Rosewater

What is Rose Water?

Rose water or hydrosol is actually a byproduct of making Rose perfumes; it is what is left over after the volatile essential oils are removed. It is mildly fragrant and has a slightly sweet flavor.

Rose water has been used for thousands of years throughout the world. It’s been used traditionally in beauty products and food and drink products. 1

Where does Rose water come from?

The rose plant and its varieties are cultivated in all over the world including Iran, Europe, Bulgaria, Turkey and India (1).

Rose water is made from fragrant rose pedals. The pedals are crushed and steam distilled to extract the volatile essential oils and other compounds for use in perfumes. The remaining water contains water soluble compounds such as carboxcylic acids (fragrance, antioxidants etc.) and may contain small amounts of essential oils (typically 0.01 – 0.04%) 2. Hence it is the essence of roses in distilled water or Rose water and non-oily.

What does Rose water do?

This plant contains several components such as terpenes, glycosides, flavonoids, and anthocyanins and carboxcylic acids that have beneficial effects on human health. The antioxidants in rose water protect the cells in the skin against damage.3

  • Anti-oxidants help scavenge free radicals; a major cause of skin aging from UV
  • Anti-inflammatory properties help soothe irritation
  • Anti-microbial effect or antiseptic properties can have been shown 4
  • Anti-aging As an inhibitor against enzymes (elastase and collagenase) which are harmful to the skin 5,6

Benefits of Rosewater (rewrite and compare to medline so as not to plagerize

The skin is the largest organ in the body and acts as a barrier against UV radiation, chemicals, and other physical pollutants. Helps soothe skin irritation

Soothe irritated skin:

One of the greatest benefits of rose water is its strong anti-inflammatory properties. These properties can help soothe the irritation of dry skin, eczema or rosacea.

Reduces skin redness

Rose water has been used as a beauty product for thousands of years, so it’s no surprise that it can improve your complexion and reduce skin redness. The antibacterial properties may help reduce acne. The anti-inflammatory properties can and puffiness.

Helps prevent and treats infections

Rose water has powerful antiseptic properties, which can prevent and treat infections. Because of this, rose water is often included in a variety of natural and medicinal treatments.? It was even found that when rose water was used in eye drops to treat conjunctivitis cases, its antiseptic and analgesic properties helped in treating the ocular disease. 4

Contains antioxidants

Rose petals and rose oil contain a number of powerful antioxidants, which can help protect cells from damage. One study found that these antioxidants had potential lipid peroxidation inhibitory effects. This provides powerful cell protection as a result. 3

Heals cuts, scars, and burns

Rose water has antiseptic and antibacterial properties that can help wounds heal faster. These properties can help clean and fight off infection of cuts and burns. They can also help cuts, burns, and even scars heal faster. (3)

Anti-aging properties

Rose water is often found in beauty products aimed to reduce wrinkles. That’s because it may actually have anti-aging effects due to its anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. In addition to soothing irritated skin, it may reduce the appearance of wrinkles when applied topically.5,6

References

  1. https://www.healthline.com/health/rose-water-benefits
  2. https://naha.org/explore-aromatherapy/about-aromatherapy/what-are-hydrosols
  3. Boskabady, M.H., Shafei,N.M, Saberi,Z., Amini,S., Pharmacological Effects of Rosa Damascena, Iranian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences Vol. 14, No. 4, July-Aug 2011, 295-30
  4. Abdul L, Abdul R, Sukul RR, Nazish S. Anti-inflammatory and Antihistaminic Study of a Unani Eye Drop Formulation. Ophthalmol Eye Dis. 2010;2:17–22. Published 2010 Mar 10.
  5. Tamsyn SA Thring1, Pauline Hili2 and Declan P Naughton*1, Anti-collagenase, anti-elastase and anti-oxidant activities of extracts from 21 plants, MC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2009, 9:27doi:10.1186/1472-6882-9-27,
  6. Thring et al., Antioxidant and potential anti-inflammatoryactivity of extracts and formulations of white tea, rose, and witch hazel on primary human dermal fibroblast cells, Journal of Inflammation2011,8:27http://www.journal-inflammation.com/content/8/1/27