Lesson 1 - Introduction To Aromatherapy

Question 1

Who was the first person to coin the phrase ‘aromatherapie’ and in what year?

Answer 1

Rene-Maurice Gattefosse in 1937

Question 2

Provide a general definition of Aromatherapy?

Answer 2

The many uses of volatile aromatic essential oils which have been extracted from plant material. (The therapeutic use of essential oils).

Question 3

Name 6 things essential oils can be used for:

Answer 3

1. Physical
2. Emotional
3. Mental Health
4. Wellbeing
5. Spiritual
6. Esoteric

Question 4

Name 3 ways a layperson could use essential oils:

Answer 4

1. Add to your beauty regime.
2. Create a signature perfume.
3. Add an aroma/ambience to your home.

Question 5

Name 3 things that assist you in determining which essential oils you will choose?

Answer 5

1. What you will be blending for.
2. Your focus.
3. The results you wish to obtain.

Question 6

Jan Kusmirek broadly defines aromatherapy as:

Answer 6

“The use of pure essential oils to seek to influence, to change or modify, mind, body or spirit; physiology or mood.”

Question 7

Who wrote ‘Perspectives in Aromatherapy: Fragrance: The psychology and biology of perfume, Elsevier Applied Science’.

Answer 7

Jan Kusmirek

Question 8

Essential oils are:

Answer 8

Highly ___________________ substances.

Question 9

Each essential oil has a complex chemical structure, which, depending on the oil, could consist of how many chemical compounds?

Answer 9

Anywhere between 30 - 500 different chemical compounds.

Question 10

Essential oil chemical compounds can be a combination of:

Answer 10

Acids, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, esters, phenols, oxides and terpenes.

Question 11

Each of the essential oil chemical compounds (acids, aldehydes, ketones, esters, phenols, oxides and terpenes) have their own properties which result in the essential oil being:

Answer 11

A complex synergy of the properties of its chemical components.

Question 12

Can scientists artificially reproduce the individual chemical compounds of essential oils in the lab?

Answer 12

Some but not all. And they cannot duplicate the complex synergy of compounds that naturally occurs in an essential oil.

Question 13

Science can produce synthetic fragrance oils.

A) Do they smell like pure essential oils?
B) Do they have any therapeutic effect?

Answer 13

A) They do not smell like pure essential oils.
B) As they are not complex chemical compounds, they don’t have the therapeutic effect that only pure essential oils have.