyl alcohol, farnesol, stearoptene, alpha-pinene, beta-pinene, alpha-terpinene, limonene. Why? It takes approximately 2600kg to 8000 kg of Roses to yeild 1kg of Rose Otto.