Turkey May Revive Trade in Perfumes

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1043, 6 August 1930, Page 5

Turkey May Revive Trade in Perfumes

That there are no thorns without roses is a new twist to an old bromide that Angora, Mustapba Kemal’s for tress-capital in the wilds of Asia Minor, is happily learning. Angora has had a thorny time emerging from Its former bareness to its present rosiness, but it has emerged. Acacias and roses are bloom ing where the first saplings set out by the Ghazi and his cohorts refused to take root, or were pulled up by peasants who used them as sticks to drive their flocks. ! Roses now grow so well in the AnI gora plain that this may develop into a renaissance centre for an ancient but languishing Turkish industry, the manufacture of essence of roses, the powerful perfume in each Turkish drop of which is the sweetness of 400 blooms. The Turko-Greek war and the new Turkey’s back-sliding from Islamic practices had shares in the decline of this industry, which was once as active in certain Anatolian regions as it is today in “the Valley of Roses” in Bulgaria. Before the war, Turkey exported annually about £OO,OOO worth of the essence. 11l 192 S this figure fell to £IO,OOO. Now, with the probable cooperation of French experts, the industry is to be re-enlivened. The Turkish product is favoured by foreign perfume manufacturers because of Us potency and freedom from adulteration. By the Turkish standard, 22 pounds of roses, heated in 20 gallons of water, produce by condensation three to four grams of essence, a higher return than is obtained Jin France. The history of this famous perfume goes back to the 16th century and to the Princess Nour-i-Djihan of Persia. Walking one day in her gardens in Shiraz, she noticed oily foam in howls wherein roses had been pressed, and found this foam to be the very essence of rose sweetness. The manufacture of the essence spread to Turkey and the Turks carried the Industry to Bulgaria.