Improvement of essential oil yield of oil-bearing (Rosa damascena Mill.) due to surfactant and maceration

The essential oil content of the oil-bearing rose (Rosa damascene Mill.) is relatively low, around 0.3-0.4 mL kg(-1) in fresh flowers. There is a need to increase essential oil yield of oil-bearing rose. The objective was to examine the effect of Tween 20 (polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate) applied with, or without, maceration of flowers on oil content and composition of oil-bearing rose harvested at beginning of flowering, full bloom, and end of flowering. Addition of Tween 20 at 1000 mL L-1 and 2500 mL L-1 increased essential oil yield by 26% (to 0.44 mL kg(-1)) and 54% (to 0.54 mL kg(-1)) respectively relative to the untreated control that gave 0.35 mL kg(-1) yield. Maceration, in combination with the addition of Tween 20 at 1000 mL L-1 and Tween 20 at 2500 mL L-1, increased oil yield by 69% (to 0.59 mL kg(-1)) and 94% (to 0.68 mL kg(-1)) respectively. Among the three phenological phases of harvest, harvesting at the beginning of flowering gave the highest yield followed by the full bloom and then by the end of flowering phases. Since the interaction effect was not significant, the differences obtained among the treatments were regardless of the phase, and vice versa. Treatments did not significantly alter composition of the essential oil. Postharvest pre-extraction application of Tween 20 in combination with maceration could be used in the rose industry for increasing the essential oil yield. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.