On the subcritical extraction of Rosa damascena Mill.

Subcritical extraction of Rosa damascena Mill. has been performed with Freon R143a [1]. The pressure and duration of the process have been studied to obtain the highest possible yield. It was found that a short-time triple extraction at low pressures of 5-6 bar resulted in the highest yield–0.151%. The chemical composition of the product revealed a high terpene/scent content: β-phenylethyl alcohol (25.6-54.1%), citronellol (1.9-2.3%), geraniol (1.2-3.8%) and nerol (1.8-2.9%). The distribution of paraffins’ content was: nonadecane (2.7-4.9%), nonadecene (3.0-5.6%), eicosane (4.4-9.4%) and heneicosane (4.4-9.8%). The deviations in the constituents of the day product and the year batch production have been discussed. The yield and composition are compared with other rose aromatic products [2,3].