PETER F. WILDE B.Sc., Ph.D., F.R.I.C., F.L.S.

Dr. Peter Wilde, an English scientist, began to grow and extract oil from old-fashioned English cottage garden roses in 1986. Being dis-satisfied with traditional fragrant oil preparation processes, Dr. Wilde developed the use of HFC 134a as his preferred solvent.

In 1987, the British Government gave him a £ Sterling 22,000 grant to assist his English Rose Oil Project. 70,000 carefully chosen rose bushes were planted around his home in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, England and small-scale equipment was built and perfected.

In 1988, this work won a British Government (Department of Trade and Industry) £ Sterling 37,500 S.M.A.R.T. Award and an "Enterprise Initiative" Award of £ 6,500 to assist in the design of packaging for his products.

This project was also acknowledged to be "Class A" by the European Commission who offered an award of 375,000 ECU ($ US 275,000) under the BritEuram SME scheme in 1993.

By 1989, Dr. Wilde (as Wilde & Co.) had produced and sold the first English rose oil to be made for 250 years. It was first displayed at the Chelsea Flower Show in May 1989. He sold his products in Harrods of Knightsbridge and other good stores in UK, USA and Europe. His most valued clients included Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother and the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Dr. Wilde visited Highgrove (which was then her home) on several occasions.

This project offered : not only a new, environmentally acceptable process but also new 'alternative' crops for farmers to grow, producing novel sources of income for them, the opportunity to develop income from tourism, import substitution and novel products for export.

BIO-DATA

At 66 years old, Dr. Peter Wilde is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry in 1969. He is a Member of the Royal Horticultural Society, The Royal National Rose Society, is a 'Friend' of the Chelsea Physic Garden and The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and a Member of the Society for Economic Botany (New York Botanical Garden). He has presented his work at master-classes in the New York Botanical Garden and at the US National Botanical Garden in Washington D.C.