Rose Geranium vs Geranium

[Guest guest]

Mar 22, 2002

Rose Geranium vs Geranium

From: Butch Owen

Hello Carmen,

> First post to the group, please be gentle. I have been reading

> Worwood's book The Complete Book of Essential Oils and

> Aromatherapy. At the same time I'm compiling a collection of EOs

> from various sources. I need to add geranium at this point.

If you are using Worwood's book to try to compile a collection of info

on EOs, you got a rough job cut out for you .. especially when it

comes to the Geraniums or Pelargoniums .. fact is, I think somewhere

she even lists Geranium as a mineral .. obviously a typo. ;-) And

she rarely discusses species or types of the P. graveolens.

> Question: could you please differentiate between geranium EO and

> rose geranium EO, or at least point me in the right direction.

One direction is Sylla Shepherd-Hanger's Aromatherapy Practitioner

Reference Manual in two volumes .. you can see it and order it at

http://www.AV-AT.com/manual01.html

Then there is Watt's EO Monographs .. very fine they are.

http://www.aromamedical.com/paper.html

In the meantime .. and first of all .. true geraniums STINK .. real

bad they stink. But we are not talking about oils from them.

I'm not gonna quote a buncha aromatherapy novels because they are at

best contradictory and at worst full of bovine excrement. For sure, I

am gonna avoid Worwood's book.

The best three ways to identify the Rose Geranium is with the nose,

with a GC .. and the price. Pure, unadulterated, high quality Rose

Scented Geranium is gonna be far more costly than normal Pelargonium

graveolens.

They are both the same species .. Pelargonium .. but there are MANY

different aromas from the Geranium plants .. has to do with chemical

composition. What we call " Rose Geranium " is just that .. smells more

rosy and less green .. but its Pelargonium graveolens .. Type

Pelargonium roseum .. Rose Scented Geranium. It'll be higher in:

Limonene

Trans-rose oxide

Linalool

Phenyl ethyl alcohol

Finally .. and more importantly, it'll be higher in Geraniol.

Now .. lemme tell you why you and me and probably the chemists are

NEVER gonna be real experts on this plant or oil .. there are some

who claim they are experts but they are only experts when they are

around people who know little about the subject. ;-)

An old text from Guenther .. Introduction, Botany, and Development.

" The taxonomy of the plants which are cultivated in various parts of

the world for the production of commercial geranium oil has been a

matter of much controversy and has given rise to considerable

confusion. In fact, the name geranium oil itself is a misnomer,

since the commercial types of geranium oil are derived not from any

Geranium, but from several species, varieties, and strains of

Pelargonium. P graveolens, P roseum, P radula, P capitatum, P

odoratissimum, P fragrans, and P terebinthinaceum have been stated as

the source of geranium oil. According to Beckley, 1 it is

questionable whether some of these terms are not fancy horticultural

names, with no real botanical meaning.

Neither the true P odoratissimum nor P fragrans is suitable for

cultivation for the purpose of oil production. The former consists of

a mass of radical leaves with a few long, trailing, flowering

branches, possessing a most unattractive odor. P fragrans is a small,

bushy shrub of pleasant odor, but the odor differs from that of

geranium oil. The term P roseum is most probably a garden name for P

graveolens and P radula types.

The Pelargonium plants readily cross, and soon after their

introduction into Europe so many hybrids were developed that today

the numerous existing varieties and strains can hardly be

distinguished from one another.

'Geranium " has now become a rather vague horticultural term which has

no relation to the botanical term Geranium, The only true Geranium

species, from which an essential oil is derived (and in very small

quantities), is G macrorrhizum L. (G lugubre Salisb., ium

macrorrhizum Picard). The latter grows wild in Bulgaria and other

Balkan countries and is occasionally used for the distillation of an

oil said to be employed for the adulteration of rose oil (cf. the

monograph on " Oil of Geranium macrorrhizum " ).

The only region in which Pelargonium grows wild is the Cape Province

(Union of South Africa). According to Holmes,2 there are about 600

species of the genus Pelargonium in the Cape Province, many of which

possess an agreeable odor. During the last years of the seventeenth

century (1690), cuttings were exported to Europe (particularly to Kew

Gardens in England), where they were crossed and hybridized in

botanical institutes, greenhouses. and private gardens. It seems

probable that all the species and varieties of Pelargonium, which

yield the various types of commercial geranium oils i.e.. the

Réunion, Algerian, Moroccan, Belgian Congo, Spanish, French,

Corsican, and East African oils) are descendants of the hybrids

created in Europe and re-exported, particularly from Southern France,

to the colonies.

The theory of hybridization would explain the difficulty of

germinating the seeds of the Pelargonium plants. Moreover, when

germination is actually attained, the new plants do not grow true to

their parent plants, but develop into " sports.' or different

varieties. For this reason commercial propagation of Pelargonium is

now effected by means of cuttings.

The parent plant of all Pelorgium varieties and strains used today for

the commercial production of geranium oil seems to be P graveolens

Ait.

For the sake of simplicity we shall refer to the essential oil derived

from this plant simply as oil of geranium, the name by which it has

been known to the trade for many years.

Owing to its agreeable and very pronounced strong rose-like odor, oil

of geranium is one of the most important ingredients in perfumery. If

pure, the oil is almost a perfume by itself and blends well into all

kinds of scents floral as well as oriental. Being stable and

lasting, even in a slightly alkaline medium, the oil is widely used

in the scenting of soaps.

Because of its importance many attempts have been made to produce

geranium oil in various parts or the world, but not all of those have

been successful.

Commercial production of the oil from plantations was started in the

Grasse region of Southern France, during the first decade to the

nineteenth century. In 1847 plants were exported from there to newly

conquered Algeria, and slowly a new geranium oil industry developed in

the fertile plain of Mitidjia. About 1880, plants from the Grasse

region were transferred to the island of Reunion in the southwestern

Indian Ocean whence the bulk of geranium oil originates today. Small

quantitre have been produced in Spain, Corsica, and Madagascar.

At present, efforts are being made to develop a geranium Oil industry

in Morocco, the Belgian Congo, East Africa, and the southern part of

USSR.

Substantial quantities of these oils, more or less of good quality

have reached the world markets, and a few of these types will

undoubtedly attain considerable commercial importance. In recent

years great change have taken place in the geranium oil industry, and

production has gradually shifted from region to region, the changes

being caused by the prices of the oil on the world market and by

economic conditions in the production areas. " UNQUOTE

Guenther IV, page 671-672.

E. Krieger Publishing Company, Inc

Krieger Drive

Malabar, Florida 32950

1950

SBN 0-88275-074-7

Me again .. obviously, my knowledge is minuscule compared to that

presented above .. but .. I do NOT agree with all that is presented

above. ;-)

Since then, the Chinese have also began to distill a wild growing

Pelargonium graveolens .. but in my opinion, the finest Pelargonium

roseum is from Madagascar and the finest Geranium Bourbon is from

Reunion.

But remember .. Rose Geranium is a variety of Scented Leaf Geranium ..

its not a true geranium, its a Pelargonium.

Rose Geranium is a P. graveolens or P. roseum. Another fancy smeller

is P. crispum .. Lemon Geranium.

We could say that all Rose Geraniums are Geraniums, but not all

Geraniums are Rose Geraniums .. same applies for the other sweet

smelling Geraniums. There are many fragrant smelling geraniums ..

Pelargoniums .. but NONE of them are from the genus Geranium.

Confused yet? No? Then I failed. ;-)

When I buy a Pelargonium .. I am looking for chemical constituents and

odor .. that's important enough for me because even the botanists will

sit around and argue about the Pelargonium and Geranium genus. I

also pay attention to the Origin.

What you gotta be careful about in Rose Geranium ... and more so in

Rose Otto .. is adulteration with Phenyl ethyl alcohol (PEA) .. makes

it smell a lot better. But you can catch it in a GC or GC/MS.

Feller was passing out samples of a Balkan Rose Otto last year .. I

got one and when I smelled it, first thing I did was gag ... it would

knock a maggot off a gut wagon .. smelled like acetone. I had my

friend, Dr. Professor Baser test it and it was around 67% PEA ..

which costs around $10 a pound.

Then you got folks trying to pass off Palmarosa (Cymbopogon martinii)

as Rose Geranium .. which isn't a lot different than folks taking

advantage of other folks who get hung up on Common Names and sell

Amyris (Amyris balsamifera) by one of its common names .. West Indian

Sandalwood .. or worse than that, as Santalum album .. it ain't no

danged Sandalwood!!

Ask your supplier questions cause different suppliers use different

terms to designate different things .. and don't be surprised if they

don't know. You can usually tell they don't know when they start to

talk the humma-humma and dance the schuffle-schuffle.

Ask if:

1. Are they using a common name/synonym for Pelargonium graveolens?

2. Do they know that Rose Geranium is a common name for Pelargonium

roseum, which is a distinct variety .. NOT a synonym for Pelargonium

graveolens.

As for the plants themselves, the scented varieties of Pelargoniums

will generally have darker colored, curled and narrow leaves where the

bitter smelling Pelargoniums (house or pot plants) generally have much

more rounded leaves.

Now .. don't believe everything I wrote .. ;-) But believe this:

Geranium .. P. graveolens or P. x asperum or P. roseum .. there are

over 250 Species with thousands of Varieties and Clones. No precise

universal botanical nomenclature for commercial sources .. meaning,

what I have told you might be useless information but I ain't writing

no book on it. ;-)

> Thanks all,

> Carmen

Welcome you are for sure. If I can ever confuse y'all again, just

holler .. ;-)

> p.s. I suppose an introduction is in order. Natural soapmaker

> delving into essential oils and their therapeutic values and

> benefits. I see aromatherapy in my future, too.

Good show .. if you can learn aromatherapy from the right folks - if

not, then don't feel too bad or alone cause you'll be with the masses.

A reference book contains references .. but references to previously

published books that contain no references does not make a reference

book - it makes a novel. Most aromatherapy teachers use the novels as

a basis for the continuation of misinformation, disinformation, urban

rumor .. and worse yet, plain old greedy marketing hype .. :-(

Y'all keep smiling. :-)

Butch .. http://www.AV-AT.com