Rosaceum or rosaceum oil is used in alchemical recipes for coloring gold or gems, and also has medicinal properties found in texts such as those of ancient Greek physician Dioscorides. As its name suggests, rosaceum is made partly with roses.
Rosa, Rosa sylvestris, Rosa rubra, Rosa gallica
Common Rose, French Rose, Oil of Roses
This ancient recipe comes from Dioscorides (c. 40 - 90 AD), a physician and surgeon in the army of Nero. He studies medicine at Alexandria, a pioneer city in medical advances, anatomy, alchemy and glass-making; and Tarsus, a major center of knowledge in S. Anatolia.
Rosaceum oil is made as follows.
"Take five pounds eight ounces of juncus odoratus (1) and twenty pounds five ounces of oil; bruise the juncus and steep it in water, then boil it, stirring it up and down. Strain it out into the twenty pounds five ounces of oil, put a thousand counted dry rose petals into it."
(1) Juncus odoratus is a marsh or sea reed. Use the flower, the reeds and the root. This plant grows in Libya, Arabia and Nabataea (Petra / Syrian Desert). According to the author, juncus of Nabatea is the best. The Arabic is next and Libyan is not recommended. Ethiopian juncus can cause excess sleep.
The thin reeds should be new, red, and full of small flowers. When cut the plant produces a purple color. When rubbed between the hands it smells like a rose. The flavor is pungent to burning.
"Having rubbed your hands with honey stir the mixture up and down (every now and then squeezing the petals gently), then after leaving them for a night, press them out. When the dregs have sunk, change the receiving jar and store it in large bowls wiped with honey."
This part requires a lot of work but nothing a healthy adept can't do. It's a good idea to make this fragrant unctuous oil in bulk as it can be used for many purposes including natural medicine, cooking, alchemy and cosmetic purposes.
Dioscorides continues:
"Then throwing the strained roses in a small washing jar pour on them eight pounds and five ounces of the thickened oil. Strain them out again ... this will be the second pressing; if you will, for a third or fourth time pour oil in again on the roses, and strain them out again."
"A first, second, third and fourth oil are made. Each time rub the inside of the jars with honey. If you mean to make a second insertion put the same number of new dry rose petals into the oil that was first pressed out, and stirring it up and down with hands smeared with honey.
Press it out; and repeat the same way the second, third and fourth time, pressing it out again; and as often as you do this put in fresh roses (paring off their stems) for this way it becomes stronger. The oil can take this addition of roses seven times, but by no means any farther."
"Also rub the press with honey. You ought to carefully separate the oil from the juice for if even a little of it is left in there it will corrupt the oil. Some use the roses alone, cut off their stems or whites, and infuse them by placing them in the sun, having the amount of half a pound of petals to one pint of oil.
Changing the petals every eight days, and leaving them in the sun for forty days, and then store the solution. Some first thicken the oil by adding calamus (2) and aspalathus (3)."
(2) Calamus is sweet flag (Acorus calamus), flowering marsh grass species with psychoactive properties and potential carcinogens. Juice from the plant root is once used to treat diseases of the eye ('darkening of the pupil').
Calamus is used to treat various ailments like appetite loss, bronchitis, chest pain, colic, cramps, diarrhea, digestive disorders, flatulence, indigestion, nervous disorders, rheumatism and vascular disorders. It also has a sedative effect.
Calamus is mentioned in Egypt c. 1300 BCE in the Chester Beatty papyrus VI. The ancient Egyptians use it to make perfumes. It's less often mentioned in medical documents. Other names for this plant include:
... beewort, bitter pepper root, calamus root, flag root, gladdon, myrtle flag, myrtle grass, myrtle root, myrtle sedge, pine root, sea sedge, sweet cane, sweet cinnamon, sweet grass, sweet myrtle, sweet root, sweet rush, sweet sedge and wada kaha ...
Aspalathus (3) is a plant genus of the family Fabaceae. A thorny shrub in Istrus, Nisyrus, Syria, and Rhodes, it's used by ointment makers to thicken ointments. The highest quality variety is dense, turns red or purple after harvesting, and has a thick, fragrant, bitter taste.
At the time Dioscorides is active, in the late 1st century, Roman expeditions and interior explorations are underway at Lake Chad and West Africa. The Romans and Greeks already trade along the coast, thus several medical recipes include plants found in African lands.
Dioscorides says:
"Some include anchusa (alkanet root) to give it a pleasant color, and salt so that it does not spoil. It is astringent and cooling, good for cleaning and mixing with poultices. Taken as a drink it loosens the bowels and cools a heated stomach. It fills up hollow boils, and makes soothing medications for malignancies.
It is a rub for penetrative ulcers, catarrh in the head, and heated eruptions; and a lotion for headache as well as a mouth rinse for the start of a toothache. It is good rubbed on eyelids that have grown hard, and it is good given as a suppository for rosiones [gnawing corrosion] or irritations of the intestines and the vulva."
In the 16th century, Anna Maria Zieglerin (1550 - 1575 AD), a German alchemist, produces a red oil she calls Lion's Blood. Perhaps rosaceum, it has applications in gemstone crafting, medicine production, and potentially in the creation of the Philosopher's Stone.
Non-Fiction Books:
Fiction Books:
READ: Lora Ley Adventures - Germanic Mythology Fiction Series
READ: Reiker For Hire - Victorian Detective Murder Mysteries