Persian gardens reflect the special popularity of plants with Iranian people. The plants in the Persian gardens have always been native and in full harmony with their context and climate. This has contributed to the stability and continuity of Iranian gardens over time and across geographical regions and has created a sense of belonging to them. Much of the usefulness and stability of Iranian gardens can be attributed to these native plants that have therapeutic, healing, and semantic functions. These plants have a special place in Iranian culture. Unfortunately, today, inadequate knowledge of native plants that are compatible with the conditions of Iran has made these species extinct. Iranian parks and urban landscapes have been filled with foreign and non-original plants that are inconsistent with the climatic and cultural contexts of Iranian regions. Due to rapid and unpleasant changes in the present era, the native plants have been forgotten. The purpose of this study seeks to introduce and identify the characteristics of the Musk rose, one of the original and native flowers planted in Iranian gardens and houses. The concern is that this flower has been overlooked for many years and no longer can be seen in parks and green spaces. Even knowledge of this flower is scanty. Information about this flower is limited to some travelogues. However, not much is available on the features of this flower, and only its name has been mentioned as one of the native flowers of Iran. The required data for this study were gathered through a bibliographical method, field studies, and interviews with residents of the cities and villages of Yazd and Kerman, and the head of botanical garden research. The results of these studies show the physical, semantic, and functional characteristics of this flower and confirm that this flower design has been used in some decorations. During the field research, data about this flower was found in the central regions of Iran.

The seasonal variation of volatile oil compositions (VOCs) from fresh flowers of Persian Musk rose was investigated by Combi PAL Headspace Techniques. In this study, a total number of 21 VOCs were detected by headspace on the Combi PAL System and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-GC/MS) from Rosa moschata Herrm. at different seasons which was representing 92.53-99.37% of total VOCs. The analysis of VOCs at different seasons detected the major compounds: Phenyl ethyl alcohol (30.68-77.36%), 1-Nonadecene (1.01-30.42%), n-Nonadecane (4.61-14.04%), n-Heneicosane (4.47-12.07%) and 1-Tricosene (0-5.91%). Phenylpropanoids content varied significantly over time, with a low level during September and maximum content in May. In contrast to phenylpropanoids contents, the high level of fatty acid derivatives was realized during September. In all of seasons a low level of terpenoids derivatives was emitted from Persian Musk rose flowers. The results of this research suggest that the fragrance characteristics of R. moschata resulted from its specific composition and can be manipulated by seasonal changes and environmental conditions.

In order to study the optimized parameters for the production of rose water, a factorial experiment was conducted using three factors A) locality, B) flower organ, and C) flower-to-distilled water ratio (FDWR). The quality of rose water was assessed by essential oil, and phenyl ethyl alcohol content, pH, acid, ester, oxidation, and iodine number. The essential oils in rose water were extracted and analyzed by GC and GC/MS. There were significant differences between flowers and petals for all the traits except acid and iodine number. For FDWR, there was a significant difference between all traits except acid number. The amounts of essential oil, acidity, oxidation, and iodine numbers were decreased drastically by increasing FDWR. There was no significant difference between localities for traits, but the response of FDWR in both locations was not similar. The higher essential oil content (14.6 mg/100 mL) and iodine number (63.33) were obtained in 1:2 kg/L FDWR. The plant material by FDWR interaction was significant for oil content, pH, and acid number, i.e. the higher oil content (16.03 mg/100 mL) was obtained from petals in 1:2 kg/L FDWR. The higher values for essential oil, ester, oxidation and iodine number were obtained from the petals. A decreasing trend in the amount of methanol, ethanol and phenyl ethyl alcohol was observed with FDWR reduction. A comparison of the mean percentages of the main oil components in the rose water showed higher amounts of citronellol and phenyl ethyl alcohol and a lower percentage of geraniol in the Qamsar samples.

Identification of genetic diversity and classification of genetic resources (germplasm) are of important and essential activities in breeding and management of plant genetic resources. In order to study the genetic diversity of rose, twenty genotypes were analyzed using six Conserved DNA-Derived Polymorphism (CDDP) and 20 RAPD markers. Matrix genetic distance ranged from 0.04 to 0.77 in CDDP and from 0.05 to 0.79 in RAPD marker analysis. The level of polymorphism generated by CDDP markers (100%) was similar to RAPD marker. Cluster analysis for CDDP and RAPD markers revealed that genotypes were grouped in three clusters. The current study showed CDDP marker very well differentiated rose genotypes from each other. This is the first report of using targeted DNA region molecular marker (CDDP) for genetic diversity analysis in rose in comparison with RAPD markers. We introduce CDDP as a new molecular markers system for evaluating rose germplasm.