July 14, 2011

There is more to Rosa damascena than its gorgeous flowers and lovely scent. Research on this cultivar is finding some intriguing properties that have potential for topical dermatologic products.

Rosa damascena, also known as the Damask Rose and Rose of Castile, is a rose hybrid the flowers of which have been used for rose oil in perfume and for rosewater.

It originates in the Middle East (the name is based on Damascus, Syria), but it is now only a cultivated plant and no longer found in the wild.

Bulgaria, Turkey, France, and India are the largest producers of rose oil. Rosewater has been used for centuries in religious rites and for physical, emotional, and spiritual purposes or healing. Thriving rosewater industries are found in Bulgaria and France.

In addition to its uses in the perfumery industry, R. damascena is also used for culinary purposes in several global cuisines. Geraniol, which exhibits potent antiseptic activity (seven times that of phenol), is the main constituent of several essential oils and is found in R. damascena (Hoffmann D., Medical Herbalism: The Science and Practice of Herbal Medicine. Rochester, Vt.: Healing Arts Press, 2003, p. 64).

Photo: Courtesy Wikimedia Commons/Kurt Stüber/Creative Commons License Rosa damascena, from which rosewater and roseoil products are derived, has a long history of pharmaceutical use but scientific research on its medical properties began in the 1970s.

Some of the earliest work to indicate the potential health and dermatologic benefits of R. damascena dates to the late 1970s.

Investigators isolated a strain of cultured cells of the plant that displayed strong resistance to UV radiation (254 nm) and generated a greater amount of polyphenols (primarily flavonoids) during the latter stages of culture growth. They found that this UV resistance was associated with increased polyphenolic production (Plant Physiol. 1979;64:936-41).

Flavonoids are the most prevalent and frequently studied polyphenols, which are the most abundant source of antioxidants in the human diet (Biomed. Pap. Med. Fac. Univ. Palacky Olomouc Czech Repub. 2003;147:137-45; J. Nutr. 2000;130 (8S Suppl):2073S-85S; Annu. Rev. Nutr. 2002;22:19-34; Pharmacol. Ther. 2001;90:157-77; Free Radic. Biol. Med. 2001;30:1213-22).

Antimicrobial Properties

In 2002, R. damascena was among eight essential oils studied for composition and antimicrobial characteristics. The antibacterial activities of the aromatic extracts were ascertained by disk diffusion testing. Among the standard test bacterial strains Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, R. damascena showed antimicrobial activity against S. aureus (Arch. Pharm. Res. 2002;25:860-4).

Recent work has provided additional evidence of its antibacterial activity. In 2010, investigators tested 10 essential oils for antibacterial activity against Propionibacterium acnes as well as in vitro toxicology against three human cancer cell lines. Among the essential oils tested (which included mint, ginger, lemon, grapefruit, jasmine, lavender, chamomile, thyme, rose, and cinnamon) thyme, cinnamon, and rose were found to display the greatest antibacterial potency against P. acnes. Overall, the cytotoxicity of the essential oils was strongest against human prostate carcinoma cells (PC-3), as opposed to human lung carcinoma (A549) and human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells. Thyme was found to be the most cytotoxic to the cancer cell lines (Molecules 2010;15:3200-10).

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