RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN ESSENTIAL OILS 315 As regards the rose, there are now two principal producing regions in Morocco .' (1) The deep south, in the Dad's Valley, south of the High Atlas. This famous valley, populated by Berbers. who were pacified less than twenty years ago, has for a long time supplied large quantities of dried roses which are used all over North Africa for the preparation of the fragrant rose water so popular among the Moslem population. Prior to the last war substan- tial quantities of dried roses were exported to Europe and America for use in sachets. Transport of the roses out of the valley has usually been by caravan. In the Dad,s, the roses are cultivated in the form of hedges that protect small fields of grain against ravages by sheep and goats. The growing of the roses is a purely native family industry in which the whole population of the valley participates. The plant is probably a form of Rosa damascena, closely related to that grown in Turkey and in Bulgaria. It was introduced from Persia more than 1000 years ago, during the period of the great Arabian invasion of North Africa, reaching the Dad,s by a long route, from oasis to oasis. In 1955 the valley produced roughly 1200 metric tons of roses, about 1000 tons of which were extracted or distilled in two modern plants constructed in 1945. One of these factories is the property of Aromag, a branch of l•.ts. A. Chiris the other belongs to the Soci•t• Florale de l'Atlas and to the Compagnie Fran9aise des Plantes •i Parrum (CAPP), two associated French enterprises. In 1955 these two plants pro- duced 600 to 660 kilograms of rose concrete and some distilled rose oil. Production cannot very well be increased in the coming years, because the supply of roses from the hedges around the native fields is limited. The French administration, which must protect the well-being of the Berbers, cannot permit the laying out of special rose fields because water in the Dad,s Valley is scarce, and the remaining fertile and uncultivated land must be reserved for food crops for the growing population. (2) The north, between Rabat and Mekn•s. Here Pierre Chauvet, a well-known French essential oil producer, and his associates have created thousands of acres of floral plantations (rose, jasmine, jonquil, geranium, etc.) on land where from time immemorial Arabian nomads pitched their black tents and grazed their flocks of sheep. To make these lands produc- tive it was necessary to develop an efficient irrigation system by digging artesian wells modern agricultural equipment (bulldozers, tractors, deep plows, trucks, etc.) had to be imported from the United States selected planting material had to be collected in Southern France and Algeria, brought to Morocco and propagated on a large scale distilleries, extraction plants, boiler houses, repair shops, offices and homes for the technical employees had to be built shelter for the hundreds of agricultural labor had to be provided--altogether a most difficult and complex task in the

316 JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS interior of a country that was still at a pioneer stage of development. Today the visitor to the environs of Khemisset, Tiflet, Tedders and Rabat-- all in northern Morocco--cannot help but be amazed at the extent of these beautiful flower fields which seem to stretch beyond the horizon, and at the modern extraction plants and administration buildings, all constructed in Moorish style and located in the center of the plantations. The rose was introduced to this area from Southern France hence it is the Rosa rentifolia, identical with that cultivated in the Grasse region. On the north Moroccan plantations about 700 to 800 metric tons of roses will be harvested in 1956, with an increase in sight for the coming years. (For details see below.) Including the rose crop of the Dad,s Valley, the total production of rose flowers in Morocco for 1956 will be roughly 2000 metric tons, a quantity far too large to be converted exclusively into concrete. (It amounts to about three times the entire rose crop in the Grasse region.) In 1955 the two above-mentioned factories in the Dad,s, and the factories in the north of Morocco, produced together 1800 to 2000 kilograms of rose concrete, the quantities being about equally divided among the three pro- ducers. Therefore, it is planned for 1956 to convert a good part of the Moroccan rose harvest into distilled rose oil. So much for the rose. Aside from Rosa centifolia, the producers of north Morocco also cultivate and process other flowers on extensive plantations laid out within the past ten years, and some of which have by no means reached full productivity. At the present time their remarkable agricultural organization includes: Khemisset: 625 acres planted with jasmine, tuberose, rose, cassie, geranium, estragon and jonquil. Tiflet: 875 acres planted with geranium and Eucalyptus citriodora. Rabat: 125 acres planted with jasmine. Port-Lyautey: 50 acres planted with the sour (bitter) orange tree. Tedders: 500 acres planted with rose, and 5 acres with tuberose.. Maazir: 275 acres planted with rose. Oulmes: A number of acres being developed for the planting of rose. Menerlaz: About 250 acres planted with rose. To obtain an idea of the importance of essential oil and flower oil produc- tion from these fields one must bear in mind that one acre of jasmine may yield 4500 pounds of blossoms annually, one acre of roses more than 2600 pounds of flowers, and one acre of geranium about 18 pounds of oil. Aside from these plantations the Chauvet organization includes the fol- lowing factories: Khemisset--a plant equipped for hydrodistillation and volatile solvent extraction. Tiflet--a distillery with stills of 20,000 liters capacity each. Tedders--a distillery with stills of new design. Rabat--a volatile solvent extraction plant.