Distilled perfume / rose water
Perfume destilado y agua de rosas
- Date
- c. 850 · confidence medium
- Place
- Baghdad and Damascus (al-Kindi); Shiraz, Persia (Avicenna)
- Credited to
- al-Kindi (Book of the Chemistry of Perfume); Ibn Sina (steam distillation)
- People
- 👤 Al-Kindi801–870
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
The extraction of essential oils and floral waters by steam distillation, systematised by al-Kindi with over a hundred recipes. Perfumery as a chemical industry.
What it led to
- the trade in rose water from Persia across Eurasia
- European perfumery (Grasse, Venice) after the Crusades
- the pharmacy of essences and aromatherapy
Built on
- Alembic stillc. 800
- rose cultivation in Persia
Made possible
- Distillation of alcoholc. 1150
- Distillation of alcohol
- Grasse perfume industry