Origin of Modern Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy means "treatment using scents". It refers to a particular branch of herbal medicine that uses concentrated plant oils called essential oils to improve physical and emotional health and restore the balance to the whole persona.

Aromatic plants oils have been used therapeutically for thousands of years. Ancient Vedic literature of India and historic Chinese and Arabic medical texts document the importance of aromatic oils for health and spirituality. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates, the "father of modern medicine", used fragrant fumigations to rid Athens of plague, and Roman soldiers preserved their strength by bathing in scented oils and undergoing regular massage. However, the Egyptians were the most noted of the ancient aroma therapists. Physicians from all over the world are reputed to have traveled to Egypt to learn aromatic techniques.

Aromatherapy is believed to have come to the West at the time of the Crusades. Historical records show that essential oils were used during Plague in the 14th century. In the 16th and 17th centuries, aromatherapy was popular among the great European herbalists. But it was not until the 18th and 19th centuries that scientists were able to identify many of the individual components of plant chemistry.

Research enabled the scientists to extract the active components of medical plants. Ironically, this lead to the development of pharmaceutical drugs and a rejection of plant medicine. However, in the 1920s, the devotion of a French chemist, Rene Maurice Gatletosse, initiated a modern revival in plant oils. Gatletosse discovered that lavender oil quickly healed burns on his hand and went on to show that many essential oils were better antiseptics than their synthetic counter parts. He coined the term "Aromatherapic" to encapsulate the healing effects of scented oils. Later a French army surgeon, Dr.Jean Volnet, successfully used essential oils to treat soldiers wounded in battle as well as patients in a psychiatric hospital. In 1954 Volnet published Aroma therapy, still considered by many to be a bible of aromatherapy.

In the 1950s, Marquerite Maury, an Austrian therapist and biochemist, introduced the concept of using essential oils in massage and established the first aromatherapy clinics in Britain, France and Switzerland.

From this varied history, aromatherapy has evolved to become one of the most valued of modern complimentary medicine.