Minerva Products

AROMATHERAPY... FOR A HEALTHIER LIFESTYLE

HISTORY OF AROMATHERAPY

The word "aromatherapy" literally means therapy through aroma or scent, without
specifying the source of the scent. But aromatherapy in practice uses only essential oils,
and no other form of scent.

Less than twenty years ago, most people outside of France had not heard of
aromatherapy, even though the use of essential oils for healing purposes has existed for
some 5000 years.

The oldest medicinal text on essential oils in existence is recorded on

two clay tablets
from the Sumerian period of Mesopotamia.
Archeologists have discovered a clay pot for
distilling plant essences in a gravesite that dates
back to 5500 B.C. Essential oils and resins
exceeded the value of precious metals and gems.

Essential oils were used by the Egyptians as
perfume offerings to their gods. The temples
contained small rooms where these aromatic
substances were prepared. Inscriptions have been
found in these rooms detailing the formulas of very expensive perfumes used by the
Pharaohs and their families. The priests used resins, balms and powders in many different
ways for magical and religious ceremonies, for embalming the dead and in medicinal
preparations. King Tut's tomb held more than 100 gallons of scented oils and
emollients…the jars and pots still contain their odor after thousands of years!

The Greeks further advanced the use of aromatic oils. The essential oils were applied
externally to affect the internal organs and tissue. Thus came the first split of the mind
and body in healing. Magical medicine was abandoned in favor of scientific materialism.

India, China and Japan also used incense, perfumed waters, macerated oils for
therapeutic purposes and for religious ceremony. The Materia Medica of Li Shih-Chen
described almost 2000 herbs. The essential oils of 20 of these were also described. A few
were Rose, Jasmine, Chamomile and Ginger.

The rise of Christianity in the fourth century deemed the use of aroma as decadent and it
would be many centuries before Western society would gradually accept many of ancient
traditional olfactory practices and beliefs.

After the fall of Rome many doctors fled east and their knowledge migrated to the Arabic
world. In the 11th century the Persian philosopher and physician Avicenna developed the
method of steam distillation. His ideas were brought back to Europe by soldiers returning
from the Crusades, and essential oils once again became popular as medicines and
perfumes.

During the 19th century, the introduction of industrialized production led to a decline in the
quality and popularity of essential oils, but soon that changed. When a French chemist,
Rene Gattefosse, burnt his hand in his lab in 1910, he stuck his hand in a vat of lavender
oil and noticed that the burn healed rapidly with little scarring. This prompted him to study
the therapeutic actions of essential oils. He coined the term aromatherapy to describe the
healing effects of scented oils.

By the 1960's Dr. Jean Valnet was using essential oils to treat specific medical and
psychiatric disorders, and around the same time Marguerite Maury, a biochemist and
beautician, set up the first aromatherapy clinics in Switzerland, France and Britain.
Outside France, the medicinal and therapeutic potential of essential oils has only recently
been appreciated, but aromatherapy is now one of the most popular of modern
Complementary therapies.