Aromatic composition of the petals of the 'Rosa Narcea' cultivated in the mountains of Asturias (northern Spain)

This work reports the content and concentration of volatile compounds in the petals of 'Rosa Narcea', a recently described yet ancient cultivated rose found in the mountains of Asturias (northern Spain). The content and concentration of volatile compounds determines the aromatic profile of a rose cultivar, and thus its importance to the perfume industry. The general aroma of roses is the consequence of the differing presence of citronelol, geraniol, nerol, linalool, phenylethyl alcohol, and many other compounds, but there are many varietal differences with respect to aroma quality, intensity and persistence. These characteristics may differ, however, depending on the soil, the cultivation practices, and the time of petal collection. Petals from different specimens of the 'Rosa Narcea' were collected during full flowering (in May 2020) for later analysis. Samples were subjected to solid phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The compounds that appeared in major percentage in the studied petals were benzene-ethanol (phenylethyl alcohol), 3-hexen-1-ol-acetate, citronellol and geraniol. The percentage of other compounds found in the petals such as rose oxide, geraniol, neral - narrowly linked to high quality rose essential oils - is noteworthy. It is observed that the transportation has influenced on the low percentages of volatile compounds of interest, though not in the appearance of oxidation compounds. In the view of these results, it is observed that, in order to know the maximum potential of this rose, carrying out the gathering before sunrise and processing the roses in situ without any kind of transportation, will be necessary.