History of Aromatherapy

Although the history of aromatherapy goes way back in time, there is popular belief that aromatherapy is a modern concept. It is just that the term aromatherapy has recently been formed in the twentieth century.

What is Aromatherapy

Essentially, aromatherapy is a type of herbal type medicine that largely incorporates the use of essential oils from flowers, plants, and trees.

It involves of the use of pure essential oils which have been steam distilled from their originating plants and are believed to help relieve a wide variety of ailments and illnesses.

Chinese Were The First To Use Aromatherapy

According to ancient history, the Chinese were the first to practice aromatherapy. The Chinese started using the aromatic plants because of the ability of essential oils to heal the body.

They also believed that aromatherapy could be achieved by burning incense which in turn would create a more harmonious atmosphere and that would also create a relaxation in the body.

Later, the history of aromatherapy shows that the Egyptians pioneered the techniques that allowed for the distillation of essential oils, which could now be extracted even though the methods of distillation being used were still rather crude.

Used for Medicinal as well as Cosmetic Purposes

As a matter of fact, some of the ancient Egyptian tombs, which have been opened in modern times, have given off faint scents of herbs and revealed traces of herbs, which prove to show that the Egyptians were indeed among the first to use aromatherapy.

The Egyptians combined essential oils with infused oils and used such combinations for medicinal as well as for cosmetics purposes. What’s more, the history of aromatherapy that is credited to the Egyptians dates back as many as five thousand years back.

The history also records the Greeks as users of essential oils, which they used for preserving and cooking foods, for medicinal purposes and it even was part of their religious practice.

Ideas derived from aromatherapy were also used by Greeks in designing as well as laying out their towns and this was evident from the fact that they left open spaces especially to allow for burning herbs which would ensure that the air remained free from all manner of germs.

The Greeks also learnt much about the practice of aromatherapy from the Egyptians, especially around the period 500B.C. when they set up medical schools on what was known as the Island of Cos, which school gave us Hippocrates, and this too is an important period in the history of aromatherapy.

Much later, the history recorded how distillation techniques came to be improved by Persians and more particularly the Persian physician called Avicenna.

Later, aromatic herbs came to be used during the infamous Bubonic Plague to disinfect the polluted air.

Aromatherapy history also took another important turn in which the practice began to be linked to the health benefits of using essential oils, and this link has not been disproved even in our modern times.

However, the modern history of aromatherapy shows that aromatherapy is now mostly being used in the beauty industry and the health industry has not really taken to it like in the times of old.

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