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Aromatherapy is the therapeutic use of plant-derived, aromatic essential oils to promote physical and psychological well-being.

What is Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy, or essential oils therapy, is using a plant’s aroma-producing oils (essential oils) to treat varying ailments. Essential oils are taken from a plant’s flowers, leaves, stalks, bark, rind, or roots. The oils are then mixed with another substance (such as oil, alcohol, or a lotion) and then placed directly on the skin, sprayed in the air, or inhaled. You can also massage the oils into the skin or pour them into your bath water. Aromatherapy as used today originated in Europe and has been practiced there since the early 1900s.

Practitioners of aromatherapy believe that the fragrances in the oils provide both psychological and physical benefits when inhaled which stimulates the part of the brain that controls memory and emotion.

History of Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is the use of volatile plant oils, including essential oils for psychological and physical well-being. Although the term aromatherapy was not used until the 20th century, the foundations of aromatherapy date back thousands of years. The use of essential oils in particular date back nearly one thousand years.

• Chinese - May have been one of the first cultures to use aromatic plants for well-being i.e. Burning incense to promote harmony and balance.

• Egyptians – Invented a rudimentary distillation machine that allowed for the crude extraction of cedarwood oil e.g. Oils of cedarwood, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and myrrh were used to embalm the dead.

• Greeks – Recognized the medicinal and aromatic benefits of plants from the Egyptians. Hippocrates, commonly called the “father of medicine” practiced fumigations for aromatic and medicinal benefit.

• Roman Empire – Built upon the knowledge of the Egyptians and Greeks. Discorides wrote a book called De MateriaMedica that described the properties of 500 plants. Discorides studied distillation.

• 11th Century – A major event for the distillation of essential oils came with the invention of a coiled cooling pipe