Botanical Information

Latin Name

Rosa gallica, Rosa damascena, Rosa centifolia

Plant Family

Rosaceae

Other Names

Cabbbage rose; Damask rose

Part Used

Petals, Buds, Hips

Growing it

Rose gardening may have the most written guides and recommendations of all garden subjects. Myself a novice gardener, it seems unnecessary and redundant to include more here except there are some points to think about if you are planning to use your roses as herbals instead of just natural beauties.

• Species:There are approximately 200 species and 18000 cultivars of roses, not all are equally medicinal or appropriate to use as edibles. Some ornamental roses are not medicinal at all. The difference between species and cultivar is that species is a rose variety that has evolved naturally, nature has made every species is a little bit different. A cultivar is a variety that has been produced from humans crossing different species together. The desired types from an herbal medicine perspective are organic, native, wild or heirloom varieties that are deeply fragrant and produce hips.
• Color: Roses have a single layer of five petals with lots of yellow stamen, little pollen-producing filaments that look like tiny threads. Medicinal roses are red or pink. Cultivated hybrids could be larger, all sorts of colors, and have many more petals to a flower.
• Aroma: Medicinal rose species are fragrant, not like the aroma less knock-out rose for example.
• Spraying: While there are definitely species that the medicinal rose standards like Rosa damascena or Rosa centifolia, you can use roses that you grow yourself that may be some different variety as long as you are sure they are not sprayed with any type of pesticides.

Buying it

Of course, the option to buy dried roses is always fine and you can find the petals, buds and hips online. My favorite source is Mountain Rose Herbs. Here you can find dried rose petals and buds, dried rose hips, rose essential oils, rose hydrosols and skin care products. Herbalist & Alchemist makes a rose petal tincture that is an extract of Rosa damascena. And Avena Botanicals is my go to source for the most lovely rose petal elixir and rosewater spritzer. I love everything this company makes.

Characteristics

• Energetically, rose petals tend to be more cooling and drying, while the hips are more warming or moistening.
• The major chemical constituents responsible for rose’s are many. Dr. James Duke’s USDA database lists 37 biologically active phytochemicals. Many are essential oils – phenolic compounds and are aromatic. Some of these have bitter properties. The other major category of phytochemical are nutritive components such as bioflavonoids, carotenoids, anthocyanin, antioxidants, vitamin C especially in hips.
• The herbal actions of the flowers are nervine, anti-depressant, anxiolytic, astringent, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, decongestant. The hips are astringent, nutritive, blood tonic.
• Roses are incredibly safe. The main point to remember is make sure the roses you are using for culinary or medicinal purpose are always free of sprays and pesticides. Also, if you are gathering your own rose hips, beware of the tiny hairs that can be irritating to the mouth and throat. Buying them dried will eliminate this concern. And remember you always want to consider your own situation before using any herb and its always a good idea to review with your healthcare practitioner if you are using something you haven’t used before. Last, in pregnancy and when nursing its always a good idea to be even more careful. There are currently no safety issues identified, though for roses.

Taste

The tase of a fresh rose petal is sweet, bitter, and strongly floral. When dried all of this becomes more concentrated especially the floral tone. Rose hips are more sour and the astringency can easily be felt in your mouth. It’s that puckery, dry sensation that you may have felt if you ever ate an underripe banana. Both rose petals and hips combine well with many flavors especially berries, lemon, nuts and honey.

Aroma

The fragrance of a rose is quite well-known and loved. It’s complexity is related to the aromatic essential oils that are abundant in roses.

Culinary and Cooking

• Roses have a strong floral perfume like flavor and can be overpowering but with care and attention to how much and how to add, they can add amazing depth to foods. We may think of roses as sort of an exotic ingredient but not so in India, Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries.
• Fresh edibles – petals, buds and hips are all edible
• Petals can be added to green salads and fruit salads, blended into a smoothie, mixed into butter, yogurt, ice cream, or a soft cheese like goat cheese
• Buds are better for adding into cooking such as when making fruit jam or preserves, a sauce, or syrup
• Hips have little hairs inside which are irritating to the throat, so it’s a little work to remove these and seeds before eating them raw. in cooking these can be strained out for example if making a jam, jelly, syrup, or fruit compote. I admit, i have yet to work with fresh rose hips in any way.

Beneficial Qualities and Traditional Uses

Here’s a brief head to toe overview of how roses have been used by herbalists and healers throughout time.

• Nervous System: Starting with the nervous system, their nervine activity is one of the most specific indications for roses and as we’ve already mentioned in their ability to touch the heart and emotions: Roses can be hypnotic, anti-depressant, anxiolytic – great for those who are sensitive, easily lonely, have old and deep wounds, feel a lot of pain from grief and loss; they’re also great at calming irritability, anger, nervous. Roses can be an important formula addition for someone suffering from depression after trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder. They are just incredibly soothing for the heart and calming for the mind.
• Face: Moving through the body looking at the face, Roses are great for eyes: as an eye wash or drops – they’re cleansing and soothing for conjunctivitis, xerosis (dry eyes), styes, also postoperative cataract -this is because they are antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory; soothing
  In the mouth and throat: roses can be used as a soothing gargle to help heal mouth sores as well as sore throats. Their antibacterial action adds additional healing benefits.
• Digestive System: As we continue to move down the body into the digestive system, roses have a two fold benefit – they’re antimicrobial actions can help to fight and resolve bacterial infections but if this infection is causing diarrhea, like many do, the astringent action will be there to help resolve it. Rose petals can be a good addition to a formula for gastric ulcers, IBS or malabsorption.
• Female Reproductive System: Continuing to the female reproductive system again their astringent quality can calm heavy menstrual bleeding. In general the cooling, calming, soothing quality of roses makes them an excellent ally for the both premenstrual and menopausal discomforts. They can help with irritability, cramping, hot flashes and inflamed vaginal tissues. Even just using a rosewater hydrosol or some essential oils in a diffuser can be gently soothing and cooling. Perhaps it is the feminine nature of roses that makes them such a beautiful partner for women. But that doesn’t minimize their benefits for men, too.
• Immune System: Roses are great support for the immune system as good additions to formulas when you have a colds and flus because they helps fight infection and congestion, and as we mentioned before soothe sore throats and eyes.
• Skin: The skin may be the place that you are most familiar with for where roses are used. We find rosewater in many skin cleansers and toner; but for good reason because of their antibacterial, astringent and anti-inflammatory actions. Topically, a cooled rose infusion or rose water can be wonderfully healing for acne, minor wounds, soothing bites, stings, scrapes, rashes, sunburn, eczema and psoriasis.
• Nutritive Rose Hips: Most of these uses are for the petals but for rose hips, which we tend to use in the culinary form are also astringent and highly nutritious as one of the best sources vitamin C.

Herbal Preparations

Infusion

Combine 1 teaspoon rose petals with 8 ounces hot water, steep covered for 20 minutes. Rose petal tea by itself may be too strongly floral to enjoy. Its great as a small addition to so many different tea blends, hibiscus, linden flower, lemon balm or lemon verbena, and mint. All are good hot or cold and have beautiful aromas which adds to tea drinking experience.

Honey

Rose petal honey can be made by filling a glass jar with rose petals then covering with raw unfiltered honey. It’s best to sterilize the jar prior to use. Allow the honey rose mixture to infuse for approximately 4 weeks. It is not necessary to strain the rose petals from this honey.

Syrup

Traditional herbal syrups begin by preparing a strong herbal tea infusion. The syrup is made with the finished tea mixed with sugar, honey or maple syrup in a one to one ratio. It is also fine to use use a combination of sweeteners or less of any. I prefer to prepare rose syrup with 1 part sugar or honey and 2 parts rose tea.

Tincture

Alcohol extractions can be made with fresh or dried rose petals. For best results, combine the alcohol with a vegetable glycerin to make more of an elixir formula. For fresh combine 1 part rose petals with 2 parts alcohol/glycerin and for dried rose petals the traditional formula is 1 part rose petals to 5 parts alcohol/glycerin. Rose petals can also be extracted in glycerin alone.

Hydrosol

A hydrosol is a water based steam distillation. Rose water can be purchased bottled or as a hydrosol spray.

Essential oil

Rose essential oil is also called Attar of Rose. It is used as aromatherapy in drop amounts.