What is Aromatherapy?
The word Aromatherapy is derived from two words: ‘Aroma’ meaning fragrance and ‘Therapy’ meaning treatment.
Aromatherapy is described as being the use of flower, plant and essential oils for personal well being in the form of healing, relaxation and energising. Treatments can be varied from full body massages to part body (e.g. back/neck massage, legs only etc).
The History of Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is a modern word used to describe the remedies and techniques of well being that date back as far as 3,500 BC. Aromatherapy was used by the most ancient civilisations; Egypt, China and India.
The Chinese were known to have used aromatic plants for well being. They did this in the form of burning incense, which in turn created harmony and balance within oneself. The oldest surviving medical book in China dates back to around 2,700 BC. This book was written by Shen Nung and contains information on over 300 plants.
InIndia, the traditional medicine known as Ayurveda has been practiced for over 3,000 years. The main aspect of this is to use plant extracts for eating but more commonly for aromatic massage. Although India is said to be one of the founders of modern day aromatherapy there is no real evidence of this.
The Egyptians founded the technique for distillation of oils by inventing a machine to do so. Although cedarwood oil was extracted using the distillation process, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and myrrh was also used by Egyptians but were in the form of infused oils. These oils were used for embalming and with herbal preparations were also used for spiritual, medicinal, fragrant and cosmetics.
Over the centuries more and more people learned about essential oils through travellers and explorers. This in tern led to more plants being discovered and used for healing and relaxation. Such oils include lavender – 12th century and frankincense/juniper/rose – 15th century.
In 1977 an Englishman Robert Tisserand wrote the first book on aromatherapy in English entitled ‘The Art of Aromatherapy’. This book became the inspiration and reference for almost every future author on the subject for the next 20 years.
In today’s practices of aromatherapy the mysteries of combating the effects of stress, restoring beauty, tranquillity and harmony are being introduced into the lives of many people.
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