A Cytogenetic Overview of Bulgarian Rosa alba L. Essential Oil, Hydrosol and Wastewater – Generated by Water-Steam Distillation on in vivo and in vitro Test-Systems

The main object of this overview is to present our investigations on the safety assessment and some biological activities of the Rosa alba L. products (essential oil, hydrosol, and wastewater discarded during oil distillation) based on the results obtained on three types of test-systems: plant test-system, animal test-system in vivo, and human lymphocytes in vitro. The harmless use of such natural products is essential because of their important role in various spheres of human life - pharmacy, cosmetics, food industry, and others. For this purpose, the biological activity of the respective products must be determined. To obtain more detailed information about the specific effects of the products tested, a complex of cytogenetic tests was used, and various concentrations were tested, applying different experimental schemes.

The results presented here, show that R. alba L. essential oil, its hydrosol, and wastewater did not possess high cytotoxic and genotoxic activities. These effects depended on the chemical components of each rose product, the concentrations applied, and the sensitivity of the test-system used. The tested rose products (essential oil and wastewater) have cytoprotective and genoprotective potential against the direct alkylating agent MNNG.

Data are promising and show that these natural products are good candidates for further use in different sectors of human life.