Healing Roses and Ayurveda

Ayurveda loves indulging in Roses for Beauty and Health

According to Ayurveda, the ancient Indian art and science of healthy living, roses have medicinal and healing properties. Indulging with roses can help to heal the heart, cool the body, and soothe the mind and the skin. This plant helps to keep the vata and kapha doshas balanced. It helps to decrease pitta dosha.

What Makes Rose so Popular?

Used in making Ayurvedic medicines, cosmetics, potpourri, and desserts, the Indian rose is cool and mildly bitter-sweet. It has a good effect on your digestive system, and is also diuretic in nature. “Rose tea, especially, heals stomach ailments and combats fatigue and lethargy.

It is not a coincidence that the rose is associated with romance, because it balances Sadhaka Pitta, the subdosha of Pitta that governs the emotions and their effect on the heart. Sadhaka Pitta can go out of balance more easily in summer, when the hot, humid weather increases all aspects of Pitta dosha, the mind-body operator that governs heat, digestion, and metabolism in the body.

There are some specific ailments that are helped by the rose. These include amenorrhea (absence of menstrual flow), inflamed eyes, dizziness, headache due to Pitta aggravation, sore throat, enlarged tonsils, nervousness, grief, dullness of the skin and acne caused by Pitta imbalances.

So there’s a physiological reason that roses have been the ideal gift to express love and forgiveness for thousands of years. They literally soothe the heart and emotions. What may surprise you is that the rose also balances the mind. It enhances the coordination between Sadhaka Pitta and Prana Vata (the subdosha of Vata that governs the brain, head, chest, respiration, sensory perception, and the mind). Other properties are equally surprising.

The rose is cooling, yet it enhances agni, the digestive fire. This is a unique quality which makes it balancing for all three doshas.

Roses for Inner Beauty

• The rose enlivens inner beauty, helps the skin to radiate inner glow out to others, and enhances all seven dhatus (body tissues). When used over time, the essence of rose pacifies the heat in the blood, and thus keeps imbalances in the skin from erupting.
• Moisturize, soothe and cool the skin by topically, using rose water as a cooling spritz for face and neck anytime that you feel too hot.
• It helps remove any traces of impurities; cleanses and invigorates the skin.
• In addition, add rose water and some dried rose petals to your bath. It feels very luxurious and creates a fragrant, rejuvenating experience that lingers on the skin for hours.
• Massaging the body with rose and sandalwood enhances beauty. The essence of rose augments the glow and complexion of the skin.

Little ways to include Rose in your Daily Life!

• Ingesting roses can be easy and delicious. Add a small handful of dried rose petals to a small handful of hibiscus. This makes an excellent tea for hot summer afternoons. (learn about the unknown facts about Hibiscus)
• Add a dash of food grade rose water to a glass of sparkling water for a refreshing bubbly drink. You could even garish it with a rose petal or two for a more festive occasion.
• Make with rose syrup, fresh rose petals, dash of lemon and basil seeds infused drink for refreshing, hydrating drink after a hot tiring day! Here is a quick recipe
• Try these Summer Recipes:
  1. Sweet Rose Petal Lassi
  2. Rose Petal Milk (thandai)
  3. Rose Petal Thirst Quencher
  4. Gulkand: Add this tonic to milk and desserts or have it just as a mouth sweetener after food.

Medicinal Uses of Roses
The rose flower has various medicinal properties. Roses contain vitamin C, pectin, and citric acids.

• Rose water is an effective astringent that reduces swelling of capillaries beneath the skin.
• Rose petal tea is efficient in cleansing the gallbladder and liver, and it helps improve bile secretion. Rose petals are dried and crushed to make tea.
• Rose tea also helps in alleviating mild sore throats and bronchial infections. The tea cools the body and reduces fever-related rashes.
• Rose petals are an important ingredient in eye washes as well, as it is antiseptic in nature.
• Rose water benefits include nourishing the scalp and improving hair growth. It is medicinally used as an antibacterial, antiseptic, and anti-inflammatory product. It is also used to treat dry scaly skin, dermatitis, and eczema.
• Rose essential oil is used along with carrier oils such as almond or grapefruit to treat various illnesses like hemorrhage, liver problems, nausea, fatigue, ulcers, asthma, dehydration, and bacterial infections of the stomach, colon, and urinary tract.
• Rose leaves are used in preparing rose water from the Persian variety. Rose water prepared from rose leaves brings relief from constipation, clears blood, and soothes the mind. In addition, it is used on the treatment of measles and chickenpox.

There are no known side effects related to the use of rose water or rose oil; nevertheless, it is best to consult when using any product as a means of treatment.