What is Aromatherapy?

Question 1

What is aromatherapy?

Answer 1

• Aromatherapy is the art and science of enhancing health and well being with essential oils.
• Essential oils connect us to the natural health-enhancing properties of plants. They are very versatile in their abilities to nurture, heal, support and rejuvenate body, mind and spirit. Because of their volatility and complex molecular nature, essential oils are easily absorbed directly into the body through the skin. When inhaled, transmission of the aroma is sent to the limbic system, which triggers neurochemicals that interact directly with the brain and thus affect emotion.
• Most essential oils are used today as flavorings in foods and beverages, fragrance in perfumes, body care and cleaning products. Less than 5% of all essential oils are used in aromatherapy.

Question 2

History of Aromatherapy

Answer 2

• Scented ointments, powders, waters, oils and incense were part of ancient worship, medicine and culture in Egypt, India, China and other early cultures. The use of exotic plants with sensual, heady and intoxicating scents was in great demand by the rich and the powerful.
• No one knows when and where the first essential oils were distilled from plants. While credit is sometimes given to Avicenna (980-1037), an Arab alchemist who used essential oils extensively and who greatly improved the process, distillation was invented centuries earlier.
• The first synthetic fragrance (coumarin) was produced in 1868. these new manufactured scents lacked the whole-plant essences and true aromatherapy power of essential oils

Question 3

Modern Aromatherapy

Answer 3

• The term aromatherapy was coined in 1928 by Rene-Maurice Gattefosse, a French scientist whose interest in the healing properties of essential oils was sparked by his remarkable experience with lavender oil.
  
  • An explosion in the laboratory of his family’s perfumery business burned his hands—which he then plunged into a vat of lavender essential oil. His quick recovery from his burns with no scarring stimulated his research into the antiseptic and skin healing properties of oils.
• Dr. Jean Valnet published in 1964, Aromatherapie. Tts English translation The Practice of Aromatherapy inspired the modern aromatherapy movement in Europe.