Rose water
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Rose water or rosewater is a flavoured water created by steeping rose petals in water.<ref name="BBC"/> It is typically made as a by-product during the distillation of rose petals to create rose oil for perfumes. Rose water is widely utilized to flavour culinary dishes and enhance cosmetic products, and it is significant in religious rituals throughout Eurasia. Iran is a major producer, supplying around 90% of the world's rose water demand.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Central Iran is home to the annual Golabgiri festival each spring. Thousands of tourists visit the area to celebrate the rose harvest for the production of rosewater.<ref name="Iranica">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
History
Since ancient times, roses have been used medicinally, nutritionally, and as a source of perfume.<ref name="Iranica"/> 11th-century writings by Ibn Jazla state that rose water strengthened the gums and stomach as well as being an antiemetic.<ref name="newman">Template:Cite web</ref>
Geographer Al-Dimashqi wrote that his native Damascus exported rose water to much of the Arab world. Some sources state that it was exported from cities in modern-day Turkey and Syria to the Indian subcontinent and even China.<ref name="newman" />
Rose perfumes are made from rose oil, also called "attar of roses", which is a mixture of volatile essential oils obtained by steam-distilling the crushed petals of roses. Rose water is a by-product of this process.<ref name="Medievalfood">Template:Cite book</ref> Before the development of the technique of distilling rose water, rose petals were already used in Persian cuisine to perfume and flavour dishes.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Rose water likely originated in Persia,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> where it is known as gulāb (Template:Lang), from gul (Template:Lang rose) and ab (Template:Lang water). The term was adopted into Medieval Greek as zoulápin.<ref>Template:Iranica</ref>
The process of creating rose water through steam distillation was refined by Arab and Persian chemists in the medieval Islamic world, which led to more efficient and economic uses for perfume industries.<ref>Ahmad Y. al-Hassan, Transfer of Islamic Technology to the West, Part III: Technology Transfer in the Chemical Industries Template:Webarchive, History of Science and Technology in Islam.</ref>
Uses
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Food
Rose water is often added to water to mask unpleasant odours and flavours.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In South Asian cuisine, it is a common ingredient in sweets such as laddu, gulab jamun, and peda.<ref name=IndianCuisine1>Template:Cite book</ref> It is also used to flavour milk, lassi, rice pudding, and other dairy dishes.Template:Citation needed
In Southeast Asia, rose water is the basis for a sweet, red-tinted cordial sometimes enhanced with screwpine (pandan) and/or spices called Template:Lang or Template:Lang. This concoction is often diluted to be served on its own (as air sirap), mixed with calamansi (as air sirap limau), or mixed with milk to produce a pink beverage called air bandung.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Rose water is used in various dishes, especially in sweets such as Turkish delight,<ref name="BBC">Template:Cite web</ref> nougat, and baklava. Marzipan has long been flavoured with rose water.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In Cyprus, it is used to flavour a number of different desserts, including the local version of muhallebi.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
It is also frequently used as a halal substitute for red wine and other alcohols in cooking.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Premier League, Bahrain Grand Prix, and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix offer a rose water-based beverage as an alternative for champagne when awarding Muslim players.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Cosmetics
In medieval Europe, rose water was used to wash hands during feasts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Religion
Rose water is used in religious ceremonies in Christianity (in the Byzantine Rite of the Catholic Church and in the Eastern Orthodox Church),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Zoroastrianism, and the Baháʼí Faith (in Kitab-i-Aqdas 1:76).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Chemical composition
Depending on the origin and manufacturing method, rose water is obtained from the sepals and petals of Rosa × damascena through steam distillation. The following monoterpenoid and alkane components can be identified with gas chromatography: mostly citronellol, nonadecane, geraniol, and phenylethyl alcohol, and also henicosane, nonadecane, eicosane, linalool, citronellyl acetate, methyleugenol, heptadecane, pentadecane, docosane, nerol, disiloxane, octadecane, and pentacosane. Usually, phenylethyl alcohol is responsible for the typical odour of rose water but is not always present in derivative products.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Gallery
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Bags of rose petals being unloaded in preparation for steeping -
Water being poured into a container of rose petals -
A container being filled using a hose -
Containers of petals awaiting steeping, with one on the left closed and being heated to boil the water inside.
