Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Jan 19;11(1):127.
doi: 10.3390/biom11010127.

Rose Flowers-A Delicate Perfume or a Natural Healer?

Milka Mileva  1 , Yana Ilieva  1 , Gabriele Jovtchev  2 , Svetla Gateva  2 , Maya Margaritova Zaharieva  1 , Almira Georgieva  1   3 , Lyudmila Dimitrova  1 , Ana Dobreva  4 , Tsveta Angelova  2 , Nelly Vilhelmova-Ilieva  1 , Violeta Valcheva  1 , Hristo Najdenski  1
Affiliations
Review

Rose Flowers-A Delicate Perfume or a Natural Healer?

Milka Mileva et al. Biomolecules. .

Abstract

Plants from the Rosacea family are rich in natural molecules with beneficial biological properties, and they are widely appreciated and used in the food industry, perfumery, and cosmetics. In this review, we are considering Rosa damascena Mill., Rosa alba L., Rosa centifolia L., and Rosa gallica L. as raw materials important for producing commercial products, analyzing and comparing the main biological activities of their essential oils, hydrolates, and extracts. A literature search was performed to find materials describing (i) botanical characteristics; (ii) the phytochemical profile; and (iii) biological properties of the essential oil sand extracts of these so called "old roses" that are cultivated in Bulgaria, Turkey, India, and the Middle East. The information used is from databases PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. Roses have beneficial healing properties due to their richness of beneficial components, the secondary metabolites as flavonoids (e.g., flavones, flavonols, anthocyanins), fragrant components (essential oils, e.g., monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes), and hydrolysable and condensed tannins. Rose essential oils and extracts with their therapeutic properties-as respiratory antiseptics, anti-inflammatories, mucolytics, expectorants, decongestants, and antioxidants-are able to act as symptomatic prophylactics and drugs, and in this way alleviate dramatic sufferings during severe diseases.

Keywords: Rosa alba L.; Rosa centifolia L.; Rosa damascena Mill.; Rosa gallica L.; antimutagenic potential; antineoplastic effect; antioxidant properties; antiviral activity; essential oils; water and alcohol extracts.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Main locations of rose habitats and producers of rose oils and their products worldwide.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Main compounds in the chemical composition of rose extracts.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Baser K., Altintas A., Kurkcuoglu M. Turkish rose: A review of the history, ethnobotany and modern uses of rose petals, rose oil, rose water and other rose products. HerbalGram. 2012;96:40–53.
    1. Mahboubi M. Rosa damascena as holy ancient herb with novel applications. J. Tradit. Complement. Med. 2016;6:10–16. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcme.2015.09.005. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Labban L., Thallaj N. The medicinal and pharmacological properties of Damascene Rose (Rosa damascena): A review. Int. J. Herb. Med. 2020;8:33–37.
    1. Akram M., Riaz M., Munir N., Akhter N., Zafar S., Jabeen F., Ali Shariati M., Akhtar N., Riaz Z., Altaf S.H., et al. Chemical constituents, experimental and clinical pharmacology of Rosa damascena: A literature review. J. Pharm. Pharm. 2020;72:161–174. doi: 10.1111/jphp.13185. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nazarenko L., Minkov B., Mustyatse G., Murin A. Culture Oil-Bearing Rose. Pulisher Shtinitsa; Kishinev, Moldova: 1983. (In Russian)

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources