Rose water Phoenicians considered large public rose gardens to be as important as croplands such as orchards and wheat fields. 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. The cultivation of various fragrant flowers for obtaining perfumes, including rose water, may date back to Sassanid Persia, where it was known as "golāb" (Middle Persian: گلاب), from "gul" (rose) and "ab" (water). The term was adopted into Byzantine Greek as "zoulápin". The process of creating
Essential oil are a mixture of essential oil, waxes, resins, and other lipophilic (oil-soluble) plant material. Although highly fragrant, concretes contain large quantities of non-fragrant waxes and resins. Often, another solvent, such as ethyl alcohol, is used to extract the fragrant oil from the concrete. The alcohol solution is chilled to for more than 48 hours which causes the waxes and lipids to precipitate out. The precipitates are then filtered out and the ethanol is removed from the remaining solution by evaporation, vacuum purge, or both, leaving behind the "absolute". Supercritical carbon dioxide is used as a solvent in supercritical fluid extraction.