Gul-e-Surkh (Dried Rose): Which Rose It Is and the Water Test
Gul-e-surkh (gul e surkh, “the red flower”) is the Unani name for the dried flower of the damask rose, Rosa damascena, the same rose that gives Irani and Kashmiri rose water its smell. Most loose “gulab ke phool” at a pansari are a different, cheaper rose. This page is about telling them apart, buying well, and understanding what the old books meant when they called rose a mufarreh.
Quick facts
- English: damask rose, dried rose buds or petals (gul-e-surkh is the Unani drug name)
- Urdu/Hindi: gulab, gul-e-surkh, sukha gulab; Arabic: ward; Persian: gul, gol-e-sorkh, gol-e-Mohammadi
- Scientific name: Rosa × damascena Mill. (Rosaceae), a very old garden hybrid, not a wild species
- Part sold: whole dried buds (ghoncheh) or loose dried petals
- Main uses: gulkand, arq, sharbat, tea, ubtan, and as the lead ingredient of several Unani compounds
- Safety flag: low, as long as the petals were grown to be eaten and not dyed
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Gul-e-surkh in English: which rose is it?
It’s the damask rose. The botanical name is Rosa × damascena, and the little cross means hybrid: botanists read it as a cross involving Rosa gallica and Rosa moschata, with a third parent, Rosa fedtschenkoana, identified by modern DNA work, so nobody has ever found it growing wild and nobody ever will. It’s old. So old that its home town is a matter of legend, and the Latin name points at Damascus only because that’s where Europeans met it.
Today the biggest growers are Iran (around Kashan), Turkey (Isparta) and Bulgaria, with Pakistan growing it on a small scale and Kashmir keeping a long tradition with it, and the names travel with the trade: in Persian the flower is gol-e-Mohammadi, and the Arabic ward is why the Unani liver compound is called Dabeed-ul-Ward.
Here is the confusion that matters at the shop. “Gulab” in a pansari’s sack is often Rosa centifolia (the cabbage rose) or a garden hybrid grown for the flower market, and these smell of rose too, only weaker, with a broader, thinner petal. Cheap gul-e-surkh is probably not damask. The name is free; the flower isn’t.
How gul-e-surkh is grown and dried
Damask roses flower once a year, for a few weeks in spring, and pickers go out at dawn because the scent oils fade as the day warms. Half open buds are picked for drying. Open flowers go to the still.
Drying is done in shade. Sun bleaches the colour to brown and burns off the smell. A good lot keeps a deep pink to purplish red, feels papery but not brittle, and smells of rose when you open the bag, not of dust. Irani gul-e-surkh is sold mostly as whole buds; loose petals are what’s left when buds break up in transit, or a cheaper rose crumbled to look like them.
The pansari’s check: water, not your nose
Drop five or six petals into half a glass of plain water and wait ten minutes. Real dried rose tints the water very faintly, if at all. A pink or red bloom spreading from the petals within minutes means they’ve been dyed, and dyed petals belong in the bin, not in gulkand or on your face. The same check, with photos of what dye looks like, is in our rose petal powder guide, and it beats smelling the bag, because sellers spray cheap petals with rose essence and a sprayed bag smells wonderful for a week. Smell lies. Dye can’t be sprayed off.
What Unani says about gul-e-surkh, and what the evidence says
Unani texts class gul-e-surkh as cold and dry in the first degree, with a touch of warmth from its scent. It’s called a mufarreh (something that “gladdens” the heart and spirits), a muqawwi-e-qalb (strengthener of the heart), a mild qabiz (astringent) when dried, and a gentle mulayyin (loosener of the bowels) when fresh. The petals were also smelt or applied for headaches and used in collyriums for the eyes, and the flower appears in dozens of compounds, among them Majoon and Jawarish Dabeed-ul-Ward, several Itrifals, Gulkand, Arq-e-Gulab and Sharbat-e-Gulab.
Mufarreh deserves a plain reading. In Unani the heart is the seat of the spirits, so anything that lifts mood, cools a hot temperament and smells pleasant counts as a mufarreh, and “good for the heart” means that calming, slightly cooling pleasantness rather than blood pressure or arteries. Reading it as cardiology is a translation error.
What has actually been tested? A 2011 review in the Iranian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences lists the traditional uses and then goes through the laboratory work: antioxidant chemistry, effects on the nervous system in mice and rats, relaxation of airway muscle in guinea pigs, antimicrobial tests in dishes. Almost all of it is animal or test tube work. The little human data there is concerns rose essential oil, not dried petals.
- Reasonably supported: the scent is pleasant and many people find it calming; dried petals carry antioxidant pigments (anthocyanins) and flavonoids, as most dark petals do.
- Preliminary: effects on sleep, pain, seizures and airway spasm, shown mainly in animals or with the oil.
- Tradition only: “strengthens the heart”, clears the mind, cools the blood, improves the liver.
- Unsupported: any claim that rose petals fix a disease. Nothing in that review supports one.
So: a pleasant, mild, food safe flower with a huge tradition and thin human evidence. Buy it for the kitchen, the tea pot and the ubtan bowl.
Where gul-e-surkh goes: Unani products and home uses
No methods here. Each has its own page; this is the map.
- Gulkand: petals layered with sugar and left in the sun until they collapse into a preserve. Our gulkand recipe covers both methods and the honey rule for children.
- Arq-e-gulab and rose water: the distillate of fresh flowers. How to tell real rose water from scented water explains the labels.
- Rose tea and sharbat: dried buds steeped, or petals cooked into syrup. See rose tea and sharbat, safely.
- Petal powder and ubtan: ground dried petals for face packs, covered in the rose petal powder post.
- Majoon Dabeed-ul-Ward: the liver majoon whose first-listed ingredient on Hamdard’s Indian label is gul surkh (Rosa damascena). Read what the liver majoon actually claims before buying it.
- Itrifals and other majoons: rose appears as a secondary, scenting and “cooling” ingredient in many. The Unani & Herbal, Decoded hub lists the ones we’ve covered.
For anything bought as a medicine, the pack or a qualified hakeem sets the amount. Food use is kitchen amounts: a teaspoon of dried buds in a pot of tea, a handful of petals to a jar of sugar, a pinch over kheer.
How to buy and store dried rose petals
- Prefer whole buds over loose petals. A bud holds its scent inside, while loose petals expose every surface to air and light, so buy 50 to 100 g of buds at a time, which is a month or two of tea. Buds win.
- Look at the colour. Deep pink to dark red, fading slightly at the tips, is normal. Uniform bright magenta on every petal is suspicious. Brown means sun dried or old.
- Press a bud. It should flex and spring back a little. Buds that crumble to dust are over dried or stale.
- Run the water test on a few petals before you use the batch (above).
- Ask one question: “Khane ke liye hai ya ubtan ke liye?” Pansaris sell two grades. Ubtan grade is often dyed or sprayed and is not for the kitchen.
- Store in a glass jar, lid tight, in a dark cupboard, away from the stove, and expect the scent to drop noticeably after about a year, when the petals are still safe, just dull.
Price is a signal. Irani buds, small, tight, deep red to purple and intensely fragrant, cost several times what loose desi petals do per 100 g, with Kashmiri damask somewhere between. If a bag of “gul e surkh irani” costs the same as loose gulab, one of the two labels is wrong. And for ubtan, any clean undyed petal is fine; paying Irani prices for a face pack is a waste.
Never eat florist roses or petals from a wedding garland: cut flowers are sprayed with pesticides and fungicides that aren’t meant for food, many are dyed, and only petals sold as edible, or from your own unsprayed bush, go in tea or gulkand. Dried rose in quantity loosens the bowels in some people, and gulkand is mostly sugar, so people with diabetes should count it. Gulkand made with honey never goes to a child under 1 year old. Rose pollen can set off hay fever in sensitive people, and a petal pack can cause contact rash; stop if skin itches or reddens. In pregnancy, rose tea and food amounts are generally considered fine, but Unani compounds containing gul-e-surkh often carry other ingredients, so check each product with a doctor or hakeem. For any product sold as medicine, the pack or a qualified practitioner sets the amount, and persistent pain, jaundice, blood in stool or weight loss need a doctor rather than a rose.
Gul-e-surkh questions people search
Gul e surkh in English?
Damask rose, sold as dried rose buds or dried rose petals. “Gul-e-surkh” literally means red flower and is the Unani drug name; the same flower is gulab in Urdu and Hindi, ward in Arabic and gol-e-Mohammadi in Persian.
Gul e surkh botanical name?
Rosa × damascena Mill., in the rose family (Rosaceae), the × showing it’s a hybrid of ancient garden origin rather than a wild species.
Gul e surkh ke fayde kya hain?
Honestly: a pleasant, calming scent, a cooling flavour in tea and sharbat, and a gentle loosening effect on the bowels in some people. Unani tradition adds heart and mind “strengthening”, but that is tradition. Human research on dried petals is scarce.
Gul e surkh irani vs desi, what’s the difference?
Irani is damask rose from Iran, sold as tight, dark, very fragrant whole buds at a high price, while desi is locally grown rose, often a different variety, lighter in scent and far cheaper. Kashmiri damask sits between them.
Which rose is used in Unani medicine?
Rosa damascena, the damask rose, is the classical gul-e-surkh of Unani texts. In practice, manufacturers and pansaris sometimes substitute other fragrant roses, which is one reason to read labels and check petals.
How do I store dried rose petals?
In a tightly closed glass jar in a dark, cool cupboard. Light and heat kill the scent fastest. Whole buds keep their smell far longer than loose petals; expect a clear drop after about a year either way.
Are florist rose petals safe to eat?
No. Cut flowers are grown with pesticides and fungicides not approved for food, many are dyed or sprayed with scent, and only petals sold as edible, or from a bush you know wasn’t sprayed, should go into tea, gulkand or sharbat.
Which Unani products contain gul e surkh?
Majoon and Jawarish Dabeed-ul-Ward lead with it, and it appears in gulkand, Arq-e-Gulab, Sharbat-e-Gulab and several itrifals and majoons as a cooling and scenting ingredient. Check the ingredient list on the pack; the Urdu will say gul-e-surkh or gulab.
How can I tell if dried rose petals are dyed?
Soak a few in half a glass of water for ten minutes. Undyed petals barely colour the water; dyed ones release a pink or red cloud within minutes. Dyed petals aren’t for eating or for the face.
Is gul e surkh good for the liver?
Unani tradition pairs rose with liver compounds like Dabeed-ul-Ward, but there’s no human evidence that rose petals fix a liver problem. Jaundice, dark urine, pale stool or pain under the right ribs need a doctor and blood tests, not a rose product.
Bottom line
Gul-e-surkh is the damask rose, dried. Buy whole, dark, fragrant buds, run the water test, keep them in a dark jar, and use them as a food and a scent, which is what they have always been best at. The “heart” claims describe a mood. The research is mostly in animals. The one real safety issue is eating petals that were never meant to be eaten: dyed, sprayed or from a florist.