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History of Aromatherapy
The origins of
Aromatherapy date back many centuries and specific dating is hard to
determine but it is believed the uses of aromatic plants, their oils and
scents date back to around 6000BC.
The Egyptians used
fragrant oils for bathing, massage and embalming their dead. They
are credited with inventing a rudimentary still to extract aromatic oils
– probably cedarwood oil. An ancient Egyptian manuscript, said to
date from 1555BC describes remedies and methods for curing illnesses
that are very close to modern day aromatherapy and herbal medicines.
. The Chinese civilisations were also one of the peoples to use
aromatic extracts for curing medical problems – a book written by Shen
Nung around 2700BC, contains cures for ailments involving 366 different
aromatic herbs. The Chinese also found that aromatics had a
use beyond just medicine and burnt incense to their gods; aromatherapy
was linked to massage and acupressure.
The Greeks
acquired a great deal of medical knowledge from the Egyptians.
Hippocrates, the ‘father of modern medicine’ widely practiced using
unguents to treat people. It is reputed he used aromatic
fumigations to rid Athens of the plague. He also prescribed
the use of massage using olive oil that had absorbed the ‘essence’ of
flower petals and herbs and recommended aromatic baths.
During the 11C,
Avicenna progressed the development of steam distillation by inventing a
coiled pipe for use in the distillation process and was a major event in
the development of essential oils and it is still used today.
Avicenna is credited with using the distillation process to extract
essence of Rose and also wrote the Qanun (The Canon of Medicine) in
which 760 ‘drugs’ were considered together with comments on their use
and effectiveness. Avicenna is often referred to
as the “doctor of doctors”.
During the Bubonic
Plague, (the Black Death), in 1300s, herbal preparations were used to
fight the epidemic – pine and frankincense were burnt in the streets.
During the 1500s,
Paracelsus, an alchemist, a doctor and radical thinker challenged the
nature of his learning and began to focus on plants as medicines – he is
actually credited with creating the term “Essence”.
The 1600s were
known as the Golden Age of English Herbalists, among whom was Nicholas
Culpepper who wrote a book entitled “Complete Herbal” in 1653 - has gone
through more than 40 editions to date. By 1700s essential
oils were widely used in medicine.
It was not until
the early part of the 1900s, that Rene-Maurice Gattefosse, a French
chemist, became interested in the use of essential oils for their
medicinal use. His interest was fuelled when, while working,
he severely burnt his arm and plunged it into some liquid which he
thought was water, but was in fact a container of lavender essential
oil. His arm healed very quickly and left no scar tissue.
Gattefosse coined the word “aromatherapy” and in 1937 he wrote a book
entitled “Gattefosse’s Aromatherapy”. This book is widely
read today and is still in print, it was also translated into English.
Another Frenchman,
Dr Jean Valnet, an army surgeon caring for the wounded in WWI, was
having difficulty in saving patients due to gangrene – the antibiotics
were not working. Gattefosse sent Valnet essential oils
(lavender) with a recommendation to use the oils on the shrapnel wounds
and burns. The oils became a part of Valnet’s treatment plan
for both medical and psychiatric problems as they worked so well.
He continued with and conducted research into using essential oils and
published a book on his research in 1964 entitled “The Practice of
Aromatherapy”.
Marguerite Maury,
a French biochemist, made a special contribution to aromatherapy; she
discovered that whilst she was treating her patients with essential oils
for cosmetic problems that not only did their skin clear, they also
experienced pleasant side effects. Maury pioneered the technique
of applying essential oils with massage. In her
book,”Secrets of Life and Youth”, she describes the effects of
aromatherapy. She is also credited with introducing
aromatherapy to Britain in 1967.
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