Hyderabad: With the holy month of Ramzan around the corner, sale of perfumes/ attars has shot up.
Most Muslims prefer attar to synthetic perfumes since it doesn’t contain alcohol.
Mr Md. Haroon, a third generation attar seller, said, “There are two ways of making attar — one by distillation using natural attars and the other by blending. Most of the attars here are made by blending attars. We call them ‘duplicate’ attars since aromatic chemicals are mixed to get a particular scent. One cannot be absolutely sure about getting the right combination hence the attar in every bottle smells different.”
Mr Haroon said blending involved mixing a combination of essential oils or synthetic aromas or both. “In some cases, synthetic chemicals are used as essential oils are expensive. Plant or flower extracts are used in the distillation process; flowers like rose, lilly, jasmine, and sandalwood are used. These attars are expensive and not everyone can afford them.”
Mr Abdul Kareem, attar shop owner, said, “What attracts visitors are the shiny bottles that are placed sequentially. Dur-ing Ramzan, the markets are brightly-lit, the attar bottles look very attractive. The important thing which every customer should remember that all that glitters is not gold.”
“While purchasing att-ars, customers should opt for plant extracts and not blends, since there are chances that the blended attars might be adulterated with alcohol. Even if it contains 0.1 ml alcohol, it cannot be classified as pure,” he said.
Mr Anand Jain, an attar shop owner at Pathergatti, said, “Hindus consider attar sacred and use them for ceremonies. Natural perfumes had been ruling the market since ages but the synthetic perfumes are in demand these days since they give the customers new choices.”
